Hi, I'm kind of new to the Radiohead fanbase, so I don't know if this has been done before but I kept having the idea of rearranging the order of some of their albums' tracklists, especially that of OKC. Not because the original order is anything but perfect but in order to give it a fresh spin and to see it from a different angle.
This'd be my order:
- Electioneering
- The Tourist
- Let Down
- Subterranean Homesick Alien
- No Surprises
- Airbag
- Lucky
- Paranoid Android
- Karma Police
- Climbing Up the Walls
- Exit Music (For A Film)
- Fitter Happier
And here's my reasoning behind it:
The opener tricks the listener into thinking, the album is going to have an upbeat and excited vibe (while still having very cynical over- and undertones), just to be confronted with The Tourist which works as the peoples' reaction to the politician from Electioneering. They beg him to "slow down" and slow down the album does.
The next three songs all ponder the purpose in life: In Let Down, the protagonist wants to escape his mundane life, believing that he will grow wings one day and ascend which he literally does by (dreaming of?) being taken on an Alien spaceship in SHA. At first, he thinks he has finally found his place in life, just to realize that this isn't where he belongs either. Back on earth, he becomes suicidal, resulting in No Surprises where he tries to kill himself, just to miraculously survive his suicide attempt in Airbag (obviously, No Surprises doesn't depict him trying to kill himself by crashing a fast German car, so you would have to read the lyrics in kind of a metaphorical way).
He then becomes kind of cocky in Lucky, thinking that he is not able to die, even surviving a plane crash (I also really like the connection between the lines "I'm back to save the universe" in Airbag and "Cause I'm your superhero" in Lucky). He does become paranoid from it though, because he sees the sudden plane crash as the universe's attempt to fight back against his apparent immortality.
The rest of the album is his descent into a cynical madness. Paranoid Android and Karma Police continue the narcissism from Lucky while also dealing with him continuously losing his faith in humanity. At the end of Karma Police, he 'almost loses himself' as well. Not completely, he does come pretty near to it though. I wanted to find a fitting replacement for Fitter Happier as the follow-up to the distorted break-down at the end of Karma Police and the grimy vibe of Climbing Up the Walls actually works perfectly here. It even works lyrically, as it depicts the protagonist's further descend into madness, fighting his demons.
Using Exit Music as the literal Exit Music for the album was actually what sparked the entire idea of this rearrangement. The protagonist has now finally lost it completely (get it?). He actually manages to kill himself, given that the song was literally written for a movie about two lovers committing suicide. With this one final explosive climax, he expresses his contempt for society and exists the world. Fitter Happier then works a similar way, that Untitled works in Kid A: An outro for the album that leaves the listener in utter despair. It describes the ideal life of the average man in the world this takes place in, in an increasingly mocking way, possibly representing the world-view the protagonist left with. It also stands in extreme tonal contrast to the opener, Electioneering.
So what do you think? Is this an interesting idea or plain blasphemy? Try listening to the album in this order, it actually works. It's not the only alternative order that could work though. You could find a connection between No Surprises and Exit Music, for example.
Either way, I just had to get this off my chest, so I can finally start falling asleep. I also see this as proof of how many different ways there are to view and interpret Radiohead's music, not as a correction of an imperfect album. This interpretation is a very dark and cynical one and in no way definitive or intended by the band. I also obviously sacrificed some of the album's former strengths in pursuit of an arc similar to that of Kid A.
I also had the idea of doing the same with some of their other albums (for instance, Faust Arp works perfectly as the opening track for In Rainbows) but I'm only really proud of my idea for OKC.
Happy Birthday to A Moon Shaped Pool by the way!