After many years of
young fans and assorted bright acolytes telling me that I must have a
listen to Radiohead's "Okay Computer" to experience one of the most
important rock (or post-rock) albums ever committed to the ways of digital
distribution, I finally did so, a close listen (or at least an earnest one),
and found their enterprise. Far less the game changer claimed by defenders, it
never distinguished itself from the other skeins of slow-coursing sludge that
one finds at the extra musical margins. It's Super Mope, the mostly unassembled
tunes framed by accidental associations of chord, tempo, tuning. I've
absolutely no doubt that Radiohead worked diligently, night and day, for hours
and hours until there were no more hours, to make sure "Ok Computer"
was as close to their ideal before they released it into the wild. That, sadly,
does not make this an enjoyable or anything less than irritating. Few things in
music listening are trying to some make sense of some feeble ideas that sound
labored over. And yes, there are lyrics, and awful ones, to match the dopey
dissonance Radiohead favors. Writing from the center of a depression one cannot
shake is an honored tradition, at least in 20th Century American and British
poetry, with the works of John Berryman, Plath, Lowell and too many others to
mention attest. And certainly, manic lows are the source of a good many lyric
writers who sought to write their way out of a bad head space. Their collective
goal was, if one can use such a presumptuous term, was to leave something after
them that would remain as art, instances of inspired writing, even if they
failed to alleviate a malaise. Radiohead's rhymes, half rhymes and no rhymes seem more symptoms than wit, more
fidgeting with a notebook and pen than a focused attempt to get at a fleeting
set of moods or insights that won't quite lend themselves to common speech.
It's a generational thing, I'm sure, and I reveal my age without having to tell
you, but it actually is a matter of having seen this before, heard this before,
having had this discussion before. The last five decade are crowded with
thousands of nameless creatures at the margins of popular culture, convinced of
their genius but unsure what that self-diagnosed brilliance consists of. The
difference is that Radiohead caught a break. Well, good for them on that score.
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