Reflections on Radiohead (fitter....happier....more productive)

'OK computer' by Radiohead last night won the Channel 4 'greatest album of all time' as voted for by viewers. Now whether this is actually the greatest album ever is debatable (I was happier about U2 getting second place),but I've got it in my collection and I have to say it is one of the most daring, original, complex and just plain weird albums of all time. For one thing it is almost unrelentingly sad-this is the band that was chosen to write and perform the song that ends the 1996 film version of 'Romeo and Juliet' after all (the result is possibly one of the saddest songs ever written and very chilling as well) the entire album is one hell of a mindtrip from the exhilaration of surviving a car crash, mental illness, black humor, depression, corrupt politicians, the IMF, the futility and monotony of daily living, clueless tourists, the desire to conform, capitalism...there's so much here that by the end of it you just feel completely drained but strangely uplifted. Still, its not for everyone (My brother stopped it at the second song saying "This is just too depressing!"). Non-fans would probably find this the most depressing music they have ever heard but music works in weird ways. It's funny because although I am fundamentally a very happy person I seem to be attracted to this kind of music quite a lot, Coldplay being another good example. Then again, no one does melancholy music quite like the British.
"For a minute there....I lost myself"