"OK Computer": Classic Or Dud?

Any thoughts/opinions about the sound quality of the remaster?

After 'True Love Waits' appeared on the last album, I find it impossible to rule out any old idea appearing on a new Radiohead release. If 'Lift' suddenly appeared a couple of albums down the line in a radically different version, I wouldn't be surprised at all.

I would, now.

I need to hear that cassette.

holy shit:

But hang on, there’s more. For the utterly besotted there’s the now-customary “Super Deluxe” version, complete with a lavishly illustrated book and a C90 cassette, the contents of which appear to have gone under the radar in the run up to this release. It’s been described, with typical understatement, as a “mix of session archives”, suggesting it’s strictly for the hardcore.
And initially it feels that way; dizzying bleeps, studio found sounds, pretty but inconsequential doodling about – the sort of thing that completists listen to once and then file away. But about seven minutes in a version of Let Down emerges from the bluster, all campfire-like acoustic guitars and double-tracked, resigned and vulnerable vocals from Yorke. It suggests that the song was brought to the sessions fully-formed and is so strong that lesser bands may have left it that way, that they didn’t only emphasizes the invention and wit poured into the arrangement of the final version.

exactly. read that recordcollectormag review, there's much more of that where it came from. early versions of motion picture soundtrack, others as well.

yousendit??

yeahhh so uh who bought the deluxe edition

i miss what.cd

m/r/radiohead/comments/6ix8wv/some_details_on_contents_of_oknotok_cassette/

SIDE 1
Let Down (acoustic)
[UNKNOWN SONG WTF]
Motion Picture Soundtrack (piano acoustic)
Climbing Up the Walls (creepy little girl spoken word version)
[Karma Police sketches]
2 Fitter 2 Happier
No Surprises Please
Talk Show Host (early version)

SIDE 2
Climbing Up the Walls (trip-hop version)
[Paranoid Android sketches]
An Airbag Saved My Life
Big Ideas (Don't Get Any)
The National Anthem (early version)

[UNKNOWN SONG WTF]

I trust this is the actual title.

i don't know about everyone else but i'm approximately 100000000000% more excited about this than hearing the studio versions of i promise, big boots, and lift. nothing against those songs, but i've been listening to those since high school and went through the full cycle of obsession with them a long time ago.

i'm trying not to get my hopes up too much because i expect them to be really rough cuts, and i realize there's a reason they left these old versions behind, but i want to hear them noooowwwww

yeah i feel exactly the same. i've wanted to hear alt-arrangements of Motion Picture Soundtrack & the National Anthem for years. and iirc the rhythm track of the final version of The National Anthem was recorded during the OKC sessions, or shortly thereafter, maybe when they were putting together that Airbag EP. so this is either the Kid A base rhythm track OR an entirely different early rough version, yeahhh so who has the cassette

hopefully it'll hit soulseek at some point

listening to these c-sides on spotify, yall this band seriously DOES NOT KNOW WHAT THEIR BEST SONGS ARE i hate them so much

Lift is a song that really sneaks up on you... fucking brilliant. but another victim of Creep PTSD

haha just came here to say "lift" is the one, im not bowled over by the rest of the new three.

where is melissa w

Lift is the bomb but this new released version is pretty much identical to the one that's been floating around since 1996, just sayin''''''''''mmmm pizza

hopefully it'll hit soulseek at some point

― global tetrahedron

everything hits slsk, except apparently for the toulouse record which exists only on rym threads from 2003

"i promise" is their masterpiece; unfortunately, it contains no music.

After hearing the acoustic version of 'Motion Picture Soundtrack', I was surprised/delighted when I heard the studio version on Kid A - I'm not expecting an acoustic piano version of it to be revelatory, nor would I expect the early version of 'The National Anthem' to be much different - some different lyrics/no lyrics at all and def. no horns.

In other words, I'll take the studio versions of 'I Promise', 'Big Boots' and 'Lift' and quite happily forget about this cassette. There's nothing on there that I particularly feel any great need to hear aside from the "unknown song" ...

Now that all of these final studio recordings are available I can see why they were left off. They all sound like out takes from 'The Bends' instead of thematically part of 'O.K. Computer' and none of them improve upon their live versions ("Lift" in particular is much weaker, imo).

Reminds me a bit of "Videotape" except the final studio recording of that is so radically different that it compliments the live version quite nicely and keeps that live version a bit mythical (what would the original sound like with a proper studio take?)

