Radiohead: OK Computer (2LP) [XL RECORDINGS]

Why you'll love it

OK Computer went to No. 1 in the U.K., won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album and turns up near the top of just about every greatest-albums list worth reading. This XL pressing spreads the 12 songs over four sides, just like the original double-LP.

This edition

• 2LP set, 12 tracks over four sides
• XL Recordings reissue (cat# XLLP781)

About the album

Radiohead levelled up considerably between their 1993 debut, Pablo Honey, and 1995's head-turning The Bends, but OK Computer was a proper game-changer: one of those records that legitimately altered the face of popular music. After it arrived in May of 1997, OK Computer became a historical reference point, an album cited by countless other artists as a huge influence and a work of art often imitated but never quite duplicated.

A dark chronicle of alienation and isolation in the face of dehumanizing technology and runaway consumerism, OK Computer was not only the most ambitious thing Radiohead had done to date (its lead single, "Paranoid Android," was a six-and-a-half-minute mini-opera) but it also sounded fantastic. With producer and right-hand man Nigel Godrich, the band crafted an entire claustrophobic world of sound, quite apart from the Oasis- and Blur-led Brit-pop dominating the charts at the time, that rivalled Pink Floyd at its peak, and critical acclaim for the record was all but universal. And, despite EMI's worries that OK Computer would be a commercial flop, it went on to be certified five times platinum in the U.K. and double-platinum in the U.S., with singles like "No Surprises" and "Karma Police" becoming unlikely radio and music-video staples. It routinely turns up on lists of the greatest rock albums of all time. As it should.

Also at Kops: more Radiohead on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On XL Recordings (cat# XLLP781), a reissue of the 1997 album.