#162 OK Computer - Radiohead

I think in order to appreciate Radiohead, your brain has to operate at a frequency two notches below depression and about two notches above suicide.  Mine operates at constant anxiety, which is about 5 notches above depression, so I felt mostly anxious for the album to finish the first time through.  I kept checking to see how many more songs I had left and for the most part I was getting frustrated.  However, the second time, I think they finally got to me and lowered my anxiety level substantially and by the time I got to "Let Down" I was in tune to the right frequency and finally began to enjoy Radiohead while I contemplated my depression and/or suicide.  I didn't really imagine me killing myself, but moreso my funeral.  and people talking about how "Let Down" was playing on repeat when she did it.  however I'd do it.  

If your brain isn't already in tune to the right frequency for Radiohead (probably why they named their band this?!) they are not something you can just pick up.  I think you have to acclimate to them, but now I am listening to them at my own free will while I type this, and they really have grown on me and I look forward to the other album of theirs that made the list.

I joke, the album is really good.  But I won't lie that I had a hard time listening to them at first.  I started a job today, to support my new blogging hobby (haha), and I had to drive an hour and thirty minutes on a small texas highway out to the middle of nowhere.  It's a great time to listen to music, but maybe not radiohead because the band uses all these strange noises throughout the album and I kept thinking I was getting pulled over by a cop.

My favorite songs are "No Surprises," "Let Down," and "Karma Police."  I suggest you listen to them when you are having a bad day, not when you are starting a new job.  

I also thought it was badass that they alluded to bob dylan with "subterranean homesick alien" or maybe that phrase goes further back than bob.  what do I know, clearly, I don't know anything about music.  :)

oh, and this album was released in 1997.

Blurbbbb from Rolling Stone's mag/web and visual aids for myyyyyy visual learners: 

Radiohead recorded their third album in the mansion of actress Jane Seymour while she was filming Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. OK is where the band began pulling at its sound like taffy, seeing what happened, not worrying if it was still "rock." What results is a slow, haunting album with unforgettable tracks such as "Karma Police." Said guitarist Jonny Greenwood, "I got very excited at the prospect of doing string parts that didn't sound like 'Eleanor Rigby,' which is what all string parts have sounded like for the past thirty years. . . . We used violins to make frightening white-noise stuff, like the last chord of 'Climbing Up the Walls.'"