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[Fleet_of_Foot]

It was the first Radiohead album I bought. I remember reading the review of it in Rolling Stone weeks before it was even available and counting the days until I could buy it.

I was going to start college and had no money. I spent precious dollars on that album and of course never regretted it.

I usually skip Fitter Happier (if the fast forward button is in reach) but that's about it. Every song on the album has a place.

People not liking The Tourist? Electioneering? I don't understand.

I am going to listen to this album loudly now. Not sure it's my favorite album of theirs. It's either this or In Rainbows.

 

[Servbot24]

Every song is a 10 (including Fitter Happier!) except for Electioneering which is an 8.

 

[RedSparrows]

The life of a radiohead fan since then:

"OMG Is this album going to be like OK Computer or is - yep electorica again... maybe next time"

Er.... no.

 

[Kevtones]

Ok Computer songs from worst to best:



12. Fitter Happier
11. Lucky (as well tuned as it is emotionally, it feels manipulative to me)
10. Climbing Up the Walls

9. Let Down (I love the 2nd half but the main melody in this song has never landed for me and I've been into this record for about 16-17 years)
8. No Surprises
7. Karma Police (perhaps it's been overplayed but it no longer grabs me)

6. Electioneering (with the proper mix this is unhinged Radiohead and it's so perfectly out of place. The solo, the meaning in terms of placement - underrated)
5. The Tourist (one can make the argument is that this song is unnecessary and it is and then it plays and the record gets better and somehow enriched)
4. Exit Music (for a film) - one of the best non-sexual climaxes of the 90s

3. Subterranean Homesick Alien
2. Airbag - Sets a perfectly mysterious tone and this makes it seems like I don't feel like the album is getting worse as it goes lol
1. Paranoid Android


Note that Kid A was my Radiohead record and this came a month or so after.

 

[Fleet_of_Foot]

Isn't it weird how most 90s albums sound so 90s and this one doesn't at all? Sounds as fresh as ever.

I'd put Homogenic in that same category.

 

[uncelestial]

The life of a radiohead fan since then:

"OMG Is this album going to be like OK Computer or is - yep electorica again... maybe next time"

Well... I definitely perk up when they get chimey and shiney and spacey and melodic (like on OKC!) but I don't need them to do that with 100% rock instruments anymore. In Rainbows had a great blend of OK Computer-type songwriting and electronic elements, AMSP is shiney and spacey and chimey and uses naturalistic sample material but is chopped and screwed and blended with orchestral sounds. It's really hard to hate on how they've played with different aesthetics because their final product is always very strong.

 

[uncelestial]

If we're talking mid-90's rock opuses:

There's a lot to like on Mellon Collie and I'm a huge 90s SP fan but, as my Texan grandpa would say, that album has 10 pounds of sizzle and 5 pounds of steak.

You could cut pretty much all of The Aeroplane Flies High and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness into one 14-track disc and have it be as good as Siamese Dream, or load it up with all the other filler they put out and get all that material.

Still, I'm glad they did it - it was a pretty thrilling time to be a fan.

1. Tonight Tonight
2. Zero
3. Bullet With Butterfly Wings
4. Muzzle
5. Cupid De Locke
6. Where Boys Fear to Tread
7. XYU
8. Set the Ray to Jerry
9. Bodies
10. Jellybelly
11. Thru the Eyes of Ruby
12. Thirty-Three
13. Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
14. Medellia of the Grey Skies

^ Now that's a fucking album.

 

[drspeedy]

If I may...


This is, amazingly enough, possibly the first modern record to consistently and unquestionably transcend category, time, and place. Prior to the musical era vulgaris we have today, only classical composers were said to have such influence beyond the thin shadows of popular (or more accurately defined, 'fleeting') culture. Even with the broad appeal and success of The Beatles it was assumed no new music would push concepts that defeat time itself and likely become scholarly examples of study for centuries...


Not so anymore, thanks to Radiohead


OK Computer suddenly became as necessary to music as Tolkien's omniscient wizards: always popping up when -and exactly where- it is needed, with no regard for suiting any singular perspective, but somehow ensures what was required is fulfilled - a fact proven time and time again about this album through the innumerable reinterpretations these songs have inspired; everyone can intrinsically see how it applies to their situation, art, or instrumentation



No "genre" categorization will ever be as relevant or pertinent as the impact of just the music alone. No critical analysis will fully capture or contain the spirit and intent of the lyrics, nor explain any reasoned, deeper meaning behind the recorded notes. An inimitable arcanum demands deep introspection to understand, and OK Computer defines both of those words perfectly



Inasmuch as music was always expressedly art before and after 1997, it's also true that this 53 minutes and 21 seconds of recording will forever provide meaning that will transcend beyond what any individual author and listener may hear, and give rise to new interpretations again and again, well beyond our time


Long live the king

 

[Creaking]

All of Pablo bar the extended Stop Whispering can get tae fuck.

