There’s no better way to make yourself feel old than to watch all your favourite cultural milestones grow old with you, and here we’ve got a good one. Radiohead’s seminal (and often considered best) album OK Computer has turned 25 today. The album that put a little bit of everything into the alternative rock genre, from jazz to progressive-rock inklings, is now a quarter of a century-old – just think about it.
And you can bet the importance isn’t lost on the band’s members either. Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien posted a long message on Instagram, recounting the days when they were making the album and working their way towards becoming one of the most respected musical forces out there.
He described the time as feeling “like an age away.. 1997 belonged to a different era .. we were just kids.. with unswerving focus and drive”. There are also some special insights into the creative process behind the album, noting certain influences such as Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew (1970), The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds (1966) and Portishead.
Also, if you’ve ever wondered how the album managed its distinctive sound, the answer may lie in geography. O’Brien notes some of the unusual places the band found to record in, such as “inside a vast metal box for storing apples … [or] the magical St Catherine’s Court owned by Jane Seymour“. So if you’re trying to record some music and can’t find yourself a proper studio, don’t bother – they’re overrated apparently.
O’Brien had some kind words to say about long-term Radiohead collaborator (and currently working with The Smile) Nigel Godrich, who helped co-produce the album: “he did a beautiful job .. think it was his first production work .. we knew he was the one”. They were right – Godrich’s been a mainstay in their production credits ever since, right up until their most recent album A Moon Shaped Pool (2016).
And if he’s being this nice about their co-producer, he might as well say something about his fellow bandmates, referring to them as his “Brothers, Philip, Colin, Jonny and Thom .. All love“.
Despite a lack of new studio LPs as of recent, it’s not like Radiohead’s members have been starving the public of new music as of late. O’Brien’s debut solo album Earth was released back in 2020 and was followed by a brief tour in North America before Covid cut it short. It received good marks from the likes of NME, whose 4-star review said it proves O’Brien to be the band’s “secret weapon“.
As for Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, they went along and made themselves a nice new band with drummer Tom Skinner (of Sons of Kemet). The Smile released their debut album last week, titled A Light for Attracting Attention and more of which you can read about here. They also began a European tour last Monday. They may be getting older, but that doesn’t mean the music has to stop just yet.
