Records: Radiohead's OK Computer

By Sue Z. Hugh

The way people talk about popular music these days, one would think that rock and roll was dead. These days, commercial record labels bet their money on the new wave of feel-good, brain-dead hummers like the Spice Girls and Hanson or the much-hyped attempt to mainstream electronica.

This vacuum in rock and roll may explain why Radiohead's OK Computer has caused such a stir. Some critics and fans have already canonized the band as a rock legend. Others lambast them as nothing more than generic copycats of past glories. But Radiohead's third release comes at a time when the public no longer seems to be going for guitar-driven melodies or psychological angst.

Listening to OK Computer takes a bit of cerebral power. But invest the time because no other recent mainstream band has taken an audience on such a rewarding trip. From the opening doom-and-gloom guitar chords and amplified drums of "Airbag" to the sounds of fantasy escape on "Exit Music", Radiohead carve their legend. OK Computer has it all in epic proportions--the concept (man being novocained by the temptations of easy technology), the lyrics (intelligent and catchy), and of course the music. Singer Thom Yorke tries to convince the listener that the world's falling apart, but no one else can see it. It's a world where people talk "like a detuned radio," coif "Hitler hairdos," and dish out neatly-packaged doses of "pragmatism not idealism."

OK Computer is not about losing your consciousness in the music. It's about regaining it and confronting the plastic-smiles that stand in your way. And Radiohead is there to lead you through the musical chaos.

Radiohead imagines a new future through their double dose of melancholy and ambition. So who said that rock and roll was dead?

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