Number 640 - Radiohead

Number 640

Radiohead

"Paranoid Android"

(1997)
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Genre:Alt Rock

We all understand that within certain decades artists stand out and change music as we know it, in the 50's we had Elvis (USA)& Chuck Berry (USA), In the 60's we had the Beatles (ENG) & Rolling Stones (ENG), in the 70's we had Pink Floyd (ENG) & Led Zeppelin (ENG), in the 80's we had Duran Duran (ENG)& U2 (IRE), the 90s we had Nirvana (USA) & Radiohead (ENG). We are 3/4 (if your decimal like us then 75%) through the 00's and who do we have? Face it, we struggle, but if you held a gun against me head and asked me to choose......(Gawd..um) er, ahh, Coldplay (ENG) & The Killers (USA)(Christ Almighty that was hard, maybe its because the 00's is not completed). Anyway what i am eluding too is that Radiohead in the 90's gave us so much hope for the 00's. I guess they didn't after all. Thank God the old groups are still going then. (If you think there is something better in the 00's let me know, because you, who look back at this decade as being yours, then your gonna feel real sad whilst looking back reflecting!)
Using the textured soundscapes of The Bends as a launching pad, Radiohead delivered another startlingly accomplished set of modern guitar rock with OK Computer. The anthemic guitar heroics present on Pablo Honey and even The Bends are nowhere to be heard here. Radiohead have stripped away many of the obvious elements of guitar rock, creating music that is subtle and textured yet still has the feeling of rock & roll. Even at its most adventurous -- such as the complex, multi-segmented "Paranoid Android" -- the band is tight, melodic, and muscular, and Thom Yorke's voice effortlessly shifts from a sweet falsetto to vicious snarls. It's a thoroughly astonishing demonstration of musical virtuosity and becomes even more impressive with repeated listens, which reveal subtleties like electronica rhythms, eerie keyboards, odd time signatures, and complex syncopations. Yet all of this would simply be showmanship if the songs weren't strong in themselves, and OK Computer is filled with moody masterpieces, from the shimmering "Subterranean Homesick Alien" and the sighing "Karma Police" to the gothic crawl of "Exit Music (For a Film)." OK Computer is the album that establishes Radiohead as one of the most inventive and rewarding guitar rock bands of the '90s. ~ [Stephen Thomas Erlewine]
For Elvis Presley see Number 840
For Chuck Berry see Number 783
For The Beatles see Number 894 & Number 947
For The Rolling Stones see Number 689 & Number 767
For Led Zeppelin see Number 957
For Duran Duran see Number 764
For U2 see Number 661
For more U2 see Mellow Mix Vol 1 Number 129
For more Radiohead see Mellow Mix Vol 1 Number 137
For Coldplay see Number 769

What do Rolling Stone think about Radio Head?
Radiohead's third album is one of the best rock records of the year in large part because it is the most inscrutable. "OK Computer" vigorously defies fast analysis, flip judgment and easy interpretation. Singer Thom Yorke doesn't pretend to be likable about it, either. "Ambition makes you look very ugly," he sneers amid the "Bohemian Rhapsody"-style seizures of "Paranoid Android," a slur that works both ways if you have major objections to arty sonic clutter and prog-rock pretensions. But there is nothing linear about cracking up. "OK Computer," ostensibly a concept LP about a zombie world of hard law and infernal software, is a song cycle about serial fear and suffocating routine, laid out in mad leaps of melody, tempo and pathos that slowly accrue their queer beauty: the bleak, R.E.M.-ish clatter of "Electioneering," the languid dive of Yorke's croon in the melted-Beatles carol "Lucky." Radiohead try too hard to be nonconformist -- as if they're embarrassed to just be pop -- but ambition hardly makes them ogres. It makes them special. (RS 776/777) DAVID FRICKE

For REM see Number 712

Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at Number 256 and the Album ranked at Number 162

This song has a crowbarred rating of 70.9 out of 108

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