Radiohead - OK Computer
The alternative rock outfit, Radiohead started off at Abingdon School, funnily enough, in Abingdon. Drummer Phil Selway was a year above Thom Yorke and Ed O'Brien, bassist Colin Greenwood a year below them, and Colin's multi-instrumentalist brother Jonny, two years below him. Although the five didn't know each other that well, they began meeting up in the school's music department, which Yorke described as �great, no one came down there, and there were these tiny rooms with soundproofed cubicles.� The band, named after a song by The Talking Heads, struck gold with the single �Creep� in 1992. The subsequent album, �Pablo Honey�, reached 23 in the UK charts. It all went up-hill from there; �The Bends� reached #4 and OK Computer #1. Every Radiohead album since then reached number 1 in the UK charts, with �Kid A� reaching #1 in the US charts. But, the band is yet to reach number 1 in a singles chart.
The title is believed to be a quote from �A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy�, where one of the characters says �ok computer� to Eddie the Computer. The first track on the album is �Airbag�. This song, released as an EP with the song �How am I driving?�, has the most distorted first 10 seconds of an album ever. It�s about Thom Yorke�s near death experience in a car. He didn�t meet his end because �an airbag saved my life.� �Airbag� is one of the more rock oriented songs on the album, and one of my favourites. The next track is �Paranoid Android�, named after Marvin the Paranoid Android from �A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy�. It�s believed that the song is inspired by Marvin�s introduction in the original BBC series. �Paranoid Android� has been described by Colin Greenwood as �DJ Shadow meets the Beatles�. It�s outstanding piece of music, one of my all time favourites. The third song on the album is �Subterranean Homesick Alien�; the title is a play on Bob Dylan�s �Subterranean Homesick Blues�. The next track is Exit Music (For a Film). It was written for the end credits of Baz Luhrmann�s �Romeo + Juliet�, but was left out due to the request of Thom Yorke. Just think how much better watching that film with Mrs Trousell if there was a Radiohead song at the end of it. The fifth track on the album is �Let Down�, the entire song is overpowered by Thom Yorke singing in the way you would sing if you heard a song you want to sing but, alas, you do not know the words. The next song is the wonderful �Karma Police�. Lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood explained the source of the song's title: "It was a band catchphrase for a while on tour - whenever someone was behaving in a particularly shitty way, we'd say, 'The karma police will catch up with him sooner or later'". �Karma Police� is probably the best song (or at least my favorite song) on �OK Computer�. The next song is spoken by a computer system. More specifically, MacinTalk Pro, a speech program for Apple�s Power Macintosh. Track 8 is entitled �Electioneering�. It is one of the more rock based songs from the album compared to the softer sounds of �No Surprises� and �Karma Police�. The strings in this song, covered by Jonny Greenwood alone, features 16 different violins playing quarter tones apart from each other. When playing live, the audience knows the band is about to play this song because Greenwood pulls out a small radio and begins tuning it to different stations. During the band's sound checks, Jonny locates classical-music or news-oriented local radio stations, and uses these (never rock stations) to execute �Climbing Up the Walls�. A little bit of trivia there. The song is ok but is definitely one of the poorest songs on the album.