OK COMPUTER

OK Computer is the third album from experimental british rock band Radiohead. It´s one of the most influential rock albums of the nineties and it´s been sold in millions of copies. There are lots of different opinions about the progressive status of Radiohead, but I have always regarded OK Computer as a prog rock album. A very commercial one but still proggy no doubt. I can´t claim to be a real fan of Radiohead even though I was very exited about this album when it was released in 1997, but they are an interesting band who have made some good albums.

The music has changed quite a bit since their last album The Bends. It´s like every note on OK Computer is well thought out and placed where they are with a clear purpose. There are no generic parts which there was lots of on both Pablo Honey and The Bends. OK Computer has great instrumentation with emphasis normal rock instrumentation of guitar, bass and drums while keyboards are new to Radiohead´s sound. The keyboards are not dominant but help create some nice atmospheres in the songs. The focus and dominant feature in Radiohead´s music will always be singer Thom Yorke though. The man sounds deeply emotional and his pained vocal delivery is surely an aquired taste. I´m a bit biased towards his vocal style myself. I generally like it very much but it gets a bit too pathetic at times.

This is the kind of album that is best heard from beginning to end as it is an emotional ride with lots of dynamics between subtleness and more rocking parts. It´s not that the songs are very progressive or complex in structure but the sounds and the way the songs are arranged points toward a progressive approach. My favorites are Airbag, Paranoid Android, Karma Police, No Surprises and The Tourist but all songs are good.

The musicianship is much better than on The Bends. Radiohead has really learned the meaning of dynamic playing since that album.

One of the big stars on this album is the production which ranks among the best productions of the nineties.

OK Computer is without a doubt one of the classic rock albums from the nineties. It has influenced hordes of bands. I Denmark where I come from some of the most famous rock bands like Kashmir and Tim Christensen has openly admitted that this particular album changed their way of making music. I´m not as impressed today as I was back then but I must admit that OK Computer has aged very well and that it is still an excellent rock album with prog tendencies. I would have rated it 3 stars but I´ll throw in that extra star to make this a 4 star rating because of the influential status of the album. Some albums are just such big classics that I can´t defend not to give them higher than average ratings and OK Computer is such an album.