Vinyl of the Week - 16 May 2021

Ok Computer, Radiohead

I listened to this album last week and it really got me thinking. The lyrics and theme of this album are so relevant right now that it is a little eerie that it was made almost 25 years ago. Maybe Radiohead had a crystal ball 😉 However they did it, Ok Computer is a record that paints a picture of a society that both embraces technology and yet doesn’t fully understand its implications. This is a world of consumerism and greed, fear, social alienation and political unrest. Sound familiar? The band bought all of their own recording equipment and made a concerted effort to make this a very different album to the one that preceded it. In fact, the record company wanted them to do “The Bends 2” with the same guitar-heavy lyrical style to ensure its commercial success. They did the exact opposite. Critics called it a concept album. Guitarist Ed O’Brien has stated that it certainly wasn’t intended as one. However, the band really worked hard to get the track order to flow in a way that rewards the listener with a more cohesive experience. This was the beginning of their more experimental work and there is so much going on musically and lyrically you can still uncover gems each time you play it. The album earned them international fame and produced four singles; Paranoid Android, Lucky, Karma Police and No Surprises. The fourth track Exit Music (For A Film) was the closing score to Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet. The album’s title was taken from the 1978 Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series (which the band were listening to during their 1996 tour) where character Zaphod Beeblebrox speaks the phrase “Okay, Computer, I want full manual control now”. Thom Yorke said the title refers to “embracing the future… being terrified of the future”. The fact that these days you can access this masterpiece by picking up your phone and saying “Ok Google” is therefore kind of brilliant or scary or both - DS