Happy Weekend: OK Computer Edition

Do you know what May 21 was? It was the 18th birthday of Radiohead’s OK Computer! One of the most perfect records this world has ever known, OK Computer has only gotten better with age. Paranoid Android, No Surprises, Exit Music (For a Film), and the greatest song in the history of ever ever ever….Let Down! Aural brilliance from the beginning of Airbag to the end of The Tourist, you’d be hard-pressed to find a ‘Best Records of All Time’ list that doesn’t proudly feature this in its top 10. If you do find a ‘Best Records of All Time’ list that doesn’t have OK Computer on it, disregard it at once.

This year the album was selected by The Library of Congress for preservation due to its themes of social isolation and anti-consumerism.

From The Library of Congress press release:
“OK Computer” (album)—Radiohead (1997)
On their third album, Radiohead create an information-age dystopia characterized by psychopaths, corrupt politicians, ill-behaved consumers, tyrannical robots, airline disasters, car crashes and failed safety protocols. For the album, the band had mostly stripped away such alt-rock signposts as personalized lyrics, sinus-clearing guitars and thunderous bass and drums. The ghosts of the Pixies and Nirvana have been decisively exorcised. The presence of fin de siècle electronic dance music, jazz, 20th-century classical and dub are all palpable. While these bold moves risked alienating the band’s sizable audience, they paid off with more than a decade of critical praise including two scholarly philosophical works on the band. The band used guitars—both searing and angelic—mellotrons, laptops, samples, fat synth lines, machine-like drums and drum machines to produce a dense topology of sound, music and public service announcements that incorporates various influences including Miles Davis, Krzysztof Penderecki, Lee Scratch Perry, Steve Reich, the Beach Boys, DJ Shadow, William S. Burroughs, and the Beatles. The album has endured as a statement and a cautionary tale for the digital age.

Have a great weekend and be sure to listen to some Radiohead! What are your favorite tracks from OK Computer?

~XO