Tonight:
Cheap Trick, Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Everything But The Girl, Specials, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, Journey, Neil Young, Heart, Korn, Def Leppard, Metallica, Roy Orbison, Radiohead, Who, Harry Chapin, Carole King, Sara Bareilles, Nils Lofgren, Steve Winwood, Eagles, Rolling Stones with Ike and Tina Turner, Doobie Brothers, Queen
OK Computer is the third studio album by English rock band Radiohead, released on May 21, 1997 on EMI subsidiaries Parlophone and Capitol Records. The members of Radiohead self-produced the album with Nigel Godrich, an arrangement they have used for their subsequent albums. Other than the song “Lucky”, recorded in 1995, Radiohead recorded OK Computer in Oxfordshire and Bath between 1996 and early 1997, mostly in the historic mansion St Catherine’s Court. The band distanced themselves from the guitar-centred, lyrically introspective style of their previous album, The Bends. OK Computer’s abstract lyrics, densely layered sound and eclectic influences laid the groundwork for Radiohead’s later, more experimental work.
The album depicts a world fraught with rampant consumerism, social alienation, emotional isolation and political malaise; in this capacity, OK Computer has been said to have prescient insight into the mood of 21st-century life. Unconventional production techniques on the album include natural reverberation through recording on a staircase, and no audio separation, which allowed instruments to not overdub separately. Strings were recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London. The band’s guitarist Ed O’Brien estimated that 80 per cent of the album was recorded live.
Despite lowered sales estimates by EMI, who deemed the record uncommercial and difficult to market, OK Computer reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and debuted at number 21 on the Billboard 200, Radiohead’s highest album entry on the US charts at the time, and soon earned a 5× platinum and double platinum certification by the BPI and RIAA, respectively. The songs “Paranoid Android”, “Karma Police”, “Lucky”, and “No Surprises” were released as singles. The album expanded Radiohead’s international popularity and has sold at least 7.8 million units worldwide. A remastered version with additional tracks, OKNOTOK 1997 2017, was released in 2017, marking the album’s twentieth anniversary. In 2019, in response to an internet leak, Radiohead released MiniDiscs [Hacked], comprising over 16 hours of demos, rehearsals, live performances and other material related to OK Computer.
OK Computer received critical acclaim and has been cited by listeners, critics and musicians as one of the greatest albums of all time. It was nominated for the Album of the Year and won Best Alternative Music Album at the 1998 Grammy Awards. It was also nominated for Best British Album at the 1998 Brit Awards. The album initiated a stylistic shift in British rock away from Britpop toward melancholic, atmospheric alternative rock that became more prevalent in the next decade. In 2014, it was included by the Library of Congress in the National Recording Registry as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
1. “Airbag” 4:44
2. “Paranoid Android” 6:23
3. “Subterranean Homesick Alien” 4:27
4. “Exit Music (For a Film)” 4:24
5. “Let Down” 4:59
6. “Karma Police” 4:21
7. “Fitter Happier” 1:57
8. “Electioneering” 3:50
9. “Climbing Up the Walls” 4:45
10. “No Surprises” 3:48
11. “Lucky” 4:19
12. “The Tourist” 5:24
1. “Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2)” 4:24
2. “Pearly*” 3:37
3. “A Reminder” 3:54
4. “Melatonin” 2:10
5. “Meeting in the Aisle” 3:10
6. “Lull” 2:29
7. “Climbing Up the Walls” (Zero 7 Mix) 5:19
8. “Climbing Up the Walls” (Fila Brazillia Mix) 6:26
9. “Palo Alto” 3:44
10. “How I Made My Millions” 3:09
11. “Airbag” (Live in Berlin) 4:49
12. “Lucky” (Live in Florence) 4:37
13. “Climbing Up the Walls” (BBC Radio 1 session, 28 May 1997) 4:21
14. “Exit Music (For a Film)” (BBC Radio 1 session, 28 May 1997) 4:35
15. “No Surprises” (BBC Radio 1 session, 28 May 1997) 3:58
Nigel Godrich – committing to tape, audio level balancing
Radiohead – committing to tape, music
Thom Yorke
Jonny Greenwood
Phil Selway
Ed O’Brien
Colin Greenwood
Stanley Donwood – pictures
The White Chocolate Farm – pictures
Gerard Navarro – studio assistance
Jon Bailey – studio assistance
Chris Scard – studio assistance
Chris “King Fader” Blair – mastering
Nick Ingman – string conducting
Matt Bale – additional artwork
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