It’s exceedingly rare to enjoy the 1-2-punch of creating an album that is instantaneously both a critical and commercial success, but in 1997 Radiohead accomplished such a feat with OK Computer. To create something so different, so …. “odd” yet so beautiful — especially in the midst of such chart-topping offerings as the Spice Girls, LeAnn Rimes and Mariah Carey — speaks to what a pivot OK Computer truly was. The album has remained a critical favorite — and even one that seemed to predict a future of humans beholden to technology while drifting away from one another. The songs are weird; the videos were weirder, but it all worked — and still does today. Wrote one reviewer after having a couple decades of reflection: “Each decade has its own ‘Sgt. Pepper’; a record that comes along and breaks with tradition to change the trajectory of music entirely and OK Computer was it for the 90s.”

You can listen to OK Computer by Radiohead on iTunes, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, and Amazon. 

 

On our first “Underrated Albums” epipod, we’re sharing two albums that are scandalously under-appreciated. This is the opposite of the pretentious indie rocker touting an album no one would understand even if they could find it. These are albums we’re  dying for the world to hear. For whatever reason, these gems didn’t make it into everyone’s CD catalog or playlist, but it’s never too late. 

References in this Epipod:

You can buy Oh Tall Tree In The Ear by Roman candle online at Bandcamp, or listen to Queen Sarah Saturday on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, and Amazon. You can listen to Roman Candle on those platforms as well, but just go buy it. 

 

It’s frankly one of the great mysteries in music: Why isn’t the English band Elbow more popular in the United States? After all, this band of longtime friends has produced some of the most captivating sounds and albums for more than two decades. Their 2008 album, “The Seldom Seen Kid,” even won the Mercury Prize for best album in the UK – topping giants such as Radiohead, Adele, and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. Singer Guy Garvey’s poetic longing is fully embraced by the sonic backing of the rest of Elbow, resulting in anthemic and haunting masterpieces such as “Starlings” and “One Day Like This,” while also featuring grooves like “Grounds for Divorce,” “The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver” and so much more.

References in this Epipod:

You can buy or stream The Seldom Seen Kid by Elbow online at iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, and Amazon.