Abbey Road Studios, @StanleyDonwood
Cryptic new posters were released in cities around the world including London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Melbourne, and New York City. The #MoreFear series featured lyrics from the Radiohead magnum opus OK Computer, with the dates 1997 2017. With the upcoming 20th anniversary of the album’s release on May 21, 1997, the posters ignited buzz of a re-issue.
As if an in interstellar burst, Radiohead is back to save the universe. OKNOTOK 1997 2017 is the answer to those fan frenzied prayers. The reissue pairs the original OK Computer 12 track album with eight B-sides and three never-released tracks, all re-mastered from the original analogue tapes. Song that are ingrained in memory like ‘Lucky’ and ‘Karma Police,’ are now joined by three new tracks are ‘I Promise’, ‘Man of War,' and ‘Lift.’ The new three have long been part of the Radiohead set list, with recorded performances as early as 1995, they simply never got the studio treatment (earlier versions of 'Man of War' are known as 'Big Boots'). As for the B-sides, they feel familiar, like old friends who’ve always orbited around one another but avoided ever getting too close: ‘Melatonin,’ ‘Polyethylene,’ and ‘Pearly.’
Radiohead albums and songs are cemented in time, nearly unspeakably intimate and personal. Their albums that can’t be plucked through for their hits but must be absorbed, absolutely from beginning to end like an opus, a dark, alienated, skeptical, digital angst filled, information overload opus. Radiohead albums become a part of the listener’s soundtrack. As for the OK Computer reissue, if feels new, as if it’s been waiting for me to catch up all along.