Radiohead's OK Computer and "sophistication": a semi-technical listening guide

I agree Kid A didn't work.

I saw Radiohead live about a couple of weeks before Kid A was released. The crowd were wild for the OKC and Bends songs, and silent during the Kid A stuff, or at least silent to start with. As soon as it became apparant to all present that the new stuff wasn't very good, people lost all interest, began chatting to one another, heading off to the beer tent, etc.

 

I saw them a couple of days after kid a release to much the same reception.

 

and when they toured the Amnesiac stuff it wasn't dissimilar - saw them at the Ice Stadium in Nottingham- frankly I was bored.

 

Ice stadium has awful acoustics, I saw them in the acoustic tent.

 

Hairstyle perhaps?

PeteH, forget REM's 'Auotmatic for the People'. It's good but not their best.

Would be interested to know what you make of this! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000019R2/104-5763881-4012748?v=glance

 

Well, Pete - I've been meaning to get some Radiohead for several years now (after hearing some of my bro's Kid A while driving down to the Alps), had been recommended by Lorsummit to try Amnesiac, but after reading this and the comments following decided to try OKC when I saw it in the HMV sale the other week. I have to say it sounded pretty good at first hearing, and is definitely growing on me with repeated listening...which IME is a pretty good test of good music. BTW do you have the sheet music or did you work out all those harmonic progressions by ear?

The two tracks that really stood out on the first runthough were "Exit..." and "Climbing up the Walls", with "Electioneering" pretty catchy in an American sort of way. I'm with you though "Let Down" is pretty tedious (and I don't find much of interest in "No Surprises" either). When "Lucky" came on I thought that I'd somehow slipped into a parallel universe and it was playing a Pink Floyd track that got cut out of "Wish you were here..." (that subdominant modulation at the start of the refrain in Lucky is pure Floyd), and "The Tourist" has the same kind of resonances. As that is probably my favourite non-classical album, that is A Good Thing in my book, although I understand that this is considered the mark of the devil by several here . I also thought "Paranoid Android" and "Climbing..." were also quite redolent of Portishead's Dummy - which is another of my all-time favourites.

I have a few things to add, mainly about "Exit...". I agree with some of what you've got there, but I think you've missed the two main features that make it so effective - the melody and the rhythm. As you say it's a really downbeat song, which is put over by each phrase being basically a falling fifth, starting each time on a resigned high and then dying from there - with the one exception of the line rising to, and that (orgasmic) suspension in harmonic progression in the bar preceding, the triumphant cry of "now we are one". But the really disconcerting thing is the rhythm - the insistent guitar chords throughout on the off-beat, with only a low bass note on the first beat of each bar, and the meandering vocal line unsure whether it's on or off the beat. The absence of anything on the main beats confuses the ear into thinking that the guitar is actually playing on the beat and the vocal line is even more disturbed, continually anticipating the beat. This is further compounded as the vocal line only actually sits unambiguously on the main strong beat right at the beginning of the phrase, moving more to the off- and up-beat as the phrase progresses. Things are disturbed even more as the guitar adds some subtle decorations, further emphasising the off-beat quavers, at the end of the second 8-bar phrase ("before all hell breaks loose"). But then it really gets going in the next section as the time signatures get a real shake up. Assuming it's been in a regular 4/4 until now (two phrases of 8 bars, with a 6 bar intro...which was a bit unsettling in its own right - there were a couple of bars where it felt something should be happening but we're not quite sure what), we get what sounds like a 5-bar phrase consisting of 1 bar of 3/2, one of 4/4, then two of 5/4 and one of 4/4 - reflecting the panic in the words "breathe ...don't lose your nerve" (and we've also moved into the dominant key here to reflect the contrast). That same pattern is then repeated, with an extra bar of 4/4 on the end to keep things out of balance - before we're back to the original phrase, with the words back to the original mood of desperate trepidation.

I'm not at all sure I agree with you about the chord at "laugh" - didn't seem to be anything shocking about it to me at all. Haven't we just moved out of the minor tonic key into its relative major for this verse, with its mocking-cum-triumphant words? It seemed to sit quite naturally within a chord progression leading through it (I had to crosscheck againt your timings to find anything of note there). The one point where I think the harmony is not pretty much dead obvious is at 3:10, where it turns from the expected to leads up to "now we are one". The other thing about the confidence of this section is that the rhythmic ambiguity has now all gone - the guitar chords may be still there in the background but are for the moment completely drowned out by the band and vocal line all firmly on the beat. When that dies down, and the words move on to "we hope that you choke", we get back to echoes of the original line, and key, and we hear the off-beat guitar back again. As with all good recapitulations though it's coloured by what happened earlier....listen for that triumphant cry of "now" still in the background at 4:00-4:07. I don't normally pay too much attention to the words of rock/pop songs (as they normally say so little), but this is a case where the music and the words really do form a pretty indivisible whole.

