 The new definitive edition to a seminal record |
| Review Date: May 17, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Aria Murasaka, http://muses-garden.blogspot.com |
There’s little that could be added to everything that’s been written in the 12 years since OK Computer, Radiohead’s third and most celebrated album so far, was first released. I wouldn’t hesitate to say that this is the last essential album in the history of pop-rock to this day (by “essential”, I mean that it’s had such a profound influence this side of pop-rock that you can clearly identify a “before” and an “after” OK Computer, and that said influence is still evident more than a decade later; and while this is particularly true in Great-Britain, that influence has long since extended beyond). There is also little doubt that in it they’ve taken that style of music as far as it could be taken, before thoroughly smashing through that limit with their following “Kid A” and “Amnesiac”. Is it their best album though? Well, you’re likely to get very different answers if you were to ask fans at any of the band’s concerts (and personally, I prefer both “Kid A” and “In Rainbows”, which music sounds more “free” to me somehow, for lack of a better word), but the relevance of OK Computer, its seminality, cannot be disputed
I however wanted to write a few lines on this specific 2CD + DVD pack re-release of OK Computer. In all fairness, the whole thing and its tag price are actually very decent, unlike EMI’s previous attempt at cashing on the band’s back catalogue, namely the “Best of”: if you are new to Radiohead, do yourself a favor, forget the latter and buy the former instead. Even if it only represents one chapter of their musical adventures, the addition of another CD containing most of this era’s B-sides on top of the album itself and a DVD, reminds us of one major aspect of Radiohead’s music: their albums form a whole, where the songs and their order are carefully thought through and executed, and only reveal themselves fully when listened to as such. Typically, no matter how remarkable most original B-sides titles are (with special mentions to “Meeting in The Aisle” and “How I made my Millions”), it is unthinkable to replace any song on the album itself with one of them, or add one or more to the original 12-songs listing
As for the DVD, there is relatively little material: the video clips to “Paranoid Android”, “Karma Police” and “No Surprises”, as well as 3 songs performed live on Later with Jools Holland, BBC2′s evening show. They could all be found elsewhere before, which is also true of the B-sides, but having them all together in a relatively small box and for a reasonable price is definitely convenient, making it a good buy for the completists, those who had some of the songs/recordings missing from their collection, as well as those new to Radiohead and who didn’t have OK Computer before – even though it’s a little more expensive than the album on its own or just the two CDs (which is pretty logical considering!), this is definitely worth every buck and the edition you should go for
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This is worth buying just for the bonus tracks!
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| Review Date: June 13, 2009 |
| Reviewer: J. Christensen, |
| I bought OK Computer a long time ago. I loved it. I listened to it so much that I wore the CD out a little. I thought it would be worth the extra few dollars to get all the extras that come with this edition. I was right! This is a fantastic collection – especially the second cd. If you’re not sure or on the fence and are a big Radiohead fan, buy it!! You won’t regret it. |
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