I couldn't let the date pass without acknowledging it. Well, the release date was June 16, 1997. So it's a little over 15 years, but what an impact it made on me at the time. The day it was released we had just moved into an apartment in Virginia Beach. It was my first time living away from home. Before moving our stuff in (the stereo was first of course) we listened to the whole album sitting in the barren living room. Nothing but white walls, which matched the whiteness of the album art. We hadn't intended to listen to the whole thing at that moment, but the sound of it was enthralling and engaging. We simply couldn't stop. It was like nothing we'd heard before and very different than their previous album "The Bends." The themes of the album resonated - railing against consumer culture, greed, affluenza, yuppy culture, and urban sprawl. The snarl of Thom Yorke's vocals became anthems of that summer and beyond. While I haven't played OK Computer much in recent years, I don't really feel the need to (I still have the songs well memorized,) I still enjoy their newer material. It seems a shame now that they've been sort of shunned by hipsters because they've been successful and have sold a shit ton of records. Whenever I do hear a song from OK Computer I think of that white living room and the summer of '97.
Seems like I'm reminiscing for these days a bunch lately. Well, I guess I am. So again, for old times, here's a few of my favorites from OK Computer:
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