Despite my diverse and illustrious musical tastes, I've got to admit that I'm completely out of the loop when it comes to the concept album department. Pink Floyd-- never got into it-- something about an inflatable pig and post-World War II social order?

Happily, there's still hope for me as I fell completely under the spell of Radiohead's new album, OK Computer. Quite decidedly in the progressive rock vein, the much hyped third album hits stores in the U.S. on July first and is sure to help fuel the bands slow but sure rise to rock superstardom.

But first, a little history. Unless you lived without electricity, weren't born yet, or slept your way through 1993, you heard, liked and listened to Radiohead's debut single and massive radio hit "Creep." It has yet to be surpassed in the minds of many as the perfect pop song, and rightfully so. "Creep" boasts Radiohead's signature guitar crunch and remains high above its peers in the pop rock single genre in both catchiness and coolness. That said, the song became the veritable bain of Radiohead's existance as the rest of their debut album, Pablo Honey was basically ignored by the hit hungry public. They became a band that everybody liked but nobody had heard. Nevertheless, Radiohead pulled themselves together and released another album in 1995, The Bends. The Bends met with tolerable success, helped along by a series of eye-catching and intelligently crafted music videos. The musical growth Radiohead showed in the time between Pablo Honey and The Bends was promising. The band used clever intrumental techniques and seemed to be progressing quite nicely. But nothing could have prepared us for what was to come.

OK Computer delivers Radiohead as a band that is no longer, in any way, catering to the demands of popular music. Burnt out by the success of "Creep", Radiohead has paid their dues to the radio gods. Now, freed by their penance, they explore and expand their sound, crafting their songs into sonic experiments that defy pop song conventions. And, as is most always the case with true talent, they come up with a batch of conceptually topical, aurally pleasing and truly inspirational songs. Even if you don't like that type of thing.

This is not to say that every venture on the album is a success. Track 7, "Fitter Happier" which is without singer Thom Yorke, features a computerized voice rapping out the lyrics: "Fitter, healthier and more productive / a pig / in a cage / on antibiotics." It's a little too preachy and elitist for its own good. If there were an overall downside to the album it would be the fact that it tends to treat mundane daily life and the structures of society as not only offensive, but downright evil. And while this may be true enough, it lends a depressing air to the album that makes you want to reach over, hug the person sitting next to you on the bus and tell them that its going to be okay.

With the exeption of "Fitter Happier" the average length of the songs on OK Computer is well over four minutes a piece with the longest song clocking in at six minutes and twenty three seconds. In an unconventional move the longest track "Paranoid Android" is also the first single off of the album. The song is an opus in three parts and comes with a fully animated music video, created by Magnus Carlsson of the U.K.'s "Robin" animated series, that has already hit regular rotation on MTV. It's said that all twelve of the tracks off this album are going to be made into videos which will, in the end, link together conceptually in the album running order. And, if the other videos are in any way as far out as the video for "Paranoid Android" which features along with other animated oddities, a man in bondage trying to chop down a lampost and eventually chopping off his own limbs, the finished product will be a sight to see indeed.

"Paranoid Android" begins with an acoustic guitar picking out a sweet tune accompanied by rhythmic clickings and shufflings and other assorted noises. Yorke comes in drawling out the words in a tired but determined way, "When I am king you will be the first against the wall, with your opinions which are of no consequence at all." The guitars get a little rougher and a lot more menacing as Yorke accuses, "Ambition makes you look very ugly, kicking, squealing, Gucci little piggy." Then all pretense of calm is shattered as the guitars electrify, jabbing and scratching at the chorus as if to tear the song apart. "You don't remember, you don't remember, why don't you remember my name?" And just as quickly as the chaos came its gone, replaced by a soothing bridge, "Rain down, rain down, come on rain down on me. From a great height, from a great height, height...God loves his children, God loves his children.." The guitars kick in again and the song ends abruptly, disturbingly loud and uncontrolled.