The studio version of 'Videotape' is the definitive version, IMO.

my favourite Videotape arrangement is the version they've been playing live from 2008 onwards, it's a midpoint between the studio version and the 2006 version https://youtu.be/q9RnH6iXQvw

the studio cut of lift is like 10% too slow it doesn't capture the propulsive-ness of the live versions. still a good song tho probably would have been more appropriate on the bends than okc

Yeah that live version of videotape that mixes the energy of previous live versions with the syncopated rhythms of the studio version is amazing, wish that was the studio version.

listening to these c-sides on spotify, yall this band seriously DOES NOT KNOW WHAT THEIR BEST SONGS ARE i hate them so much

the counter argument to this is the HTTT era, where exactly the right songs were left as b-sides (even if maybe a couple of the album tracks should also have been left off)

i'm genuinely surprised the tape hasn't leaked yet. wasn't the release date yesterday?

yeah me too.

the box set with the tape download code isn't shipping until July

I agree about Lift being just a little too slow, it would still be one of the best songs on The Bends though

the box set with the tape download code isn't shipping until July

d'oh, thanks! i was thinking all formats shipped on the 23rd.

the counter argument to this is the HTTT era, where exactly the right songs were left as b-sides (even if maybe a couple of the album tracks should also have been left off)

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, June 24, 2017 10:51 AM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

which of these are better than songs on HTTT? i only ever heard the There There single with Paperbag Writer and Where Bluebirds Fly, the former of which I don't remember and the latter I really love but it's an instrumental - where would it go on the record?

Paperbag Writer
Where Bluebirds Fly
I Am Citizen Insane
Gaggjng Order
I Am a Wicked Child

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/23/arts/music/radiohead-ok-computer-influences-playlist.html

Odd that it doesn't site "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" as an additional reference point.

the nick lucas version?

Gagging Order is the only HTTT b-side i like, idk if a acoustic guitar + vocals only song would ever feel at home on a radiohead LP though

Simon H. is OTM - none of those songs would have fit on Hail to the Thief, which probably would benefit from being at least 3 or 4 songs shorter.

which ones would you cut?

I still don't understand how they made two records out of the 'Kid A' sessions, and on neither one were two of the best three or four tracks from the whole thing, 'Kinetic' and 'Worrywort,' both of which I feel like presage a lot of the best Radiohead work of later years. Both would be among the most successful of Yorke's stabs at "electronic" music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q906M5_Vfw

(Skip to 9:57 on that--the other b-sides were otherwise mediocre)

i'd add fog to that list, too. one of my favorite things they've ever done

still so gobsmacked that "Cuttooth" (skip to 22:45 in the video above) didn't make it on any album bcz it is def one of their strongest b-sides but also like str8 up one of their strongest songs imo??? I mean in its current form it wouldn't have fit neatly into either Kid A or Amnesiac but like just throw some crunchy glitchy electronics on it ffs

amnesiac is def the canonical "b-sides better than the album cuts" radiohead album. can't object too much with the rest of the records. yeah "talk show host" was good enough for a record but i'm not about to go out and demand they drop "sulk" to make room for "the trickster" or whatever.

i agree. but since you mention it, pulling the old switcheroo with talk show host + permanent daylight with high and dry + bulletproof would actually improve the album quite a bit imo

still so gobsmacked that "Cuttooth" (skip to 22:45 in the video above) didn't make it on any album bcz it is def one of their strongest b-sides but also like str8 up one of their strongest songs imo???

That's so funny, because seeing that compilation and hearing that track reminded me it existed, I'd hated it so much when it came out. Really presaged their sludgy thing of thinking they were riding a groove a la Can circa 'Hail to the Thief,' when really they were just plodding aimlessly. It doesn't have songcraft, it doesn't have an interesting structure, it's boringly produced, it doesn't have an interesting beat. . . Man I guess I still hate it ; )

'Fog' and 'Cuttooth' are both essential Radiohead, IMO. Sure, 'Cuttooth' is a bit rough in the recording but I love it.

There's nothing about The Bends that I would change, really... the best of the B-sides from that period would make up a very good record, though.

i ordered the box set >_<

I love Cuttooth.

bonus tape is floating around out there

Side A:
Zx sprectrum symphony
AMS Hello
True Love Tape Loop
Let Down (Thom 4Track)
I may be paranoid but not an andoroid...
Attention (Thom 4Track)
Noise sketch by Nigel
Climbing up the walls (Abbey Road Strings)
Someone help this guy..
Motion Picture Soundtrack solo piano
Was that recording
The jumbled words of climbing up the walls read by little Dan Clements
Lull (ed guitar infinite reverb)
Airbag Drums through Moog
Karma Police in space echo
Karma Police voice through telephonbe
(Talking)
Piano sketch by Jonny
Bid bird story by Stanley Donwood
No surprises (first idea from soundcheck somewhere)
Radio chaser noise
Fridge Buzz
True Love Space Loop
(Talking)
Are you Someone?

Side B:
Nigel AMS Delay
Jonnys Radio from Climbing up the walls
Climbing up the walls (Thom 4track)
A piano lies down in the middle of the road
Transposing Noise sketch by Nigel
Early paranoid android version by Jonny and Thom
Alternative Paranoid Android ending live in Pittsburg
Airbag early acoustic version
(Talking)
Paranoid Android Loud Room at St Catherines
Nigel AMS paranoid guitar sample
Nude early band version
The national anthem (Thom 4 track)
Ambient Loops
Man of WEar live in Montpellier
Nigel AMS delay again
Thoms acoustic as microphone in Climbing up the Walls
Ok Computer program