The crossroads Radiohead found themselves at in the wake of The Bends' success is well documented; after touring heavily (including some well attended North American dates opening for Alanis Morissette) in support of that album, the group were poised for superstardom; all they had to do was build on the momentum, bang out a hit single or two, and that would be enough to make them household names. They'd done well with The Bends though and, as such, were given free reign to make their next move however they liked.
Well, anyone with even a passing familiarity with OK Computer understands that what Radiohead chose to do was risky and counter-intuitive to what their label desired of them. That next move ended up being a challenging, tense masterwork that broke Radiohead through not with catchy hits but with sheer artistic evolution; while its songs are permeated into the mainstream subconscious now, twenty years ago this was a bold statement, a stubborn about face from convention and a fearless journey into a frightening, uncertain future.
If the B-sides released in that era of the band spoke of anything, it's that there may have been a different plan in the beginning of the sessions. There is still some of that same weirdness, paranoia and dark ideas on the songs that made up the back end of OK Computer's singles, but there were also hints of brightness, tentatively colourful brush strokes among the shades of grey. The shimmering melodies that run through Lull, the piercing synth that forms the backbone of Melatonin, the pure swagger of Pearly*, all glimpses into a world where Radiohead may have actually attempted to conform, to reach for the stars instead of retreating inward. Perhaps, one could ponder, the tunes simply weren't up to snuff, so it was decided to go in the completely different direction that eventually led to OK Computer.
The thing is, with the three previously unreleased tracks included here, another possibility seems more likely; that's because these three songs, performed live a handful of times but otherwise kept under lock and key for two decades, just could have been too effective in their mainstream aspirations.
Can you imagine a world where, in lieu of Paranoid Android, our first taste of Radiohead's third album was the vibrant, slow building anthem Man of War? Or the plaintive, earnest ballad I Promise? Or, indeed, the highly melodic and orchestral Lift? Any one of these might have garnered more airplay, sold more records, and/or made them one of the most popular rock bands in the mainstream. In an alternate universe, maybe they went ahead down this path, ultimately releasing The Bends II, becoming massive, and fizzling out a few years later; or, perhaps, they remained as big as they are or even bigger. That's the thing about alternate universes; we're not in them, so we don't know.
What we do know is, as thrilling and massive as these tunes are, there's no way they actually fit alongside the songs that ended up forming OK Computer; besides, since it went on to become the universally lauded achievement in modern music it's known as today, any speculation about how it all happened or what songs could have been added or dropped is kind of a moot point; still, it's fun to think about how different things could have been if Radiohead had allowed their commercial aspirations to outweigh their artistic aspirations. The eleven songs included as extras on OK Computer's reissue (and especially the trio of unearthed songs) give us a peek down the path of least resistance and, while they point to a future of massive success, the bleak and uncertain portrayal of the future we were ultimately delivered ended up to be much more rewarding from an artistic standpoint and, truth be told, much more accurate from a societal standpoint.
June 23, 2017 • XL
Highlights I Promise • Man of War • Lift
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