7. Radiohead Paranoid Android
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnfXvPBV1dA&feature=kp Radiohead were already a mighty proposition before they released their third album and masterpiece, OK Computer. Songs such as Just and Street Spirit were tremendous slices of guitar rock, but Paranoid Android, the first single from OK Computer took them to a place that only they could occupy, and as much as they dismiss the comparison it was into a world that was the equal of that which Pink Floyd occupied in the 70s, isolated, experimental and world-weary. Ironically whilst they moved as far away from mainstream guitar music as they possibly could with this song, it also provided them their biggest hit single of their career at that point. Ostensibly they conspired to do everything they could to make the song as commercially unpalatably as they could, it has no discernable chorus, the video was a very strange, a cartoon that they commissioned by cult animator Magnus Carlsson, who was given an instrumental version of the song to work with but no vocals or lyrics. Bizarrely, his film nailed the theme of the song. In its near seven minutes duration they managed to compress three different songs they had into one and make it into a seamless whole. If one was asked to guess where the song would go after hearing the opening bars, not for one second could it be predicted that the listener would be taken on a tour of a world that includes space rock, prog, ambient noise, monk-like chanting, heavy metal and a touch of folk. Lyrically it got the isolation felt by the disaffected of the 90s spot on, with political anger of Ambition makes you look pretty ugly, kicking and squealing Gucci little piggy. The song ends with the apocalyptic line The dust and the screaming, the yuppies networking, the panic, the vomit, the panic, the vomit, God loves his children, God loves his children, yeah! If there was any doubt about where Radioheads political allegiance was prior to this, well now it was abundantly clear that they were no fans of capitalism. This was a disaffected classic.
Ed Nash
Contributor
What makes music fantastic? Star quality, amazing music, breathtaking lyrics and the ability to bring something new to the table, even if that means a new take on the classics. That's what I love to listen to and write about.
As well as writing for What Culture, I occasionally write a blog http://tedney.blogspot.co.uk and sometimes use Twitter, but sparingly @TedneyNash
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