Chart Watch: Radiohead

Title: OK Computer (1997)
Label: Capitol
Genre: Alternative/ Industrial
Pro-Social Content: An isolated line on "Paranoid Android" states, "God loves his children."

Objectionable Content: "Exit Music (For a Film)" finds lead singer Thom Yorke waking a girl in the middle of the night to rebel against her parents and run off with him ("We hope your rules and wisdom choke you"). Anarchy and what sounds like a man's last words prior to committing suicide inhabit "No Surprises."

Summary/Advisory: According to the band's press materials, "OK Computer is a meandering, mournful, miserable celebration of loss and the unknown which aches relentlessly." Well put. The entire disc seems like the soundtrack for a despairing hallucination—dark and bleak. Even positive thoughts on "Lucky" and "Fitter Happier" seem sarcastic the way they're moaned. Don't let youngsters log onto OK Computer.

Yes, back by popular demand, it's Chart Watch. It's really hard to know where to begin with this one. Never mind that our authors clearly missed the point of one of the most important albums of the '90s, they can't even catch an obvious reference to Shakespeare. Yes, "Exit Music (For a Film)" does, in fact, tell the story of a boy and girl who decide their young love is bigger than the will of their forbidding, feuding families. Sound familiar? That's because it's not unlike the basic plot of one Romeo & Juliet, which also just so happens to be the "film" to which the song title refers. So if Thom Yorke, in his song, is encouraging the youth of today to rebel against their parents and run away, then I guess Shakespeare is further encouraging them to commit suicide. Following that logic, did you guys know that the Brothers Grimm's telling of "Little Red Cap" (more popularly known as "Little Red Riding Hood") is riddled with seriously perverse sexual overtones? Or that even the Bible itself is full of premarital sex, adultery, sodomy, incest, and murder? Nothing is safe! Parents don't ever let your children read or listen to anything ever! Keep them locked in the basement until their 31st birthday if you must!

Also, this entry contains one of my favorite closing lines ever.