Of disappointed people clinging onto bottles and can you please stop this noise I’m trying to get some rest. The five school friends from Oxford warned us, starkly, of what lay ahead, of an ever connected computerised world that would paradoxically see us all ever more disconnected. In an interstellar burst they were back to save the universe, and a universe not yet aware of the impending doom of the blips and beeps, the connections and re-connections, the disconnections and dislocations that represented the future that lay ahead for the human family as we entered a 21st Century of a multi media world that would scream for our attention and whether we liked it or not, we all kind of complied. But when Radiohead released OK Computer in 1997, they’d recorded the greatest album of all time and one that was so far ahead of it’s time it was coming back in on itself on the other side of the curve of the space time continuum. Music of course will never die, despite what Don McLean might have said about American Pies and driving a Chevy to a levee, which, according to this magnificent song, was sadly dry.
Yet all of this would simply be showmanship if the songs weren't strong in themselves, and OK Computer is filled with moody masterpieces, from the shimmering "Subterranean Homesick Alien" and the sighing "Karma Police" to the gothic crawl of "Exit Music (For a Film)." OK Computer is the album that established Radiohead as one of the most inventive and rewarding guitar rock bands of the '90s.As I’m sure all civilised people will concur, music, as a concept, ended on 21st May 1997 when Radiohead released their epoch defining album “OK Computer”. It's a thoroughly astonishing demonstration of musical virtuosity and becomes even more impressive with repeated listens, which reveal subtleties like electronica rhythms, eerie keyboards, odd time signatures, and complex syncopations. Even at its most adventurous - such as the complex, multi-segmented "Paranoid Android" - the band is tight, melodic, and muscular, and Thom Yorke's voice effortlessly shifts from a sweet falsetto to vicious snarls. Radiohead have stripped away many of the obvious elements of guitar rock, creating music that is subtle and textured yet still has the feeling of rock & roll. The anthemic guitar heroics present on Pablo Honey and even The Bends are nowhere to be heard here. Using the textured soundscapes of The Bends as a launching pad, Radiohead delivered another startlingly accomplished set of modern guitar rock with OK Computer.
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