OK Computer

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OK Computer
OK Computer cover
Studio album by Radiohead
Released 16 June 1997
Recorded July 1996
(Canned Applause,
Didcot, Oxfordshire)
September 1996 – March 1997
(St. Catherine's Court,
Bath, England)
Genre Alternative rock
Length 53:27
Label Parlophone, Capitol
Producer Nigel Godrich, Radiohead
Professional reviews
Radiohead chronology
The Bends
(1995)		 OK Computer
(1997)		 Kid A
(2000)

OK Computer is the third album by the English rock band Radiohead, released in 1997. It reached #1 on the UK Albums Chart and marked Radiohead's highest entry into the American market at the time, where it debuted at #21. OK Computer expanded the band's worldwide popularity, becoming the last Radiohead album to have a delayed release outside of the United Kingdom. As of 2007, it has been certified triple platinum in the UK and double platinum in the US.[1][2] OK Computer included the singles "Paranoid Android", "Karma Police" and "No Surprises".

The album was recorded in rural Oxfordshire and Bath, England with Nigel Godrich, who would work with the band on all their future recordings. Although OK Computer was dominated by guitar, its expansive sound and wide range of influences set it apart from many of the Britpop and alternative rock bands popular at the time, laying the groundwork for Radiohead's later, more experimental work.[3] The lyrics, by Yorke, and the album's artwork by Yorke and frequent collaborator Stanley Donwood, emphasised themes such as consumerism, social disconnection, political stagnation and modern malaise, though the band denied they set out to make a concept album.[4]

OK Computer has received great acclaim from the public and critics. It is often cited as Radiohead's best work and as a landmark album of its time.[5] In 1998, it was nominated for a Grammy Award as Album of the Year, and won for Best Alternative Music Album.

Contents

[edit] Background

Radiohead's previous album, 1995's The Bends, had been a success, so EMI, the band's record label, allowed them to record their next album on their own. EMI allowed the band to work with then-unknown engineer Nigel Godrich, who had assisted the band's previous producer John Leckie on The Bends and had already produced several Radiohead B-sides, as well as the 1995 charity single "Lucky". The band had begun to dislike traditional recording studios for their "used" and impersonal state,[6] and bassist Colin Greenwood said that, "the only concept that we had for this album was that we wanted to record it away from the city and that we wanted to record it ourselves."[7]

Radiohead did not think that their next album would be any more successful than The Bends; guitarist and multi instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood said, "We did what we wanted for our second album, and we ignored all advice...and put out a record and attracted a certain number of people, so it just feels like we should be doing that again."[6] The band also wanted to change their musical and lyrical style from that of The Bends; drummer Phil Selway said that "The Bends was an introspective album   ... There was an awful lot of soul searching. To do that again on another album would be excruciatingly boring."[8]

[edit] Recording

In early 1996, "Canned Applause", a converted apple shed near Didcot, Oxfordshire, had been set up for rehearsal and recording. It was the first time Radiohead had attempted to record outside of a conventional studio environment. Colin Greenwood said, "we bought $140,000 worth of studio gear to record the album with. We had this mobile studio type of thing going where we could take it all into studios to capture those environments. We recorded about 35% of the album in our rehearsal space. You had to piss around the corner because there were no toilets or no running water. It was in the middle of the countryside. You had to drive to town to find something to eat."[7] Four songs from Canned Applause found their way onto the album: "Subterranean Homesick Alien", "Electioneering", "No Surprises" and "The Tourist".

In late July and August 1996, the band took a brief break from recording to tour, immediately playing several European festivals, where they debuted new songs, including "Airbag". Then, opening for Alanis Morissette in large North American venues, the band performed early versions of songs such as "Paranoid Android", "Let Down", "Climbing Up the Walls" and "Karma Police". During summer 1996, "Paranoid Android" reportedly evolved from a "14-minute" song featuring long organ solos, to a version closer to the one heard on the album.[9] Yorke said, "I think that [because] we were standing in front of 10,000 people in a shed (industry parlance for "indoor amphitheatre") who really weren't that interested in what we were [playing] forced us to do a lot of tidying up of the songs really, really fast... there was something about playing in... huge, sterile concrete structures that was really important to the songs. Because a lot of the songs needed to sound quite big and messy and like they were bouncing off walls."[10]

