Radiohead's OK Computer: The Best Record of the 90s

Whether you were a fan of alternative, classic rock, or indie, it's almost undeniable that Radiohead's OK Computer was the best record to egress the 90s. Every song--even the song that's not a song--is a highlight, each immaculately precipitating the other, every note corresponding with the themes. It stays with you; one of the few records everyone will still extol fifty years from now.

One of the first amazing qualities about this record is the emotion frontman/occasional guitarist Thom Yorke places in his voice even while singing about aliens. While a lot of these songs have semblance to human emotion, the situations are extraterrestial. Perhaps the best example is Subterranean Homesick Alien, where Yorke sings most melancholy the breath of the morning I keep forgetting/The smell of the warm summer air/.../Up above aliens hover making home movies for the folks back home/.../I wish that they'd swoop down in a country lane/late at night when I'm driving/Take me on board their beautiful ship/Show me the world as I'd love to see it. This should be funny, not depressing. The song manages to shine; the quirky workings of the guitarist accentuating the emotional element. Lucky, located towards the end of the record, is similarly beautiful, particularly in the chorus (pull me out of the aircrash/pull me out of the lake/I'm your superhero/We are standing on the edge), where a brilliant pedaled guitar transfixes finely structured chord progressions upon us, and impales us with emotion.

Radiohead also has a great understanding of how to make excellent music with their type of sound. Abstraction is best brought about with quantity, and they channel a great deal of sound into their music. Airbag, the opening, awe-inducing composition, is likely the best example. As Yorke sings in an interstellar burst, I am back to save the universe, they bring in a background voice to company both guitars and the rhythm, and it introduces a whole new level of emotion to the song. Let Down and No Surprises, polarized in attitude but similarly intoxicating, use the same technique, Yorke's voice being doubled in both choruses.

And luckily for us, Radiohead also knows how to rock. Paranoid Android makes perfect use of the 6 minutes that it occupies, not jumping into the heavier varieties until midway through the song but still structuring itself perfectly (the "ambition makes you look very ugly" part is too cool). The only track that rocks straight through in a style reminiscient of the 60s and 70s is Electioneering, which received much gratitude from me when the drums and rhythm guitar kicked in at the perfect moment during my first listen.

Radiohead is a brilliant band because they subscribe to musical theory and still manage to successfully break out of the 4/4 structure (it's more of a feat than you may realize). There are no "key tracks" on here because each one is as good as the next, and that includes the ones unmentioned in this review. The only song which sticks out for me particularly is Exit Music (For a Film), but that's just because of the well-utilized release. Radiohead is one of the prominent bands of our time.

Rating: A+