OK Computer

Oh, man. I just got OK Computer by Radiohead. Not "got" as in purchased or acquired, but "got" as in grasped, comprehended, understood, and appreciated. What an amazing album. It is and does so many things at once. I was just listening to it tonight, and it hit me. BAM! This is an incredible work of genius. Perhaps I was never able to fully appreciate this album before because I wasn't aware of its scope within the history of rock 'n' roll. But now, with all the classic rock I've been listening to and stuff, with a sense of the span and history of rock inside my head, I listened to it again and realized that OK Computer changes rock music forever. Here I am, with my favorite band being the Beatles, and Radiohead with this album has made them, and all other rock bands more or less irrelevent. OK Computer is a quantum leap forward in sound because it makes all other guitar rock, even the rock from their own previous records like Pablo Honey, sound odd. It makes them sound antiquated. Radiohead makes Beatles songs sound quaint, childishly amusing, and slightly irrelevent the way the rock & roll revolution made jazz sound quaint, amusing, and slightly irrelevent. Radiohead's music reveals the standard electric guitar sound as antique, the way the electric guitar revealed the acoustic guitar sound as antique in the late 1960s. OK Computer truly changes rock music. I can't believe they did it in 1997, and it took me this long to realize. I guess when I am an old grandfather, I will be trying to show my grandkids CDs of the Beatles or something, and they will listen to it oddly, in the way your grandmother might try to get you to listen to some Louis Armstrong right now.

Man. I need to listen to this album again.