I remember rushing out to buy 'OK Computer' on the day of it's release. I'd gotten into Radiohead a year or two earlier when I heard 'The Bends' (another masterpiece).

I'd never really been into British music, I was more drawn to what was going on over the water (the US provided me with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, The Afghan Whigs, Screaming Trees etc - which appealed to me more).

But Radiohead really blew me away. I don't think there's been anything quite like either of those two Radiohead records. They didn't just create an atmosphere through sonic landscapes, there was songs and they were outstanding songs.

The one-two intro of Airbag and Paranoid Android was daunting, and still is. Subterranean Homesick Alien, Exit Music and Let Down were all, in someway, joyous. Climbing Up The Walls was unsettling, but extraordinary. Not to mention Karma Police, No Surprises and Tourist.

I still think 'Ok Computer' is a stunning, even haunting record and it still stands tall after all this time.

Without a doubt a cassic album. A career peak.

I was ten years old when 'ok computer' hit the racks.I couldn't understand a bloody word of it, but something drew me to it, like an underaged moth to a very knowing flame. Of course, my older brother bought the record. He played it a few times, decided it was a bit too "depressing" and went on listening to such uplifting hits as "rape me" by Nirvana, leaving me to discover something completely unlike anything I'd heard before.

I think the key is, it's not an avant garde record, its a pop record with avant garde sensibillities, like most breakthrough british acts are able to do. It appealed to alot of people who dont normally listen to anything even remotely peculiar, but what really gets my goat is it's these same people who can't stand Radioheads latter body of work, its too weird they say.

Like my brother, they bought 'ok computer', listened to it once or twice, felt pretty cool, discarded it! What is widely regarded as the greatest music to come from a generation, an era,is too weird? Whats weird? 'ok computer' is the sound of someone finally being honest with us. Call it brutal, don't call it weird. Hail Uncut, the only magazine being honest with us, the buying public.

OK Computer is an album significant for only one thing: it's when Thom Yorke proved that he will never be more than a whiny-voiced pretentious cunt who thinks he's the Second Coming of Morrissey.

If a song is even vaguely coherent, it's shot in the testicles by a vocal delivery with a gift for irritating that wouldn't be surpassed until some idiot let Joanna "The Retarded Elf" Newsom near a mike withour her gag firmly in place. Paranoid Android, far from being the new Day In The Life that all the critics wanted it to be and touted it as, is homogenised extruded junk. This is album as modern art - a meaningless ego-puff for the makers, but everyone calls it a work of genius, because, y'know, if THEY, the literati, can't understand it then it must be beyond them. That's why OK Computer regularly tops polls but has never inspired; there's simply nothing there to inspire with.

Consign it to the ash-heap of history, and move on.

Thom Yorke has never struck me as believing to be the "Second Coming of Morrissey". And I think Radiohead have never hidden the fact that they're a little ... abstract when it comes to their music (especially the musings of said Mr Yorke).

It is regrettable that one of British music's greatest musical acheivements is lost on you, and no doubt similarly inspired records by the likes Mercury Rev, Wilco and The Flaming Lips are also to be considered "meaningless".

OK Computer gave British music the shot in the arm in badly needed. It pushed the boundaries of what musicians could do - why should an ambitious idea remain an ambitious idea? Make an ambitious record (Paranoid Android).

Like it or not, like the Beatles Radiohead set a bench mark (which would later be bettered by the Flaming Lips' Soft Buletin in a similar way to the release of Pet Sounds bettered Rubber Soul).

The thing is, and you are correct, 'OK Computer' tops too many polls. But, for the importance of the record, and it's vitality it cannot be discarded. It was a moment, and Radiohead captured it.

It was daring, ambitious and it isn't instantly accessible. But it's rewarding.

The computer age, indeed.

Make no mistake, this is a brilliant album and deserves its place in a 'Essential Albums' list.

But, we are all entitled to our opinions...

I have been with Radiohead since the first album. Saw them in New York after Pablo Honey. I thought "The Bends" was incredible and listened to it constantly for months. I have to say "OK Computer" was a slow burn for me.

I loved "The Bends" so much that it took a while for OK to sink in. Eventually it became my favorite (I think you say "favourite" over there...) Radiohead album and still is. I can't think of another 90s album that still has the same power after all this time. It is a great album.