In September, Radiohead resumed recording with Godrich. The band moved to St. Catherine's Court, a historic mansion near Bath, then owned by actress Jane Seymour, where OK Computer was completed without record label pressure. However, there was another sort of deadline. One of the first songs completed was "Exit Music (For a Film)", which had been commissioned by director Baz Luhrmann for his Romeo + Juliet adaptation arriving in cinemas later that year. Jonny Greenwood said, "the main difference in the atmosphere [from past albums] was in... the studio experience. We were all of the same age, mid- to late-twenties, and doing a record in the middle of nowhere. And there were no established professionals there. It wasn't a real recording studio, and we had our friend [Stanley Donwood] doing the artwork in the studio at the same time. We were all at the same stage of our life and all working together for something, it was quite a buzz".[11]

The band made much use of the various different rooms and atmospheres throughout the house, and the isolation from the outside world encouraged time to run at a different pace, making working hours more flexible and spontaneous. Guitarist Ed O'Brien, commenting on the process, said he felt that "the biggest pressure was actually completing it. We weren't given any deadlines and we had complete freedom to do what we wanted. We were delaying it because we were a bit frightened of actually finishing stuff". However, the band decided they wanted a new record out by summer, and work was therefore finished by January 1997, and by March 1997, it was mixed at Abbey Road.[12]

[edit] Singles and release

According to Selway, "When we first delivered the album to Capitol, their first reaction was, more or less, 'commercial suicide'. They weren't really into it. At that point, we got The Fear. How is this going to be received?"[8] Jonny Greenwood said, "they made a prediction of how many records they planned to sell of OK Computer, before they heard the record. And then they heard the record, and cut the prediction in a half or a quarter, I think."[6]

Audio samples of Radiohead
  • "Karma Police"
    The album's second, and ultimately most widely successful single, "Karma Police" ended the first half of OK Computer.
  • Problems playing the files? See media help.

Although the band's record label "didn't hear anything on OK Computer that sounded even remotely like a single, let alone like 'Creep'",[11] Radiohead chose the six-and-a-half-minute "Paranoid Android" as their lead single anyway. The song charted at #3 in the UK, giving Radiohead their highest single chart position yet, but, because of its length and the lack of a radio edit, the song was not widely played on other radio stations around the world. Subsequent singles "Karma Police" and "No Surprises" did not chart quite as high, but both were within the UK top 10, and "Karma Police" became a hit on alternative and modern rock radio in the United States. It was one of the band's biggest American hits since "Creep".

The band also gave credit to their record labels for enthusiastic marketing for the album's success. Parlophone undertook an unorthodox advertising campaign for the album, taking out full-page advertisements in high-profile British newspapers and tube stations. The ads featured the lyrics for "Fitter Happier" written in large black letters on a white background.[8] In America, Capitol Records president Gary Gersh, when asked about the campaign after the album's release, said "We won't let up until they are the biggest band in the world".[11]

"When we were cocooned in the studio making OK Computer, we were immensely proud of it," said Ed O'Brien. "But the longer the recording process went on, the less sure we became — it's very difficult to be objective, anyway. When the tapes went off to record company people all over the world, the marketing people were not exactly optimistic about how it would sell, apart from the UK, which unanimously thought it was fantastic. So we were a little nervous, because we want people to hear our music. There's a lesson to be learned from the album's success. It underlines the fact that radio and record companies underestimate what the general public are capable of listening to. This is not above people's heads. We're people, and we're making it; other people can get it too."[11]

[edit] Musical style

[edit] Sound and influences

On OK Computer, Yorke said that Radiohead "had a sound in our heads that we had to get on to tape... an atmosphere that's perhaps a bit shocking when you first hear it, but only as shocking as the atmosphere on [the Beach Boys'] Pet Sounds... and composers like Penderecki, which is sort of atmospheric, atonal weird stuff. We weren't listening to any pop music at all, but not because we hated pop music — because what we were doing was pop music... Bitches Brew by Miles Davis was the starting point of how things should sound; it's got this incredibly dense and terrifying sound to it. That's [the sound] I was trying to get — that was the sound in my head. The only other place I'd heard it was on a [Ennio] Morricone record. I'd never heard it in pop music...It wasn't like we were being snobs or anything, it was just like, 'This is saying the same stuff we want to say'."[11]

