Board 8 > Rank the Tracks Week 10: Radiohead's OK Computer (plus Achtung Baby results)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've missed the past two weeks because I started a new job and am still getting into the swing of things. I listened to the album from those weeks each once but not actively enough to rank. I'll probably end up doing the same with this week as well.

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1. Paranoid Android
2. Exit Music (For a Film)
3. Airbag
4. Let Down
5. Karma Police
6. Electioneering
7. Lucky
8. No Surprises
9. Subterranean Homesick Alien
10. Climbing Up the Walls
11. The Tourist
12. Fitter Happier

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ChainLTTP posted...

I think Joshua Tree would have garnered more tbh

I'd be worried about the votals for these through the summer:

5/16: Alice in Chains - Dirt (ZeroSignal620)
6/27: Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell (Seanchan)
7/11: Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid (TheArkOfTurus)
7/25: Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters (CasanovaZelos)
8/15: Ben Folds Five - Ben Folds Five (jcgamer107)

you have my sword for Dirt and Meat Loaf


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ChainLTTP posted...

I'd be worried about the votals for these through the summer:

5/16: Alice in Chains - Dirt (ZeroSignal620)

I feel like betting against a big 4 grunge band is foolishness. Like it probably wont do as well as Nevermind but board 8 will likely be happy with any of them.

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Huh, Dirt has four songs with more Spotify plays than anything off Achtung Baby besides "One." I would have never expected that.

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CasanovaZelos posted...

Huh, Dirt has four songs with more Spotify plays than anything off Achtung Baby besides "One." I would have never expected that.

Offhand guessing Rooster, Would?, Them Bones, and Down in a Hole

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Karma Police
Paranoid Android
No Surprises
Let Down
Exit Music (For A Film)
Electioneering
Airbag
Subterranean Homesick Alien
Climbing Up the Walls
Lucky
The Tourist
Fitter Happier


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1. Airbag
2. Paranoid Android
3. No Surprises
4. Exit Music (For a Film)
5. Let Down
6. Subterranean Homesick Alien
7. Lucky
8. The Tourist
9. Karma Police
10. Fitter Happier
11. Climbing Up the Walls
12. Electioneering

For me, Radiohead's hot streak from The Bends through Kid A is one of the most impressive in all of music, with every track on all three albums being nothing short of excellent. OK Computer might actually be my least-favorite of the three, but even so it's one of those albums where it feels bad to have to choose a song to put in last place.

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I've fallen in love with Karma Police again after so many years.
How can Thom Yorke can sing a word like "payroll" and make it strike the heart with such emotion!?
What a voice...

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Hm

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1. Lucky
2. Exit Music (For a Film)
3. Karma Police
4. Electioneering
5. The Tourist
6. No Surprises
7. Paranoid Android
8. Let Down
9. Airbag
10. Subterranean Homesick Alien
11. Climbing Up the Walls
12. Fitter Happier

I will maintain I am generally positive on this album though I don't have anywhere near the reverence that I think a lot of the people in this topic do. I also found it really hard to do this ranking and I suspect this might be a very different ordering if I did more listens.

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1. Paranoid Android - It's hard to choose a favorite between the first four songs, because OK Computer has such an incredible start. PA does a little of everything, leaping from acoustic to grunge to whatever the fuck is happening in that last minute.
2. Exit Music (For a Film) - The biggest surprise of the album, as the previous three songs were all great, but I thought it might have finally hit a dip in the beginning of track 4. Then the deep background vocals come in, then the drums and distorted guitar at around 3 minutes in, leading to perhaps my favorite moment of the album in the last minute of the song.
3. Airbag - what a fucking way to start an album
4. Subterranean Homesick Alien
5. Karma Police - the only song I knew going in, because of course I did. Listening to it in context of the rest of the album is a much different experience though, because I actually didn't like it quite as much as the album's opening tracks, though I can really appreciate the interesting midpoint having Karma Police/Fitter Happier here creates. Great song either way.
6. Lucky
7. Let Down
8. Climbing Up the Walls
9. Electioneering - this is literally just a Muse song and no one can tell me otherwise
10. Fitter Happier - this is basically a skit so it's kind of hard to rank, but it still sounds good and fits well within the greater album.
11. The Tourist
12. No Surprises - Probably the only song on the album I'm outright consider "not good." Boring, repetitive, and just kind of unnecessary.

Overall I really dug this album, way more than I thought I would. It's got a little bit of grunge, a little bit of electronic, and heavy dose of rock, all with Thom Yorke's iconic voice. I will say the album definitely has a quality dip about halfway through. Everything leading up to and including Karma Police is excellent, but after Fitter Happier, it feels a little more generic, though it's still not without it's highlights.

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Last chance to get your votes in

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Jesse_Custer posted...

I highly doubt Joshua Tree would have gotten more participation.

I probably would have ranked Joshua Tree, for what little that's worth. Having that one song (Where the Streets Have No Name) I'm already quite fond of makes a big difference, not to mention a sound that's generally more to my taste. Anyways, my standard three full listen-throughs in, never having heard any of these songs before:

1. Fitter Happier
2. Exit Music (For a Film)
3. Paranoid Android
4. No Surprises
5. Let Down
6. Subterranean Homesick Alien
7. Karma Police
8. Climbing Up the Walls
9. Airbag
10. Electioneering
11. Lucky
12. The Tourist

Believe it or not, I do actually like OK Computer - it's just not quite my type of music and probably a bit beyond the level on which I tend to engage with the medium. It's certainly an unusually inventive 90s alt-rock concept piece, focused yet divergent at once, with enough depth (lyrically and sonically alike) to help me grasp why it's become such a critical and music-nerd touchstone. And of course the sense of anomie and ennui, of things being perfectly normal and yet horribly off all at once, encapsulated within speaks to me - now in particular.

This will probably be the last week I participate in for a while now that my life's finally looking to get busy.

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Oh shit gimme like an hour or two I just woke up I do wanna write these tracks up
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ah you know what fuck it I don't have time

1. Climbing Up The Walls
2. Let Down
3. Karma Police
4. Airbag
5. Lucky
6. Exit Music
7. Paranoid Android
8. Subterranean Homesick Alien
9. The Tourist
10. Electioneering
11. No Surprises
12. Fitter, Happier
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Up now, calculating the results

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