OK Computer - Radiohead

Radiohead Official Website

Label : Capitol Records

It may seem a little late to be reviewing OK Computer, but let me assure you, it's never too late for OK Computer. With the ever-escalating importance of Radiohead, and a new album on the horizons, I'd like to bring up the biggest reason that we still care about the lads from Oxford. You may say, "Well, if it weren't for 'Creep' you never would have heard of Radiohead." This is true. But if it weren't for "Breakfast at Tiffany's" you never would have heard of Deep Blue Something, but that doesn't mean you still care. Or ever did. "Creep" garnered a lot of fans of "Creep". The Bends got Radiohead respect beyond a single single. But it was OK Computer that cemented Radiohead's place as a band you care about. From the sprawling, rocking "Paranoid Android" and its bizarre animated music video to the plodding, sardonic "Exit Music (for a film)" to the insanely creepy "Climbing Up the Walls", OK Computer made us actually respect Radiohead as a fixture, as a band pushing the envelope. It shows nearly the whole spectrum of Radiohead. "Fitter, Happier" even gives us a glimpse of things to come. If not for OK Computer nobody would have been able to accept the sparse, electronic, seemingly guitarless alienation of Kid A. The radio pop of Pablo Honey, the gritty rock of the Bends, the progressive storytelling and technological influence of Kid A and are all brought together and/or hinted at in OK Computer. I'm all about roots, and so much music [the Mars Volta, anyone?] has roots in OK Computer.

Final verdict: Essential.

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