Radiohead — OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997 2017 | Album Review
OK Computer is arguably the most critically acclaimed album since The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The musical counterpart of the TV series Black Mirror, Radiohead’s third studio album is a monumental record that marks the end of an era, makes chilling prophecies of what to come, and inspires hundreds other records of various genres. Twenty years after its release, it is reissued as OKNOTOK, reminding us of how close our society is to the dystopian world in the album, while the bonus disc shows the enthralling roads that were not taken.
After the lyrically morbid The Bends (1995), Radiohead wanted to make a positive album. Thom Yorke said at the time that he was “deliberately just writing down all the positive things that [he heard or saw].” However, we still don’t know what happened to that album since OK Computer is definitely not it. The album is both musically and lyrically depressing, discussing Schizophrenia, suicidal thoughts, social alienation, political malaise, near death experiences, human’s dependency on technology, etc. Released in the summer 1997, OK Computer is one of the last masterpieces that make artistic statements. The peak in album sales during this period allowed artists to followed their artistic ambitions, before the internet and home computer became prevalent, transforming the way the public access to music and consequently how music is sold and made. Only until recently when record sales are so low big artists do not bother trying to sell anymore that we see Beyoncé and Rihanna alike letting their artistic side run free. In the two decades since the release of the album, advances in technology have radically changed not only the music industry, but also our society. In the album, Radiohead seemed to see this coming, predicting a dystopian world where human life is contingent on technology.
The opener “Airbag” is set in the next World War, which is quite unsettling considering it is never mentioned again after the first line, like a fact that should be taken for granted. “Airbag” is one of the brighter track on the album, but that is to highlight the irony of the track. In the song, Yorke is born again as a superhero to save the world after an airbag miraculously saved his life after a car crash. The ironic juxtaposition is a reminder that while technology (the airbag) is our savior , before that can happen, it (the German car) has the capability of annihilating us.
The masterpiece “Paranoid Android” comes next, epitomizing the Radiohead-trademark abstract lyrics and progressive sound. An epic with four distinct sections put together from three different songs, it portrays three different states of mind. Arguably the best song of the 90s, the changes in music reflect the lyrics in each movement. In the first verse and chorus of the first movement, Yorke describes an emotional landscape of paranoia and confusion created by modern urban life and interactions with strangers over guitar-driven riffs and robotic voices in the background. This paranoia leads to an outburst violence in the second verse, while the narrator gradually loses his sanity which is portrayed by the contradiction of the soulless robotic voice murmuring “I may be paranoid, but, no android.” The key in the second section changes from G minor of the first section to A minor, matching the lyrics which find the narrator expressing revulsion against people around him. He finally loses his mind at the end of the section which features a distorted guitar solo with various bars in odd meter of 7/4. The third section features the most abstract lyrics, with the tempo reduced and the tonality split between C minor and D minor. The first half can be interpreted as the android’s suicidal thoughts, with him calling out for God to rain down on him. The second half depicts his painful death, but considering that the song is inspired by a bar incident, this can be the end of the bar fight where the narrator is kicked out of the bar (“That’s it, sir, you’re leaving”) and the whole song is simply a hallucination. Other possible interpretations include the android brutally obliterates his enemies as a continuation of violent images in the previous parts, or a “Wall Street” scene as a criticism of consumerism and capitalism which is connected to the “Gucci little piggy” image. The last section is a short instrumental reprise of the second section. If taken to be the ending of the android narrative, this can be depicting either the android evaporating out of existence or his spree coming to an end. This lead single is a mini-OK Computer. Both records were deemed a commercial suicide, despite receiving widespread overwhelmingly positive critical acclaim: the single is unusually long and lacks a catchy chorus, while the album lacks any potential marketable singles, especially anything resembling Radiohead’s early hit “Creep.” Ultimately, however, the single became the band’s biggest hit, peaking at no.3 in UK, while the album sold 4.5 million records.
