OK Computer

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Product Description ------------------- OK Computer is the third studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released in 1997 on Parlophone and Capitol Records. OK Computer was the first self-produced Radiohead album, with assistance from Nigel Godrich. Radiohead recorded the album in Oxfordshire and Bath between 1996 and early 1997, with most of the completed in the historic mansion St. Catherine's Court. The band made a deliberate attempt to distance themselves from the guitar-oriented, lyrically introspective style of their previous album, The Bends. OK Computer's abstract lyrics, densely layered sound and wide range of influences laid the groundwork for Radiohead's later, more experimental work. Upon the album's delivery to Capitol, label representatives lowered their sales estimates, deeming the record uncommercial. Nevertheless, OK Computer reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and became the band's highest album entry on the American charts at the time, debuting at number 21 on the Billboard 200. Three songs from the album - "Paranoid Android", "Karma " and "No Surprises" - were released as promotional singles. The album expanded Radiohead's worldwide popularity and has sold over three million copies to date. OK Computer received considerable accl upon release. Prominent British and American rock critics predicted the album would have far-reaching cultural impact. In subsequent years, the album has been cited by listeners, critics, and musicians as one of the greatest of its time. OK Computer initiated a shift away from the popular Britpop genre of the time to the more melancholic and atmospheric style of alternative rock that would be prevalent in the next decade. Critics and fans often comment on the underlying themes found in the lyrics and artwork, emphasising Radiohead's views on rampant consumerism, social alienation, emotional isolation, and political malaise; in this capacity, OK Computer is often interpreted as having prescient in into the mood of 21st-century life - Review Courtesy of Wikipedia. .co.uk ------ Whilst one suspects some kind of pre-millennial hysteria prompted Q magazine's readers to vote OK Computer The Greatest Album Ever Made cely five months after its release, it certainly doesn't look stupid up there in the pantheon. Following the hot red rock attack of 1995's The Bends ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B000002TQV/${0} ), OK Computer heads out into the cold deep space of prog-rock and comes back with stuff that makes mere pop earthlings like Stereophonics ( /exec/obidos/artist-search/Stereophonics/${0} ) tremble. Whilst the eight-minute-long "Paranoid Android" comes across like "Bohemian Rhapsody" with a held to its head, and "Electioneering" is a little too like a kiddy-version of Blood And Chocolate ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B000024P3K/${0} )-era Elvis Costello to be truly revelatory, the rest of OK Computer spans the sublime to the ridiculously sublime. Thom Yorke had been obsessed with Ennio Morricone ( /exec/obidos/artist-search/Ennio%20Morricone/${0} ) during the of the album (in a haunted mansion, fact-fans), and it shows on the expansive space-dream of "Subterranean Home Alien" and the endlessly comforting closer "The Tourist". And if neither "No Surprises" (played on a toy guitar with Yorke and Ed O'Brien harmonising like a two-man Crowded House ( /exec/obidos/artist-search/Crowded%20House/${0} )) nor "Lucky" (recorded in one day for the Bosnian aid album War Child--it reduced Yorke to tears the first time he heard it played back) make the hairs on your skin spit with electricity, then maybe you're with the Q reader who voted for Anita by Anita Dobson. --Caitlin Moran