Tomorrow, Radiohead will release their follow-up to 2001's "Amnesiac." I've listened to the "pre-release" MP3 files over the last couple months, and only recently did I get to hear a copy of the final release. Luckily, I'm not burned out on the record, so I'm really looking forward to it's release.
The press is making a big deal about how this new album is a return to form, but if you ignore the hype and listen to the music, you'll find a lot of the "Kid A" and "Amnesiac" sound in there. It's a great sound... one minute Thom Yorke is crooning along to electronic beats and ambient tones, the next the band is rocking out. And if recent reports are any indication, the upcoming tour shouldn't be missed.
But how will this record find it's place in the History of Radiohead? Will it be seen as a comment on our post-war climate? Will it be considered a classic, or just a good album before they break new ground?
Earlier today, I was visiting the men's room and picked up the copy of Forbes magazine that was lying on the floor. I felt a little alienated by it's contents... all that money-loving business talk can really bother me. Then I realized that this issue was from 1997... wow, instant time warp. The article on rich entertainers was particularly interesting, reporting on Bowie, Spieldberg, among others. The dotcom phenomenon. The Clinton scandals were brewing. America was a different place.
Into this world came Radiohead's "OK Computer." They'll probably never top this record. Not only was the timing perfect for the subject matter (technology increasingly in control of our lives), but it was musically seductive: the compostions, the complex arrangements, the dense musical landscape. This album sunk in slowly, and it seemed to me that it's popularity grew from word of mouth. Critics were hailing it as a brilliant record, but it wasn't receiving much airplay or exposure. I wasn't in much of a position to guage this though. I was living in the foothills of Appalachia with no radio or cable TV.
Article comments