Tag Archives: ok computer

#1014: Radiohead – Paranoid Android

3 Replies

So, from the list, it appears that Radiohead have quite a few songs beginning with the letter ‘P’. This one right here is a bona-fide classic. At this point, it’s no question how good of a track ‘Paranoid Android’, but I can only imagine how jaw-dropping it was to people who heard when it first dropped back in 1997 as the first single from OK Computer. Being only two years of age at that time, I wouldn’t know about the song for at least another eight/nine years, when the music video would play usually on MTV2 or even VH2. A lot of it was censored. The man’s head popping out of the guy’s stomach was blurred out, and the whole scene where the businessman chops off his arms and legs and the large-chested mermaids was replaced with hastily put together scenes from earlier in the video. Any first time listeners/watchers, you did read that sentence. The whole music video’s a trip.

This track is one of those made up of different sections from unrelated pieces à la ‘Bohemian Rhapsody‘ or ‘Happiness Is a Warm Gun‘ that are then brought together to make one composition. What I’ve always appreciated about ‘Paranoid…’ is just how seamlessly each sections transitions into the next. Even in the ‘…Warm Gun’, there are always these abrupt changes when one section changes into the other, and I’ve always felt it to be sometimes an awkward listen. Wikipedia says there are four sections in ‘Paranoid Android’, but I would say there’s three at the most with a little return to the second to close things out. But really the whole thing flows so well, and the whole performance by the band is off the charts.

I think it’s come to the point now where a Radiohead fan wouldn’t be impressed if you told them ‘Paranoid Android’ was your favourite track by the band’s. I’m a Radiohead fan myself, but I don’t even think I’m at the level of some other people that may be existing. They would understand, because they’d have to, but the track is essentially Radiohead encapsulated. Damn, there are just so many moments to pick out from this one as to what makes it so engaging to hear. From the wild guitar freak-outs to Thom Yorke’s vocals to those robotic “I may be paranoid, but no android” that are buried in the mix. To listen to this track for the first time again…

#935: Radiohead – No Surprises

1 Reply

Again, I think this track falls into that group of those that seemed to have always existed in my life. Couldn’t pinpoint a particular time, event or moment where I saw/heard it for the first time and explain how I felt there and then. What I could tell you is that the music video was what introduced me to it. Though I want to say the guitar intro was used in a advert on television or something, that’s maybe my mind playing tricks on me. In the video, Thom Yorke’s head is miming to the song in a tank which slowly fills up with water. When it gets to the bridge, he’s fully submerged and he holds his breath until the end of the instrumental break, where the water flows out, he gasps for air, smiles ’cause he got the right take and closes his eyes as the song ends. The kid I was when I saw it wasn’t shocked at this. Really I wanted to see if I could hold my breath for that long too and tried on many occasions.

Before its release as a single in December 1997, ‘No Surprises’ would have been known as the tenth track on Radiohead’s OK Computer, the song that comes as a sweet, sweet lullaby-like tune after the somewhat terrifying ending to the preceding ‘Climbing Up the Walls’. The twinkling arpeggiated guitar intro begins alongside some light bass guitar work, and after a short computer boot-up-like sound, an acoustic guitar, glockenspiel and drums come in. Thom Yorke enters, singing in a much lower register than usual, providing lyrics filled with imagery that have very much given a number of people out there the idea that the song is about suicide. It very may well be. I’ve taken it as one that’s about just waiting for life to end with no hang-ups or sudden unexpected situations. The mentions of ‘carbon monoxide’, a ‘final fit’ and the harmonised cries of ‘let me out of here’ do steer the meaning more toward the suicidal route though. Maybe I’m the fool here.

Now, it’s one of Radiohead’s most well-known songs. Its release as a single helped, as did the video. It’s come a long way and taken a life of its own. You would think so, having been around for 25 years at this point. The band will get to the “Bring down the government/They don’t speak for us line” at live performances and the audience will holler and cheer in agreement. Some people may like it just for that line. I’d like to think that the large majority are struck by its warmth and comforting tones. Everything’s played so straight, yet it’s still so powerful. Also helps that it’s really easy to sing along to. Got beautiful melodies and hooks in abundance.

#784: Radiohead – Lucky

Leave a reply

Although Radiohead’s ‘Lucky’ is a track that will come to mind whenever you think of the band’s 1997 album OK Computer – seeing as it’s one of the songs on that record – it’s a song that was written and recorded when the group were on tour in 1995, promoting their second album The Bends. The high pitched squealing that can be heard at the beginning and throughout was created at a soundcheck by guitarist Ed O’Brien, and the band decided to develop the song around it. The song was recorded in five hours on 4th September 1995 and released on a charity compilation in the same week. The band thought it was the best song they had ever done to that point; Thom Yorke later stated that it set the direction for what the band were to do on their next record.

