When Rock Critics Go Bad

.

.

My daughter Margeaux and I were in the Asian Arts Center the other day to check out an exhibition by contemporary female Vietnamese artists. That's not completely true-- we went there, as we do whenever she's in town, because of its quiet, understated beauty, and the solace it offers from the hectic pace of downtown Dallas. This exhibit was new, and a pleasant surprise, with works ranging from jagged portraiture to delicate brush and ink renderings that captured the breeze dancing on brooks better than any photo ever could.

.

When Margeaux views a piece, she quietly inhales it, letting it wash over her to interpret it according to her own life experiences. She never attempts to second-guess the artist's original intent, and she has no patience for those who do. That explains why when the volunteer tour guides appeared from nowhere, we hastily retreated to the second floor of the Center, to further peruse Chinese and Indian antiquities in a more meditative environment.

.

In a roundabout way, it also explains why Radiohead:OK Computer (A classic album under review) reduces OK Computer to a fanboy exercise of pretensiousness.

.

It's been ten years since Radiohead released OK Computer, and depending on who you talk to, it's either the seminal canon of all rock music, or a paranoid post-industrial Luddite's vision of a bleak future. The truth is, it was neither. . . and it was both. At the time, I really thought that Radiohead was potentially the Pink Floyd for the new millenium. Ten years later, I realize they're a footnote, albeit an important one, in rock history. And while I still maintain it was one of the most important albums of 1997, that's all it was. Tom Yorke and company have moved on with their lives.

.

The makers of this documentary, however, have not. What we have here is a collection of Brit rock critics dissecting every lyric, every chord, every note in some instances, in a vain attempt to elevate the album to a Work of Art. It's a valiant effort, but not a very compelling argument. They take each song on the album, inject it with their personal world visions and come to the conclusion that it's a work that's way too heavy for mere mortals to grasp.

.

It's the sort of thing that gives rock critics a bad name. Albums like OK Computer stand as seminal works only because they add something to the subconscious vocabulary of pop culture. It came out at the right time, much the way Green Day's American Idiot or Pink Floyd's The Wall or any number of rock albums did. They spoke to a moment in our culture--nothing more, and certainly nothing less. For critics of questionable credentials to place any album on a pedestal from which hinges the course of civilization is to do a disservice to the artist, the listener, and to the whole business of constructive criticism itself. Yet, that's what these pundits attempt to achieve on this disc.

.

Radiohead: OK Computer (a classic album under review) adds nothing to enhance the listening experience of the album. It may be of interest to the diehard fanboy, but for the rest of us, it's a stodgy, academician take on a work best left to individual interpretation. It's the sort of disc that makes me understand why Margeaux has an aversion to museum tourguides.

.