The Double Doghouse

this week for the weekly review, we’re checking out Radiohead’s 1997 record, OK Computer!

Airbag is a neat opening track – it’s got a neat upward spiral in the vibes of the track, an understandable uplight given the subject matter. Paranoid Android is a track i’ve heard before, given that it’s one of their bigger songs and one of the singles off this record. v fitting thematically, and the second musical movement here is a fun twist on what’s been present in the first part of the track. the back part feels funerary – somber and choral, with the original bridge returning fairly violently. i really appreciate that Subterranean Homesick Alien gets to be as spacey as it does, haha. really love the movements in the chorus. Exit Music (For a Film) is hauntingly beautiful for a song that has such a biting dip at the end, haha. oh damn reading some of what the band has said about Let Down it really is incredible how they captured a liminal feeling and bottled it this way. i always forget until the opening bars, that Karma Police was one of the BIG tracks off this record. it makes sense – Yorke’s vocals have a TON of range on this track, and the band pulls out the stops here. real good. Fitter Happier is uhhhhhh probably the grimmest track here. i really like that they used the same tts on Paranoid Android and kinda seeded it for here. unsurprisingly, Electioneering absolutely steals the show for me on this record. the twang, the wry grin, the unstoppable guitar here – phenomenal. absolute powerhouse of a track. Climbing Up the Walls is p good but doesn’t impact me much. No Surprises was the other BIG track – and somehow i ALSO forget that it’s here until it comes back around. this one’s a bummer, on purpose! i’m not frequently in the mood for a track like this, but its hard to make a song that creates such a beautiful soundscape and contrasts it so brutally lyrically. really neat sequencing choice to put Lucky immediately after. i’m just aight on The Tourist as the closer here – it does feel like an appropriately swelling send-off to the record, but i dunno. feel kinda middling coming out of it (which may be the point, haha).

faves – Paranoid Android, Electioneering
dislikes –

i’ve tried before to get into Radiohead. i’ve given this record a shot in the past and kinda glanced off it. on the one hand, i feel like it’s understandable – this far into a music review project it’s pretty clear the type of music i gravitate towards, and Radiohead’s spacey, ethereal vibes that are kinda a throughline here are a bit of an uphill battle for what i normally digest. that being said – cold take but the record’s good. turns out a tightly curated musing on the ways that society is isolating and cellular in a way that reduces one to an automaton, with a lush soundscape and compelling lyrics, is extremely successful in communicating a message and carrying it through the runtime of the record. and damn it’s no less relevant today than it was 1997.

that being said i’m not sure this record is breaking into my regular listening or gonna be counted amongst my top albums. it’s extremely successful at what it’s doing, it’s just not something i’m a huge fan of. don’t be like me though, and give this record a shot sooner rather than later.

OK Computer – 7/10

next week, i’ll be taking a trip back into my own personal listening history, and checking out Remain In Light, by the Talking Heads . i’ll be back next Friday, April 21st with that review and to pick another weekly record, and in the meantime, let me know what album you’d like me to review! (i pool all suggestions in one place, and draw a person, then one pick from that person, so feel free to drop as many as you’d like! if you leave an email or username i’ll contact you when i’ve gotten through all your suggestions.)