In these posts we'll be taking a cursory glance at Radiohead's entire body of work, with one post roughly covering the length of one album. I'll start with the lynchpin connecting the two distinct halves of their discography - OK Computer - then jump back in time to The Bends, then moving in order until ending with The King of Limbs. For reference, here's the timeline:
Intro/OK Computer (post #1)
Pablo Honey/The Bends (2)
Kid A/Amnesiac (3)
Hail to the Thief (4)
In Rainbows pt. 1 & 2 (5)
The King of Limbs (6)
The reason that I'm starting with OK Computer is twofold. First and foremost, it's Radiohead's most accessible album (with In Rainbows at a close second). Previous albums occupied a pretty specific niche - melancholy british alternative rock - and if you're a fan of bands like Blur and Oasis and even The Verve, The Bends is immediately recognizable and likable. If you're not, it takes a few listens. Contrast that with post-OK Computer Radiohead which I will discuss at length in future posts. Suffice it to say that Kid A (and onward), for the most part, is like good coffee; it's an acquired taste, but once you've acquired it you're hooked for life. OK Computer is the link between these two sonic worlds, and it occupies the gap with gusto.
Second - and feel free to argue this point with me - OK Computer is Radiohead's only true concept album. The other albums are cohesive and should be listened to in order, for sure, but only on OK Computer is there a very recognizable theme, and possibly even a story, that runs throughout. Here is my take on it, adapted slightly from an essay that I wrote in high-school. Excuse my writing style. New thoughts are in bold:
"OK Computer is, at it's core, an expression of dissatisfaction with modern life. Technology (especially automobiles, objects with which Thom Yorke is notoriously uncomfortable) is the main target, but other subjects such as increasingly detached personal relationships ("Subterranean Homesick Alien"), politics ("Electioneering"), "ideal" cookie-cutter suburban life ("No Surprises," "Climbing Up The Walls," "Exit Music"), and consumerism each receive treatment. Even the ordering of the tracks mimics culture's response to technological advancement; excitement about advancement, detachment from humanity, consequences of that detachment, and finally a realization of the ills associated with such advancement and an attempt to slow down. Awareness of the themes present within OK Computer make it a rich, compelling, tragic, and ultimately hopeful work of art that deserves multiple listens."
So, bearing those themes in mind, let's explore the album track-by-track.
Airbag
"Airbag" marks the point in which Radiohead starts to begin albums with a bang, no pun intended (all subsequent albums would follow this trend; try to listen to the opening notes of "Everything In Its Right Place" without getting chills, or "15 Step" without dancing). Lush and excited, filled with layered looped drums, strings, crunchy guitar arpeggios and sweeping echoey solos, strings, synth choirs, and a appropriately minimalist bass; this is the complete package for a rock song. The lyrics describe a car crash in "the next world war," in which a man driving a "fast German car" presumably slams into a stopped truck...and is saved by his airbag. This near-death experience is equivalent to a new birth (presumably a nod to Thom Yorke's fascination with "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying," which you can read about here), and it's all thanks to this marvel of modern technology. The song feels like a sunrise after a long night, a flower blooming after a long winter; life after death. It also sounds like classic Radiohead, up until the end of the second chorus. At that point it sounds like the song should be over. But hark! Dissonance, glitchy DJ scratches, and sounds of static take over the track, superimposed upon by a slowly building wail from Thom. The hopeful joy that dominated the beginning of the song takes on a twinge of anxiety, and electronic sounds start to bleed into the pure instrumental rock that we expected.
Paranoid Android
The anxiety from the end of "Airbag" is fully realized in "Paranoid Android." It starts out with a clean, syncopated guitar that somehow sounds machinelike; I'm always reminded of a Xerox making copies, or a tiny mechanic arm on a factory assembly line. The guys apparently made this song for fun, kind of as a joke, so I don't want to over-analyze it; however, the anti-consumerism theme is prevalent ("kicking screaming Gucci little piggy" is used to describe someone), as is the somewhat dissociative anxiety that attends the modern man. The structure of the song lends itself to this feeling of fractured identity, chiefly because the three distinct acts were written by different members of the band and modeled after "Happiness is a Warm Gun". This is one of many homages to The Beatles' monumental White Album, the other notable examples being "Karma Police" and, I think, "Exit Music (for a Film)." One of the more difficult songs to listen to casually, but it's place on the album is indispensable. And it grows on you.
Subterranean Homesick Alien
"Subterranean Homesick Alien" is the conclusion of the first section of the album; trepidation about modernity/capitalism/technology has started to replace the initial enthusiasm that we heard in "Airbag" (I don't count "Paranoid Android" in this progression because it's somewhat of a joke, as I said earlier). The main character in this song is imagining contemplating Earth, or at least England, from the viewpoint of aliens hovering up above, making "home movies for the folks back home/of all these weird creatures who lock up there spirits/drill holes in themselves and live for their secrets." He sees the people around him becoming detached from one another, holing up in their subdivisions and find their identity in both the 1) image they present to their neighbors and 2) the secrets they hide from them, a theme that the band will revisit in "Exit Music," "No Surprises," and "Climbing Up the Walls." There are parallels to the opening chapters Douglas Adams' The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, though more subtle than the previous shout-out to Marvin the Paranoid Android.
Exit Music (For a Film)
This song plays at the end of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (and in fact was written for the movie and later added to the album), so I always assumed it was about that story:
"wake from your sleep/the drying of your tears/ today we escape/pack and get dressed before your father hears us/before all hell breaks loose."
Recently, though, I heard the song differently and, at least in the context of the album, more correctly. I think that Exit Music is actually about a mother and her child escaping from an abusive father, and then dying in the cold together. Literally "Exit Music;" "(for a film)" is a very straightforward admission that the song has been added to the movie, yet stands alone as it's own personal story. We haven't been introduced to who I imagine is the father character yet, but we're getting very close.
A brief note about this song sonically: I would argue that Muse, a band who eventually carved out their own niche in the music scene, owes quite a bit of their success to this song (and to Radiohead in general). Johnny Greenwood's scuzzy guitar (and even the note progression in his solo) is the go-to sound for early Muse, while the quiet-quiet-quiet-LOUD template assists them very well in their more operatic songs like "Take a Bow". It's especially easy to draw parallels to this song because Thom Yorke and Matt Bellamy sound so similar when they belt, as Thom does here and Matt does on most songs.
The song sounds epically classical because it is. Radiohead drew heavy inspiration from ELO's instrumental song "After All" (which was inspired by a Chopin piece), and, I suspect, from The Beatles' "Mother Nature's Son" (another White Album track). Credit to wikipedia for the Chopin info.
Last note: Vampire Weekend does a phenomenal cover that kind of stands on its own.
I hope this gives you enough reading and listening to tide you over for a while! second half of OK Computer will follow by the end of the week. Peace and love,
Austin
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