Pablo is weak overall, but it's not all trash. I think Blow Out in particular is great.

 

[FunkyMonk]

God this makes me feel old, i remember being so excited for this album. the bends was one of the first albums I bought and I still listen to it regularly today. Ok Computer just blew my young mind, the layers and eclectic nature sucked me right in and the videos were fantastic.

Even to this day if i stick it on and plug my headphones in I'm sucked right back to being a 16 year old boy listening to it for the first time, if i had to pick a favourite I'd probably go for Subterranean Homesick Alien, it's a bloody hard call though!

These guys are still one of my favourite live bands. It took me a while to get round to seeing them but when I did in 2005 at Blackpool Winter gardens it was amazing. It sounded perfect due to kt being an old theatre hall and Thoms dancing was a revelation. First band I was happy to pay £50 to see!

Has anyone heard Radiodread? It's a reggae/dub cover of the album by the East Star All Stars and it's rather good actually. Heck radiohead approved of it so if you're at least mildly curious give it a go.

 

[blanchot]

the bends is still my fav radiohead album

 

[dragonfart28]

Special request - if anyone can deliver on this, then you will make my life.

There is a version of paranoid android from MPIE (near the beginning of the movie) which is a snippet of an early version of the song. It has the softer part of the song being played with xylophone if I'm not mistaken.

Would anyone happen to have a link to a good quality version of the full song? (youtube or otherwise)

 

[A-V-B]

There's a lot to like on Mellon Collie and I'm a huge 90s SP fan but, as my Texan grandpa would say, that album has 10 pounds of sizzle and 5 pounds of steak.

You could cut pretty much all of The Aeroplane Flies High and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness into one 14-track disc and have it be as good as Siamese Dream, or load it up with all the other filler they put out and get all that material.

Still, I'm glad they did it - it was a pretty thrilling time to be a fan.

1. Tonight Tonight
2. Zero
3. Bullet With Butterfly Wings
4. Muzzle
5. Cupid De Locke
6. Where Boys Fear to Tread
7. XYU
8. Set the Ray to Jerry
9. Bodies
10. Jellybelly
11. Thru the Eyes of Ruby
12. Thirty-Three
13. Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
14. Medellia of the Grey Skies

^ Now that's a fucking album.

No 1979? You monster!

 

[uncelestial]

No 1979? You monster!

Oh shit you're right. Yeah, replace Jellybelly or Bodies with it (to taste). I spaced on 1979.

 

[mozfan12]

Still feel Loveless was the best 90's album but this is just as good. Sounds so fresh and appropriate for present times.

 

[EVOL 100%]

I don't like this album nearly as much as I used to, and I think Radiohead topped it easily with Kid A, but it's still one of the classics.

It was a huge influence in my personal development when I was a teen, and for that I'm eternally grateful for it.

Also, Let Down is still probably one of the best songs they ever written

Special request - if anyone can deliver on this, then you will make my life.

There is a version of paranoid android from MPIE (near the beginning of the movie) which is a snippet of an early version of the song. It has the softer part of the song being played with xylophone if I'm not mistaken.

Would anyone happen to have a link to a good quality version of the full song? (youtube or otherwise)

Never released to my knowledge. Probably an early version or part of a soundcheck recording.

 

[uncelestial]

Special request - if anyone can deliver on this, then you will make my life.

There is a version of paranoid android from MPIE (near the beginning of the movie) which is a snippet of an early version of the song. It has the softer part of the song being played with xylophone if I'm not mistaken.

Would anyone happen to have a link to a good quality version of the full song? (youtube or otherwise)

Could be this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COyaucbunJg

 

[Creamium]

I was 12 when it came out, but discovered it a few years later. It was one of the albums that completely changed how I look at music. As a kid figuring out music... this is the album with the biggest impact. My favorite song is definitely Let Down, which they actually played last time I saw them, great surprise.

 

[dragonfart28]

Could be this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COyaucbunJg

Ah yes that's the one.

A shame we only have a bootleg. The one in the film sounds like it was recorded in a studio.

I would pay at least $10 for it.