Meaning, I got tired of The Bends’ grungy proceedings.

I was mighty impressed at the time with the cohesion. I don’t have anything to say that would add something you didn’t. Radiohead’s problem in 1997 was finding music that didn’t crimp them. So I accept the dystopian twaddle while while wondering whether Yorke and his mates understand how a line like “Don’t get sentimental/It always ends up drivel” also indicts dystopian twaddle. I can’t get over my dislike to paraphrase Orson Welles, it’s tiresome to explain caprices. I’m almost never in the mood to listen but the mixing, ugly guitar parts, and Phil Selway’s drumming keep me concentrated on the libretto when Thom Yorke, weakest link, keeps going HEY LOOK OVER HERE.

Meanwhile, as the summer reached its apogee and the city cleared on account of holiday, I’d see promo posters for Oasis’ “D’You Know What I Mean?” in alleys - the real dystopia.Īnyway, OK Computer remains pretty good ( I prefer two subsequent albums). I lived in London that summer, and I’d hear “Paranoid Android” in taxis and wafting out of Charing Cross Road bookshops. Released in July 1997, Radiohead’s third album coincided with the rise of fan boys on AOL chat rooms to marshal support for a suite of grunting and in places intentionally misshapen songs that delineated a dystopia few were seeing, pre-millennium tension notwithstanding.

Ok computer radiohead year