Just for shits and grins, I’m revisiting the Radiohead, er…what can we call it now?  Genius Marketing Campaign of Epidemic Proportions? The “It’s OK to bypass record labels” Feel Good Story of the Century? (which actually won’t be true after all sometime in 2008, as DMB’s Label will be distributing their album here) Fan-Alienating Kbit Debacle? Internet Hype Overspill of the year?

Anyway, I got inspired to revisit my initial, rather cursory preview of this collection of music from viewing the controversy this CD is generating over at Last.fm. 

• OMG! IT’S THE BESTEST EVER!!!!
• GOD, THIS IS BORING!!!
• IF YOU HATE THIS, YOU ARE NOT A FAN!!!
• I AM A FAN, AND I HATE THIS!!!!
• I’M NOT A FAN, AND THIS IS TOO WEIRD FOR ME!!!!
• I’M A FAN AND THIS SOUNDS LIKE KEANE!!!!

To be honest, all of the above might be true, depending on where you may be in life.  If you constantly need to be challenged by your IPod, then OK Computer or Kid A may be up your alley (I was able to download some assorted tracks from said albums in the past couple of weeks, so as I could understand where all the online “best album since” comparisons stood, and I placed and order for downloaded from Amazon.com for OK Computer so as I can take part in that 01 and 10 experiment being touted by puddlegum.net - God, do I need a life.).  But, at this stage in my life, I need to have some mellow headphone music on occasion.  I also need to have something that I can enjoy cranking on my work PC that won’t alienate everyone else in my office.  So, I have to say, I’m really enjoying this CD.  I’m about 40 listens in.  I’m starting to memorize where the glockenspiels come in on “All I Need”.  I’m singing “Hey” along with the little kids on “15 Step”.  My spine starts to tingle on the reverse string intro on “Nude”.  My heart starts to melt (?!?!?!!?!?) when Thom Yorke croons “I don’t want to be your friend/I just want to be your lover” on “House of Cards”.  And I get dizzy hearing the shuffling drum effects on “Videotape”.

I’ve listened to OK Computer several times since I got it last night.  I listened to it in the car going to and from work, and I ran through it once again after I got home.  There’s a nervous, neurotic energy that runs through that CD that I could identify with when I was younger.  I immediately connected with the themes of alienation and disembodiment that run through the CD.  I heard, and was frankly a little bothered by, all the Pink Floyd references (because I did grow up around kids obsessed with Dark Side of the Moon, and, eventually, The Wall) And yes, I’m kicking myself for prematurely falling in love with Muse and Keane before finding where much of their sound initially came from. 

However, I found myself coming back to “In Rainbows”. 

I suppose it’s an age thing.  I’m more settled these days.  More connected with the things going on around me and in the outside world.  More fluid and adaptive.  I’m not scared, rigid, and self-absorbed as I used to be. I hear the paranoia vibe in OK Computer and I get memories of being single, insecure, disengaged.  Not that it’s a bad thing to have music recall certain times in your life, but I hear “Exit Music (from a Film)” and I get the kind of chills I’m no longer comfortable getting.

Good art is supposed to do that.  I’m not going to argue that point.  What I am going to argue that a need to change and grow is always imminent in any good rock band.  I understand that their next three albums delved in electronica, jazz, classical, and back again.  Which then leads back to the expressions noted on this CD.  As opposed to what was thrown down 10 years ago, these are guys who now feel comfortable in their skin.  And they’re not afraid to promote that thought to anyone who will listen.  Or download.

Sure, some folks may not be too happy with Thom Yorke sounding like a loved-up nihilist, but, as much as I enjoyed the song in it’s initial form, I, for one, could do without him running around with another retread of “Paranoid Android” 10 years on.

Sometimes, you have to leave your past behind to move forward.