The third track “Subterranean Homesick Alien” deals with social alienation, and speaks of being isolated or different from the rest of one’s brethren. The song, like any other song on the album, can be interpreted in multiple ways. One interpretation sees the narrator losing his ability to experience and appreciate the beauty in the world as a result of his environment. Another portrays the protagonist as superior to the rest of his kind, similar to “Paranoid Android,” seeing all the negatives in the society surrounding him, but nevertheless can still see the simple, fleeting positives. Both interpretations find Yorke wishing an alien colony can take him away just so he could be a silent observer instead of an active participant in this unfair game we call life. Even the imagery of the “alien” can have several meanings. Apart from the meaning of an extraterrestrial being, we can understand it as people belonging to a higher class in society, who find entertainment from “making home movies for the folks back home,” akin to The Hunger Games or Black Mirror’s “Fifteen Million Merits.” The most irksome detail, however, is how “they” in the first chorus changes to “I” in the second chorus, signaling that the narrator has been homogenized, becoming no different than the people around him.
As its title suggests, “Exit Music (For a Film)” was written as the closing track for the 1996 film Romeo + Juliet. Therefore, the chillingly gentle song depicts the suicide of infamous couple as a big “fuck you” to their constraining society. However, the song takes a sharp turn near the end when multiple instruments suddenly come in and the lyrics take on another meaning, using the tragedy as a metaphor for a society with an obsessive government. The “we” who escaped the cruel society through death wish the ones who controlled them would face a similar fate.
“Let Down” is another one of the brighter tracks, and similar to “Air Bag,” the tone of music is a contradiction to the lyrical content. With an emotionless voice, Yorke describes a technology dependent society, where sentiments are fake (which is the titular “Let Down”) and people are like crushed bugs hanging around, alive but not living. To add on to the sentimentality of the song, the pre-chorus gives a light of hope what the singer could grow wings and fly away, before the chorus sets in and takes away any hope he might have had. The rather bright tone conveys that even though humans are like crushed bug, helpless, defeated and void of hope, they do not realize that and still think that they are living.
“Karma Police” is laid back but sneering and violent at the same time, like a cold-blooded murderer. In the song, the narrator plays the role of the titular “Karma Police,” taunting people who should suffer, according to his emotional and irrational judgment. He makes two people suffer, the first one because he can’t comprehend what the man is saying, and the second one simply because her hairdo makes him feels ill. This is similar to the figure of a bigot who would lash out at anyone who irritates him, whether or not it is reasonable. However, in the outro of the song, he realizes that he lost himself “for a minute,” which possibly comes with the revelation that he too will be chased after by karma.
The centerpiece “Fitter Happier,” while almost non-song, plays a crucial role to the album. It is thought-provoking both musically and lyrically, featuring only simple melancholic piano sounds in the background and a soulless Macintosh voice listing bullet points for a “utopia” which is assumingly the current society. The lyrics were used in advertisements for the album in music magazines, signs in the London underground, and shirts. They arguably capture best the theme of OK Computer, reflecting the ethos of a modern society being unemotional and cold. Like typical episode of Black Mirror, the track first reveals the positive changes technology makes to human life:
“Fitter, happier, more productive
Comfortable
Not drinking too much
Regular exercise at the gym
Three days a week
Getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries
At ease
Eating well
No more microwave dinners and saturated fats
A patient, better driver
A safer car
Baby smiling in back seat
Sleeping well
No bad dreams
No paranoia
Careful to all animals.”But soon enough, the events unveil themselves to expose the detrimental effects. In this case, it is not only an emotionless society, but one where every person is “a pig in a cage on antibiotics.” That’s easily as dark and frightening as Black Mirror can possibly get.
“Electioneering” might be the most hated song on the album, probably not because it’s musically different but because it hits too close to home. Yorke takes on the perspective of a politician who will “stop at nothing” to get votes. The band’s trademark cynicism is here, with the politician admitting that he’ll be the one going forwards when the society will go backwards. Still, he promises that “somewhere [they] will meet.” While this can be an allusion to any notorious elections, let’s admit that it’s uncannily similar to the Trump’s administration we’re living in. The horror! The horror!
Ever had that paranoid feeling when you think someone is watching you or something is there? The song “Climbing Up the Walls” plays with that anxiety, convincing you that the entity is really there, never leaving your side but you never see it. The title can be interpreted as the entity is either crawling up the walls of your mind, reinforcing itself in your brain, or physically crawling up the walls to get to you. The eerie instrumentation and the equally haunting lyrics about the relentless demon people face one of the most scary songs in the band’s catalogue.