Re "Climbing...", did you notice that those two extra bars in the verses get balanced up by a foreshortened final phrase (only 6-bars) before the instrumental section, actually giving a 'conventional' 48-bar length for the vocal?

 

Hi Graham, good to see you're at least dropping by every now and then. I take it you're camped out in your usual spot for the summer?

I'm with you on that one, though these days if I'm not beginning to like something by about the second time through it's unlikely to start growing on me after that - not sure if I'm getting quicker on the uptake or just more impatient.

The latter - I think it's mostly right, though I wouldn't bet my life on it...

I'll have to come back to the rest of your comments another time - hopefully tomorrow if I get a chance.

 

don't see what there is to get about the bends - it's a straight down the line rock record. you either like it or you don't

 

One thing I hate about OK Computer is the sound of the drums and cymbols. They dont sound "right" all the way through, and it makes it less enjoyable to listen to.

 

Also, it may be "sophisticated", but it's not that enjoyable to listen to, and the songs are pretty much all downers and ultimately fairly pointless.

 

hmm my first thought,

But on closer inspection actually bloody clever, it was only my jealousy getting in the way of appreciating it.


Nice work,
James.

 

Sound fine to me and if you sit there worrying about things like that its no wonder you don't enjoy it

 

I dont worry about it I notice it and it aint musical.

 

I just found this comprehensive analysis of OK Computer. Thank you very much for it. I do like this album very much, and it is nice to read something about it (something??? ).

It seems that I am one of the few here, but I do like Kid A and Amnesiac very much also (and HTTT).

 

Just bought a brand new Vinyl copy of this album on the basis of this thread. The records where both laden with static and so have been Okki Nokki'd, just need to print off your listening notes before i settle down for a listen.
As this is a Radiohead album ( i have The Bends and Pablo) will i need razor blades too....

BTW, I bought my copy via an Amazon 'marketplace' trader for just £14.54, delivered within 3 days of order. I also ordered Pink Floyd's Echoes box set at the same time ( but from different trader) in the mid afternoon, (for £30.23) it arrived next morning ! There are some good people out there ...

 

First impressions;
This is one of the noisiest records I've bought for a very long time. I've purposely only cleaned record 1 on my Okki Nokki, once i saw how much static the new record had , and not record 2 yet so that i could compare 'cleaned' and 'not cleaned' .
Very noisy. I've even had to put on a few 'known to be quiet' records as i thought my stylus was knackered. So far, so bad and that's just the run in groove, lets see what the music is like , printed listening gude at the ready.....

 

My copy is silent, one of the quietest I have probably, maybe you were just unlucky? Or I was lucky?

 

As soon as the music actually starts the noise disappears into the background, the sound being sharp and crisp, it was just my first impressions. I often find that with a lot of the reords the very outer of the run in groove is noisy, then things quieten down, then the music starts. This one doesn't have that pre-music quiet bit. I've had a good detailed look at the records and there is no doubt that i have a brand new 'off the press' record, none of them tell tale microscopic handling marks , or evidence that it has been in and out of the sleeve a few times. Basically I'm happy that it was a brand spanker. The whole package looks good , (as most new release vinyl records do these days), nice thick vinyl, full colour, glossy inner and outer sleeves, only three tracks per side over two disks. The record surface also looked glossy, new and 'perfect' . It just goes to show how looks can be deceptive...

Just had one listen through so far and found that i'd 'switched off' before the end (ie switched off in a bad way). perhaps i need to persevere more ( although perseverence never workied with PIL's highly rated Metal Box album , which i now consider to be just ...noise , nice 'sampleable' bass lines though....).

 

PLEASE PLEASE tell me you listened to "Lucky" before you "switched off" One classic track...

As for PIL's "Metal box" - I thought it was just me (I have the CD version) - it's a bag of arse isn't it? Glad I got that off my chest!

 

Sid, if it's the first time you've heard the album, hide the "notes" away! Just listen to it as you would any other album.

Ultimately, how "sophisticated" it is, isn't a yard stick for how much everyone will like it. I'd try just playing it as you owuld any other album, then maybe coming back to it with the notes at a later date if you want.