Radiohead was greatly influenced by composers like Morricone and Penderecki during this time,[13][14] along with DJ Shadow. The album's production style, which was similar to Phil Spector's wall of sound technique,[13] resulted in a completely different musical texture from the band's earlier albums, and a maturation from the style that Radiohead projected with their debut single, "Creep". OK Computer received heavy comparison by the press to Pink Floyd's 1973 album Dark Side of the Moon. Jonny Greenwood praised Pink Floyd's Meddle (1971) but criticised the band's later albums and the genre of "progressive rock", claiming that any musical similarity was unintentional.[6]

[edit] Lyrical style

In keeping with this change in musical direction, the band projected a greater amount of paranoia in their lyrics, such as that with "Fitter Happier", a song that Yorke said is a "checklist" of slogans for the 1990s.[15] It is "sung" by the default voice for MacinTalk Pro, spoken text software on Apple Computer's Power Macintosh.[15] Yorke wrote the lyrics originally planning to sing them himself, but said the effect was strangely more emotional when he tried having them "read" by the computer.[16]

Yorke described a change in his lyrics since 1995's more personal The Bends: "On this album, the outside world became all there was... I'm just taking Polaroids of things around me moving too fast".[11] He has cited Noam Chomsky's writings as the main inspiration on "Electioneering",[10] William Shakespeare on the lyrics for "Exit Music (For a Film)",[16] and The Beatles' song "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" and Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on "Paranoid Android".[16] Although "Paranoid Android" was compared to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" in terms of its three-part musical structure, Jonny Greenwood said, "It's not actually complex enough to be 'Bohemian Rhapsody'."[16]

Audio samples of Radiohead
  • "No Surprises"
    "No Surprises" was released shortly after Christmas 1997, and was the album's final single. The song's lethargic sound had been created by slowing down the backing track for Yorke to sing over.
  • Problems playing the files? See media help.

Radiohead maintain that although the songs have themes in common—speed,[6] technology, the global economy, and modern life in the UK—any clear "story" is unintentional and they do not deem OK Computer to be a "concept album".[4] Yorke also denied that OK Computer was a strictly personal album, saying that each song on the album was a "polaroid" from the viewpoint of a different person, even inspiring him to vary his vocal style in each song.[17] However, the band maintained that the album was meant to be heard as a whole. O'Brien said, "We spent two weeks track-listing the album. The context of each song is really important...It's not a concept album but there is a continuity there."[4]

[edit] Concept

OK Computer is often thought to depict a dystopia, and its artwork contains references to George Orwell's novels, especially Nineteen Eighty-Four. The band have cited Orwell several times throughout their career.[18] However, Yorke said, "Loads of the music on OK Computer is extremely uplifting. It's only when you read the words that you'd think otherwise."[19] A notable aspect of the album is an apparently circular narrative. In the opening song "Airbag", someone survives a horrific car crash, while the final song "The Tourist" contains the line "they ask me where the hell I'm going / at a thousand feet per second" and ends with a chorus of "hey man, slow down". However, the band said this had not been intentional, but they had noticed it after finalising the track listing.[6]

Yorke explained the title's meaning: "We did this promo trip recently to Japan, and on the last day, we were in a record shop and this one kid shouted at the top of his voice, 'OK COMPUTER!', really, really loud. Then he had 500 people chant it all at once...I got it on tape. It sounds amazing. It reminds me of when Coca-Cola did 'I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing', that amazing advert in '70...The idea of every race and every nation drinking this soft drink...it's actually a really resigned, terrified phrase..."[10] The band have said "OK Computer" was originally the title of a song recorded for the album, which did not make the cut, but was later renamed "Palo Alto" and released as a B-side and on the EP Airbag/How Am I Driving?.