“No Surprises” has the lightest sound, and is the most peaceful track in the album, but again it is a painful contradiction. It paints death as releasing and cathartic as opposed to the toxic, suffocating, and meaningless life as the protagonist suicides, wishing that his death would be without stress, worry, doubt, fear, pain, or sadness, like he once wished his life would be. The song takes all the weight from the previous songs and throws it away to achieve a bright and chiming sound, hence juxtaposing the society depicted in the other songs with death in this song.
The penultimate song “Lucky” is full of contradiction, making about the change of luck it refers to in the lyrics another ambiguous imagery. In the first verse, Yorke states that he’s “on a roll,” which traditionally refers to a series of streak in gambling. However, right after that he states that he feels his “luck could change”, begging for a Sarah to kill him with her love, but closes the verses claiming that “it’s gonna be a glorious day.” After the line comes the chorus, in which the singer is caught in an airplane crash, which would be ironic if that’s the “glorious day” the singer was referring to. But then again, the narrator becomes a superhero after the accident, leaving all the connotations ambiguous. The second verse flips the order of the line “it’s gonna be a glorious day” and “I feel my luck could change,” further baffling us whether what is defined as “lucky” and what is not. However, the song closes with a repetition of the last line in the chorus, “we are standing on the edge.” We can take this to mean that the singer himself is unsure what to make of his condition. Similar to the opening track where technology is a savior and a killer at the same time, this track has the image of airplane as the technology: the singer has an aircrash, but is reborn as a superhero.
“The Tourist” closes the album, a friendly reminder that one should slow down the pace of life, picturing a tourist who’s moving too fast to truly enjoy anything. However, it is not that simple, as all the images in the song can also be interpreted as a car crash, closing the loop in the album: the protagonist is caught in a car crash in the closer “The Tourist” and is saved in the opener “Airbag.” The song, and hence the album, ends with a bell chime, which also has multiple possible interpretation. The first one is that it represents household appliances, which usually makes the same sound, once again conveying the idea that our society is increasing reliant on technology. The second interpretation is that it snaps the titular tourist out of his state of mind, realizing his lifestyle and starting to slow down. This can also be broaden to mean the whole society is turning around. The third and last one theorizes that the chime represent the actual car crash, hence closing the aforementioned loop.
Apart from the provocative lyrics, the album has a long-lasting effect as it diverges from the mainstream music at the time. Their previous album The Bends is a britpop album, which is then a ubiquitous genre in British rock music, with bands such as Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Suede, and The Verve releasing critically and commercially successful albums. OK Computer initiated a stylistic shift to the melancholic alternative rock sound that would become more prevalent in the next decade. The album is so game-changing that Radiohead would make another stylistic change only three years after, with the electronica experimental rock album Kid A.
With all that said, the reissue OKNOTOK includes three previously unreleased tracks that give us a sneak peek at some alternative versions of Radiohead. The first single off of the reissue, “I Promise” is a acoustic guitar-driven track that is more positive than any track on OK Computer. It is thematically similar to another shelved fan favourite, “True Love Waits,” with Yorke expressing devotion to a lover, making declaration after declaration that no matter what, he will not run away. It is musically similar to the sound on The Bends, specifically “Fake Plastic Trees,” and would have solidified them as another great britpop band, even though its being a light of positivity would not fit it on either albums. The second single “Man of War,” sounds closest to OK Computer among the three tracks and also deals with the paranoia theme. It seems to be a middle ground between “Karma Police,” “No Promises,” and The Bends’ “Just.” A stunning track still, but not as thought-provoking as the songs on OK Computer. Lastly, there’s “Lift,” a song so well-received that the band subconsciously killed it. A radio-friendly track, it is the “Creep” follow-up that Radiohead’s label was looking for. But again, Radiohead voiced its fear that including the song on its album would give them a Jagged Little Pill (the band was touring with Alanis Morissette), selling lots a records, but that would have killed them. Also, the song’s britpop hook and positivity (the song describes a man rescued from a malfunction lift and his self-rediscovery in the process) would not fit well on OK Computer. All in all, the release of these tracks, together with the B-sides, only proves how far Radiohead would go to preserve its artistic sense, and we thank the band for OK Computer, a timeless masterpiece.
