I’ll admit it, the first time I listened to OK Computer, I didn’t really think much of it and wondered what the hell could this guy be whining to me about for 53 minutes. I listened to it unaware of the extremely high praise it received from music critics all over the world. It was only after the third listen that I truly began to understand the melancholic beauty of these 12 tracks.
Radiohead, a British rock group named after a track on the album True Stories by Talking Heads, began in the mid-1980s at a boys’ school in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. They signed a contract with EMI in 1991 and two years later released their debut album, Pablo Honey, on February 22, 1993. If it hadn’t been for their hit single, “Creep,” Radiohead could have gone throughout their entire career unnoticed. Their sophomore album named The Bends was a huge step up from their previous album and received moderate praise from critics at the time.
It wasn’t until May 21, 1997, that Radiohead earned a spot as one of the most innovative and groundbreaking groups of all time with the release of their instant classic, OK Computer. A rather depressing album, with a very bleak outlook on life and alienation, hits home with its meaningful lyrics, astounding instrumentals, new and creative melodies, and emotion-inducing vocals. The 6-minute ballad “Paranoid Android” describes the life of a robot who is depressed because he has a mind with infinite possibilities but is unable to do anything about it. The song gives foresight into a future riddled with advanced artificial intelligence and the implications of it.
Radiohead hasn’t let OK Computer go to their head either. Their following album Kid A would go on to be a revolutionary electronic album and another record, In Rainbows, is also highly regarded among critics.