Radiohead

Editor's Review:

This is a landmark record. Dark Side of the Moon comparisons are inevitable and appropriate. OK Computer picks Roger Waters still-rattling baton of near madness up from the dirt and takes off, frantically circling a faster track than Floyd in '73, though hardly swift enough to escape the anxieties of a world rapidly melting into some faceless, odorless, tasteless and battery-powered humanoid. As ambitious as a Dark Side for us grunge babies sounds, Radiohead have done it, and I'll be damned if they haven't done it to perfection.

OK finds the Oxford, England quintet continuing to evolve away from the basic rock dynamics of 1993's stunning debut, Pablo Honey, beyond the atmospheric tinkering of its brilliant follow-up, 1995's The Bends and into trippier, almost conceptual territory. But just when the emotionless computer voice of "Fitter Happier" suggests they might be too far gone, Radiohead deliver pure space-rock bliss.

Highlights include "Subterranean Homesick Alien," in which singer Thom Yorke wishes himself into the stars with visitors from beyond, and "Exit Music (For a Film)," in which he very calmly curses his dogmatic elders: "We hope your rules and wisdom choke you."

Without a doubt, the complexities of OK Computer will be slow in revealing themselves to you — know that long and not always comforting listens will be required. When the epiphany finally comes though, when OK gels for you as it did for me while crossing the Bay Bridge last week — with the later-afternoon sun shooting shiny blues off the water and blinding silvers off Downtown while Yorke's otherworldly falsetto wrapped around the words "In an interstellar burst I am back to save the universe" — you'll be glad that whatever planet sent Radiohead here had reliable UFOs.

First appeared in BAM magazine 7/11/97
Courtesy and © BAM magazine, internet © Synthesis Network.

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Record Label Capitol Records Released July 1997

Tracks 1. Airbag 2. Paranoid Android 3. Subterranean Homesick Alien 4. Exit Music (For a Film) 5. Let Down 6. Karma Police 7. Fitter Happier 8. Electioneering 9. Climbing Up The Walls 10. No Surprises 11. Lucky 12. The Tourist