[edit] Artwork

The album's cover design is a collage of images and text by Stanley Donwood, who is credited with design on several Radiohead covers, along with Yorke. Some of the art is computer-made collages, created by Yorke; other art is hand-drawn work by Donwood. Some of the text is hidden, including several phrases in Esperanto.[20] Yorke explained the artwork's theme, saying, "Someone's being sold something they don't really want, and someone's being friendly because they're trying to sell something. That's what it means to me. It's quite sad, and quite funny as well. All the artwork and so on...we chose to pursue it after we [finished the album]...It was all the things that I hadn't said in the songs."[12]

[edit] Reception

[edit] Acclaim

OK Computer has been one of the most widely acclaimed albums of the 1990s,[5] appearing in many critics' lists and audience polls. Examples:

[edit] Criticism

Despite near-unanimous critical approval at the time of release and since, a few have criticized the album. Robert Christgau granted OK Computer a B- but said the album lacked "soul", calling it "arid" and comparing it unfavourably to Pink Floyd.[25] Andy Gill wrote for The Independent in an otherwise positive review, "For all its ambition, OK Computer is not, finally, as impressive as The Bends, which covered much the same sort of emotional knots, but with better tunes. It is easy to be impressed by, but ultimately hard to love, an album that so luxuriates in its despondency".[26]

[edit] Legacy

As OK Computer was released during the waning days of Britpop and during sweeping political changes in the United Kingdom, it was seen by critics to encompass popular opinion in the UK with its themes, explaining its enthusiastic reaction in that country.[27] Yorke said his lyrics had been affected by reading a book about the two decades of Conservative government which were just coming to an end in 1997, as well as about factory farming and globalisation.[28] However, in interviews Yorke expressed little hope things would change under the "New Labour" government of Tony Blair.[12] With the approach of the year 2000, many people felt the tone of the album was millennial.[28]

Some critics have credited OK Computer with "killing" 1990s Britpop,[29] as within a few years of its release, the dominant style of UK guitar pop had become slower and more melancholy. Many of the newer acts also utilized similarly complex, atmospheric arrangements. The band Travis worked with Radiohead's own producer Nigel Godrich to create the languid pop texture of The Man Who, which became the biggest selling album of 1999 in the UK. Others have credited Radiohead with beginning a mainstream revival of progressive rock and ambitious concept albums,[30] though the band denied their affiliation with the genre. In fact, members described the prevalence of bands that "sound like us" as one reason to break with the style of OK Computer for their next album, Kid A.[31]

Several rock bands which later became popular, ranging from Coldplay, Muse[32] and Bloc Party[33] to TV on the Radio,[34] have said they were formatively influenced by OK Computer. It has also been cited by some electronic, jazz and classical[35] musicians as an influence. Songs from the album have been widely covered by other acts, and entire OK Computer cover albums in different styles have been released, such as 2006's reggae and dub tribute Radiodread, or Stereogum's 2007 indie rock tribute OKX.

[edit] Track listing

All tracks written by Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Colin Greenwood, and Phil Selway.

  1. "Airbag" – 4:44
  2. "Paranoid Android" – 6:23
  3. "Subterranean Homesick Alien" – 4:27
  4. "Exit Music (For a Film)" – 4:24
  5. "Let Down" – 4:59
  6. "Karma Police" – 4:22
  7. "Fitter Happier" – 1:57
  8. "Electioneering" – 3:51
  9. "Climbing Up the Walls" – 4:45
  10. "No Surprises" – 3:49
  11. "Lucky" – 4:20
  12. "The Tourist" – 5:25

[edit] Release history

OK Computer was released in various countries in 1997.

Country Date Label Format Catalogue number
Japan 21 May 1997 Toshiba-EMI CD TOCP-50201
United Kingdom 16 June 1997 Parlophone 2xLP NODATA02
Cassette
CD CDNODATA02
Canada 17 June 1997 Parlophone CD 55229
United States 1 July 1997 Capitol Records CD 55229

