But both songs, despite their genre trappings, feel like the band is thinking completely out of the box.īy the time the album is over with The Tourist (which has a number of small flourishes that call back to earlier songs on the record, if you’re looking for them), it feels like you’ve been on a journey that went well outside comfortable rock music. Electioneering was some of the last “typical” stadium rock they ever made. Karma Police was the last time that Radiohead would write a “typical” radio-friendly song. Exit Music (For a Film) stands on its own, and on lesser records, would be considered a standout track. Muse wasn’t around in 1997 (and frankly, Muse is garbage next to Radiohead and has never compared). They had also never made anything so daring.Ĭonsider Exit Music (For a Film): the backing track initially appears to be solely a guitar, and eventually is filled in with a choir. It’s that they never made a record that felt so important, or so consistently impressive. It’s not that Radiohead hadn’t made good music before - I have a couple friends who insist that The Bends was the best alt-rock record of the 90s. The album, as a statement, was deeply surprising for Radiohead. (I’d reference a single track, but there are so many when they do this.) While their rage is sometimes felt through raw power ( Paranoid Android’s guitar parts are mind-numbing), they’re just as often likely to explore nuances within electronics and instrumental manipulation. It’s a typically sad Radiohead record, but it’s also incredibly angsty: the band’s palpable irritation with the world is matched perhaps only by Nirvana’s Nevermind.Īnd it sounds like they’re angry about everything: technology, trains, police, the upcoming new millennium ( OK Computer was released in 1997), and… Well, so much more. OK Computer has an edge to it than Radiohead’s previous work, even at their most depressing ( Creep, My Iron Lung, or Sulk), simply does not have.

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