3/20/2023 0 Comments Rating of ok computer radiohead![]() Selway is God.Īt first, this song was a bit of an anti-climax for me – after the dazzling, multi-textured guitar assault of OKC’s first eleven tracks, a sleepy, simply-structured ballad seemed like a drab way to close it out. I generally associate Radiohead songs with a whiny Thom Yorke and Johnny’s mastery, but the only thing I associate “Electioneering” with is drums. Did Godrich get Janet Weiss to sit in? Selway pounds his cowbell to within an inch of its life, and he actually gets a rare chance to act out his Peart-ian fantasies with actual fills like the thunderous bridge at the 2:50 mark and the series of skull-crushers throughout the tune’s final minute. Granted, the song wouldn’t sound so utterly evil without Johnny Greenwood’s inexplicably crude honky-tonk riff, but no other song in the Radiohead catalog can boast a backbeat like this. Rock nerds like to get drunk, and when they do, they often end up engaging in the seemingly never ending debate of: “who’s the most disposable member of Radiohead?” I always argue Colin Greenwood, but the posse usually ends up deciding on Ed O’Brien (“handsome dude whose contributions are non-existent save the death wail in the final minute of live versions of ‘Lucky’”) or drummer Phil Selway (“c’mon, he’s the drummer”). This is probably my least favorite song on OK Computer, much in the same way that “Falling For You” is my ‘least favorite’ song on Pinkerton or Miss February was my least favorite playmate from 2002. ![]() Plus, c’mon, it’s a two-minute track of a computer talking nestled in the center of the best album of the ‘90s. Wizard behind all of this, giving it an eerie combination of computer whirs and samples. “Fitter Happier” encapsulates everything that Thom Yorke is raging against on this album: computers, conformity, fascism, emotional emptiness, pragmatism over idealism, and the cruelty of modern life. ![]() ![]() Sure, it may not be a song, per se, and it’s sure a hell of a downer coming off “Karma Police,” but then again that’s sort of the point. There were those among the staff who thought that perhaps this should be made into a top 11 songs of OK Computer, saving anybody from having to write about “Fitter Happier.” These people overlook the fact that “Fitter Happier” is integral to the success of the album. ![]()
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