Note: The vinyl version of the album has its own master.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Statistics: UK Bestsellers. Retrieved on 2007-06-02.
  2. ^ Gold and Platinum Database Search. Retrieved on 2007-06-02.
  3. ^ Kent, Nick. "Happy Now?" Mojo, June 2001.
  4. ^ a b c Wadsworth, Tony. "The Making of OK Computer", The Guardian, GreenPlastic.com, 1997-12-20. Retrieved on 2007-05-09. 
  5. ^ a b Acclaimed Music: OK Computer.. Acclaimed Music. Retrieved on 2007-02-21.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Cordes, Marcel. "Interview with Jonny", FollowMeAround.com, 1998-01-29. Retrieved on 2007-04-06. 
  7. ^ a b Glover, Adrian. "Radiohead - Getting More Respect", Circus, GreenPlastic.com, 1997-08-01. Retrieved on 2007-05-21. 
  8. ^ a b c Cantin, Paul. "Radiohead's OK Computer confounds expectations", Ottawa Sun, GreenPlastic, 1997-08-19. Retrieved on 2007-03-27. 
  9. ^ "Thom Yorke loves to skank", Q Magazine, AtEaseWeb.com, 2002-08-12. Retrieved on 2007-05-21. 
  10. ^ a b c Sakamoto, John (1997-06-02). Radiohead talk about their new video. Jam!. Retrieved on 2007-04-27.
  11. ^ a b c d e f The Making of 'OK Computer'. Spin magazine. Citizen Insane (1998-01-01). Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
  12. ^ a b c "Renaissance Men", Select, followmearound.com, 1997-12-01. Retrieved on 2007-05-26. 
  13. ^ a b Randall, Mac. "The Golden Age of Radiohead", Guitar World, GreenPlastic, 1998-04-01. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. 
  14. ^ "The Making of OK Computer", The Guardian, greenplastic.com, 1997-12-20. Retrieved on 2007-06-23. 
  15. ^ a b Radiohead- Fitter Happier. radiohead.tripod1.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-18.
  16. ^ a b c d Sutherland, Mark. "Return of the Mac!", Melody Maker, GreenPlastic.com, 1997-05-31. Retrieved on 2007-05-27. 
  17. ^ Sutcliffe, Phil. "Death is all around", Q Magazine, followmearound.com, 1997-10-01. Retrieved on 2007-06-23. 
  18. ^ A 2000 song, "Optimistic", references Animal Farm; a 2003 song was called "2+2=5", a reference to Nineteen Eighty-Four; in 2005 the band quoted Orwell on their blog: "Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind".
  19. ^ Plagenhoef, Scott. "Interview: Thom Yorke", Pitchfork.com, Pitchfork Media, 2006-08-16. Retrieved on 2007-04-06. 
  20. ^ Translations into English can be found in an unofficial Radiohead FAQ here.
  21. ^ Radiohead romp home in Q poll. BBC. Retrieved on 2007-02-21.
  22. ^ 001. OK Computer. Pitchfork. pitchfork.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-23.
  23. ^ 01. OK Computer. Spin Magazine. spin.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-23.
  24. ^ Tyrangiel, Josh (2006-11-13). The All-Time 100 albums. Time. Retrieved on 2007-05-05.
  25. ^ Christgau, Robert. Radiohead..
  26. ^ Gill, Andy. First Impression: 'OK Computer' by Radiohead, The Independent, 13 June 1997. reprinted in findarticles.com, 2005.
  27. ^ Lusk, Jon. Radiohead: OK Computer. BBC. bbc.co.uk. Retrieved on 2007-05-23.
  28. ^ a b OK Computer cover story (Is OK Computer the Greatest Album of the 1990s?). Uncut Magazine. uncut.com (2007-01-01). Retrieved on 2007-07-13.
  29. ^ Ten Years On – Death Of Britpop. BBC 6 Music. bbc.co.uk (2006-06-14). Retrieved on 2007-07-13.
  30. ^ Allen, Matt. "Prog's progeny", Guardian, guardian.co.uk, 2007-06-14. Retrieved on 2007-07-13. 
  31. ^ Murphy, Peter. "How Radiohead learned to loathe the bomb", Hot Press, laurahird.com, 2001-10-11. Retrieved on 2007-07-14. 
  32. ^ Guardian, 2007. [1]
  33. ^ Drowned in Sound interview, 2003. [2]
  34. ^ Washington Post interview, 2007. [3]
  35. ^ At Ease News. "Classical conductors on Radiohead and Greenwood", April 30 2007

[edit] Further reading

  • Tim Footman. Welcome to the Machine: OK Computer and the Death of the Classic Album (Chrome Dreams, 2007). 288 pp.
  • Dai Griffiths. OK Computer (33 1/3 Series, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004). 123 pp.

[edit] External links

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Thom Yorke · Jonny Greenwood · Ed O'Brien · Colin Greenwood · Phil Selway
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Pablo Honey · The Bends · OK Computer · Kid A · Amnesiac · Hail to the Thief · In Rainbows
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