Radiohead

OK Computer

OK Computer is the album that establishes Radiohead as one of the most inventive and rewarding guitar rock bands of the '90s.

Their finest moment, and one that demonstrated their brilliance both musically, lyrically, and at creating feelings.

This landmark masterpiece set a new standard for rock musicians that has yet to be challenged. It's beautiful, mysterious, scary, and thought-provoking; a record that will indefinitely be a future classic.

It really is the perfect synthesis of Radiohead’s seemingly conflicted impulses.

Here are 12 tracks crammed with towering lyrical ambition and musical exploration; that refuse to retread the successful formulas of before and instead opt for innovation and surprise

OK Computer ... took guitar rock (and make no mistake—despite its amalgam of analog and digital technologies, that's what the album is) to places it had never gone before.

Shrouded in wafting guitars, swoony rhythms, and moody-blue strings, it shrugs off mosh-pit conventions for a poignant delicacy and breadth.

It feels utterly contemporary, an achievement few mainstream guitar bands can claim. OK Computer bridges the touch-feely/block-rockin' divide of '90s pop with more urgency than a house party of confessional troubadours or breakbeat scientists.

At a time when they could have played it safe, selling their psychedelic souls for more radio-friendly rock & roll, Radio-head have released a concept album whose theme ... unfolds gradually during the course of the album's 12 songs.

To those who love it, OK Computer sounds rich, beautiful, mysterious, romantic, anguished, baroque and thrillingly experimental. To those who don't? It's a miserable, over-hyped, unmusical mess that doesn't deserve a space in 'the canon'.