OK Computer – Indie Masterpiece

OK Computer – An indie masterpiece

October 1997.   A hotel room in Toronto.  Still bleary from the red eye, I flick on the TV.  Nothing worth watching, until I get to MTV and the musical landscape tilted forever.

Strange animation. Ominous guitar.  Not so happy vocals. What the hell was this?

The flat winter sky and Toronto, grey and soulless, was the perfect environment to be initiated into “Paranoid Android” (the first single from “OK Computer”).  The song and album signalled a massive aesthetic departure for Radiohead that would shape their sound for the rest of their career.

Musicians, like other creatives, are often stymied by prior work.  Fans get to know a ‘sound’ and the expectations to stay within the lines of those sounds are substantial.  (Read the story behind The Stone Roses “Second Coming” and you’ll know what I mean.) On paper, Ok Computer should have bombed. Their prior album “The Bends”, although it had some of Thom Yorke’s signature spooky, soaring vocals, was a more straight forward rock and roll outing with crunchy guitar riffs and hooks that gave no indication of what was coming down the pipe.

We all know what happened since.  Ok Computer has lodged itself firmly in ‘Top 100 album’ lists of all time. Pretty heady company when you consider the timeline and artists involved.  Almost 20 years later, it’s still timeless.

What makes this album such a landmark?

1) It was different

The 90’s were the crème de la crème decade for what was termed ‘alternative rock’ with artists such as Beck, Massive Attack, Jane’s Addiction, The Pixies, Moby etc releasing some of their best work. Ok Computer stands above the crowd for it’s eclectic blend of sing-along lyrics (despite their twisted content), gorgeous melodies, dream-like passages, alien sound effects and angular guitars, all of which created a sonic space not previously heard. It wasn’t just better…it was different and better. In every way imaginable.

2) Timing

If the album was released today or ten years earlier than it was, would it have been as successful?  A prior post discusses the intangible reason why some things really hit in our culture at a certain time.  As the internet and tech boom were slowly starting to creep in, the songs on OK Computer magically captured an alienation and cool dissonance that would eventually become our social media reality. “Fitter Happier” was a song with nothing but a robot talking; “Climbing Up The Walls” – the only rock song I know in its own category – terrifying – was like being swallowed alive by technology.  Ok Computer was one of those outliers that nailed the prevailing, and forthcoming, ethos of society.

3) Street Cred

For music snobs like myself, this is huge.  But how do you define street cred?  It isn’t a zillion listeners or the highest grossing tour or licensing songs for the next Kia ad.  It’s when the people who know music, who really know music, universally agree.  My own personal litmus test?  None of the songs from OK Computer will ever be played at a wedding.

‘Nuff said.