You could argue it’s a bit of a cop out to include a track that had already been out for two years on your new album, but somehow ‘Lucky’ manages to fit perfectly in its place on OK Computer. It’s a very cliché thing to say – though when it came to this song when listening to the album for the first time when I was 14 or 15, it was certainly unlike any song I had heard prior to it. It was a track that had a definite emotional weight to it. I thought ‘yeah, this is some sophisticated music’. It was definitely different to what was usually on MTV2. The song’s lyrics are unusually optimistic for a Radiohead song, but then they’re countered by the minor key, sad-sounding chords that make things sound like something terrible is about to happen. It’s very conflicting but it works tremendously and is a change from the usual sad/bad lyrics with happy music dynamic.

A list of elements that I thoroughly enjoy about this one: Thom Yorke’s vocal (a GLOOOO-rious daaaay), the ghostly choir-like keyboards that come in during the second verse, every crash cymbal hit during the choruses pack a punch, the descending chord progression of the bridge and its climactic transition into the instrumental end… You’ve got to hear it for yourself, it would be a good use of 4 minutes and 20 seconds.

#728: Radiohead – Let Down

Leave a reply

Ah, ‘Let Down’. A firm fan favourite from OK Computer for many a Radiohead follower. A running joke on the band’s subreddit is calling the track ‘underrated’ even though there are so many posts that declare a huge love for it. It’s a sad song with really uplifting music, which brings many listeners to wonder whether it’s meant to be happy or truly depressing. Truly, it is a track that conveys conflicting emotions. For many years, the band didn’t play it live because they found it difficult to play and then suddenly around the time A Moon Shaped Pool was out in 2016, they played it for the first time in ten years at Madison Square Garden.

I was convinced that I had heard ‘Let Down’ somewhere at some time when listening to the album for the very first time…. Was it used in an advert/commercial for something? That’s a question I’ve been wondering for ten years now. If not it’s probably just a testament to how great the melodies within the song are, because it was like I’d known that song for years I was already singing the chorus before the track fully ended. Thom Yorke, double tracked with the two vocals in your left and right ear, sings about feeling distant and despondent in a world that is failing to impress him. When he dreams of growing wings and being able to fly away from it all, he realises that that too is just a large fantasy, becoming disappointed in the process. But this is all surrounded by a twinkling glockenspiel and a wall of arpeggiated guitars – one of those which play in 5/4 time for the majority of the track.

The track also contains one of the most beloved moments in the Radiohead discography where one of Yorke’s vocals overlap one another during the climactic part of the track. I, myself, think that part is very nice – I’ve never given it much thought even if I always at least try and sing along with it. I’ve actually found Colin Greenwood’s bass on here the most overlooked component of the whole ordeal. If you pay attention to it, you’ll see it’s the melodic ground that anchors everything together.

#686: Radiohead – Karma Police

Leave a reply

‘Karma Police’ is the sixth track on OK Computer, Radiohead’s third studio album, released in 1997. That is an album that immediately was praised by critics as one of the best albums of the 20th century. It’s regarded as one of the best albums of all time to this day. I think everyone knows this one. Crowds are able to drown out Thom Yorke when he sings the ‘For a minute there’ section. It’s definitely one of Radiohead’s most popular songs. ‘Creep’ probably takes the crown as the one that really everyone knows, even if they don’t know who the band are. But ‘Karma Police’ is more engaging by a large distance.

I think I saw its music video (above) first before anything else. That’s how it went with me and Radiohead – I saw their music videos before I actually sat down and listened to any of their albums. The band’s videos were always randomly shown on MTV2 in the mid-2000s. For good reason too because they were always worth watching. But I would have been about 10 around that time and not paying so much attention to the music. I don’t know how the track ended up on the family computer – I’ll say one of my sister’s school friends sent her the song through MSN because it wasn’t anything to do with me – but it was there. I listened to it here and there. Been a big fan ever since.

The track is probably seen as an ‘entry-level’ Radiohead track but I feel a lot of emotion when listening to it. A lot more now than when I was a kid because… I guess music moves me a lot easier as I get older. It’s just so gloomy and dark and atmospheric. It has those little moments that add so much to the track, like that ‘aaaaahhh’ vocal that appears on the left side during the verses (recorded on a telephone if you didn’t know), those choir-like ‘oohs’ during the ‘this is what you get’ parts which are actually a synthesizer played by Jonny Greenwood….. the piano that sneaks in and plays its fills. It’s a track that’s full of surprises. And if you don’t feel something when Thom Yorke belts out the last ‘I lost myself’ then you know… you’re just into other stuff I guess. But I like it. Never grown tired of it. Don’t think I will any time soon.