Radiohead: Welcome to the Machine: OK Computer and the Death of the Classic Album

by Tim Footman

Considered one of the defining albums of the 1990s, Radiohead’s OK Computer was released at a pivotal point in music history—during one of the last years when an album was meant to be listened to in its entirety and songs were not yet available for individual download. This guide provides track-by-track dissection of every song produced during the OK Computer recording sessions, including B-sides, and illustrates how the 1997 album is a collection of songs purposefully placed next to one another. Themes prevalent on the album—such as fear of the new millennium, paranoia, political sloganeering, and suicide—and its artistic and political influences are explored, while discussions of the state of the music industry during the album’s release provide rare insight into the improbability of a similarly phenomenal record ever being created.  

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

About the author

Tim Footman (born 1968) is an English author, journalist and editor. He was educated at Churcher's College, Appleby College in Canada, the University of Exeter, and Birkbeck University.
He is the author of a number of books about popular music, including Welcome to the Machine: OK Computer and the Death of the Classic Album, a study of Radiohead's groundbreaking 1997 album OK Computer and its impact on contemporary music. He also contributed a chapter on Baudrillard and Radiohead to the volume Radiohead and Philosophy. His most recent books are The Noughties 2000-2009: A Decade That Changed the World and Leonard Cohen: Hallelujah - A New Biography.
His work has appeared in The Guardian, Mojo, Time Out, Prospect, the Bangkok Post, The National, the Sunday Post, Yorkshire Post, BBC Online, CNNGo, Drowned in Sound, Careless Talk Costs Lives, Aeon, Zembla, Twill and the International Journal of Baudrillard Studies. He is a contributor to the Guardian's comment website Comment is Free and the Prospect blog First Drafts. He appeared in the BBC2 documentary TV series History of Now (2010) and the Arte documentary film The World According to Radiohead (2019).
From 1999 to 2001, he was the editor of Guinness World Records, during which time its emphasis became markedly more light-hearted. Before this he was editor of the PUSH Guide to University.
He has made appearances on several UK television and radio quiz show including Mastermind, University Challenge, The Weakest Link, Brain of Britain, Counterpoint and Win Beadle's Money.

Reviews

[Robbie Bruens]

A phenomenally dumb book with a tendency to shoehorn every conceivable reference while aping the conversational style of erstwhile music critics turned littérateurs Nick Hornby and Chuck Klosterman with none of their charm, intelligence or wit. Almost entirely devoid of insight, while occasionally offering up actual anti-insights, such as the mistaken idea that all Radiohead super fans are invariably male (half or more of those that I know are female) and some weird idea about how Thom Yorke should do more housework. I wouldn't have finished the thing were it not for my fascination with even the most banal Radiohead trivia.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

if my husband ever dies, thom yorke can count me as a stalker...

[Alex Is dumb · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s an ok book
Needs some motivation to read through it
Especially after talking about the songs
Maybe bc the book is released before OKNOTOK released but he didn’t talked about man of war which is sad but kinda understandable
All in all it’s an average book
Not really the best but not the worst book I read

[J P Atmaka · Rating 5 out of 5]

who the fuck is radiohead?

Separuh bagian buku ini bercerita mengenai perjalanan thom cs membentuk band yg rutin memproduksi suara suara low selfesteem bernama radiohead. sebagian lagi mengenai uraian lagu demi lagu dalam album OK Computer yang memang menjadi fokus buku ini.

I want a perfect body.
I want a perfect soul.
—Radiohead, ‘Creep’

single creep, sebagai single breaktrough mereka. seketika menjadi anthem setiap individu introvert london. pablo honey kemudian di rilis oleh perusahaan rekaman legendaris parlophone. namun setiap orang yang mengharapkan lagu yang serupa "creep" jelas akan menemui kekecewaan. album selanjutnya the bends, radiohead mengakui mereka menyusun track by track sebisa mungkin menjauhi apa yang sudah di kerjakan di pablo honey. john leckie, yang mendengar ep dari "my iron lunge" berpikir jika mereka semakin grunge dan mencolok sekali sebagai sebuah band jawaban inggris atas nirvana. john leckie, yang notabene terkenal setelah memproduseri album awal jimmie hendrix, pink floyd "meddle", dan beberapa band post punk macam the fall, mencoba mengembangkan visi radiohead dalam album ke dua mereka. dan tak aneh jika sound yang terdengar adalah, space rock. EMI dengan personil ke enam radiohead (nigel godrich) bekerja keras membidani OK Computer. di rilis tahun 1997. yang oleh beberapa kritikus musik di nobatkan sebagai album terbaik selama satu dkade terakhir. 3 lagu pembuka, adalah suara suara yang luar biasa, komposisi yang belum pernah terdengar dalam album rekaman manapun. komentar NME.

di buku ini juga ada cerita menarik mengenai di curi nya band equipment mereka di tengah tour the bends. cerita mengenai jatuh nya thom di panggung, cedera nya lengan kana johnny yang membuat nya harus menggunakan brace yang malah jadi trademark dia saat tampil di glastonburry festival.

saya baru membaca sebagian dari buku ini :p . tapi buku ini cukup rekomended, banyak hal baru yang bisa di dapat dari radiohead, yang akan luput hanya dengan mendengarkan saja.

[Googoogjoob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful background information on how the album was made; but most of the book is comprised of analysis- a track by track analysis of the album, analysis of how it was presented and marketed, analysis of the tracks that got left off the album, readings of the album as a whole, analysis of the critical response to the album, an overview of cover versions of its songs. It's alright, and Footman is intelligent and usually articulate, but it suffers in that he's clearly approaching it as a big fan, determined to seek out every last implication and resonance he can get out of this record. Really, this is much more attention than the album probably deserves, and something like half of the analysis is tiresome eisegesis.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pedestrian prose, but adequately argued case for OK COMPUTER as the "last classic rock album". Somethign else to blame KID A for!

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read, if for subject only. Found myself getting anxious for the book to end. Felt like the author was afraid to draw conclusions.