I can't say I was that enamoured with Radiohead before OK Computer, an awfully patchy band with the odd great moment like Creep, Banana Co, Street Spirit, Killer Cars, or Talk Show Host. I fart in the general direction of those who go on about Pablo Honey and The Bends - the former is weaker than Kinky Machine's debut and the latter is very standard indie-rock with a heavy debt to ZOO-U2.

OK Computer has something, though I disliked the Q-style notion in the late 90s it was the best album ever or the recent Channel 4 list programme (where you probably got insights from folk like Vernon Kay and Slash from Guns N Roses). 1997 was an odd year and it kind of fitted in perfectly, though Blur's Eponymous debut, Tricky's Pre-Millennium Tension, DJ Shadow's Endtroducing (from the previous year), & Spiritualized's Ladies and Gentlemen...were all equally a soundtrack.

There are a few trad songs on there that could have been on previous albums and there are influences quite apparent - Low/Heroes, Achtung Baby/Zooropa (let's face it Passengers was Kid A before Kid A!), Blood & Chocolate (Electioneering is Tokyo Storm Warning!), Nick Drake (Sub Homesick Alien is Parasite!) etc. Having said that it's probably the most complete Radiohead album - Kid A has a few duds on, while Amnesiac and Hail...has plenty of filler. It's one of those albums that defines its time, though that quality doesn't mean that it's a great record - I listened to Screamadelica without rose-tinted spectacles and felt that it was one of those important records like Sgt Pepper, but an album that was hugely overrated, boring, over-familiar and patchy. I don't think OK Computer is that, but I do get the idea that it's avant garde for people like Robbie Williams or folk that haven't heard enough weird music. There is a Paul Morley list in Words and Music relating to this...

The prog-elements on Paranoid Android, contrary to the statement in the piece nodding to the influence on the indie-bed-wetters-on-major-labels, did have an influence or seem part of something in music since the 80s. Acts like the Teardrops and Butthole Surfers were brnging in psych/prog elements, and records like Jehohovahkill (which I'm sure the head were listening to), Going Blank Again, Millions Now Living Will Never Die, Laughing Stock, Melon Collie..., Dust, Lazer Guided Melodies and Dog Man Star had similar OTT elements pre-Paranoid Android. Stuff like Ultrasound, The Flaming Lips from The Soft Bulletin, Muse and Secret Machines continued this kind of stuff. More examples will no doubt pop into my mind - so it isn't just Coldplay, Keane and all that grot...That layered multi-textured landscape probably emanated from Loveless too....

Quite enjoyed the 33 1/3 book on OK Computer, which I read a few days before the latest issue of Uncut...must be something in the air?

I think that "Ok Computer" is a fantastic audio achievment. It is totally original, and sounds like nothing else. But it is not the greatest album ever made (as a recent channel four poll sugested) and it isn't the best album of the 90's. I believe that "The Bends" is equally as good, but enough about Radiohead, what about "Definately Maybe" and "(What's the story) Morning Glory" by Oasis, or "The Holy Bible" and "Everything Must Go" by The Manic Street Preachers, or "Nevermind" by Nirvana, or "Agaetis Byrjun" by Sigur Ros, or "Urban Hymns" by The Verve, or "Fat of the land" by Prodigy, or "Grace" by Jeff Buckley, or even "Metallica" by Metallica...there are many contenders for the top spot, and think "Ok computer" is simply one of the best, not the best.

for me ok computer was a whole new world. it had an immense influence on me. i used it for something i do. im an artist opssessed with social issues. and i can freely say that thom yorke opened my eyes.

With out a doubt a masterpiece, an example of what happens when everything in an album goes right. Ok Computer like Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon, expose the harshness of modern life. It is also the last great 'concept album'. But is it the best album of the 90s? Oasis' Definitly Maybe is a challenger as is Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation (1988, but it was 90s at heart).

Well done Thom Yorke. Has it really been 10 years?

My favourite moment leading up to the release of the album was being at work and Paranoid Android coming on the radio at full blast, in between the more mundane poppy stuf around at the time. It was difficult to prevent a huge grin spreading across my face and what made it worse was that no-one else in the room had a clue who this band were and I could not share my excitement at hearing it with anyone there. Already a huge Radiohead fan since discovering all of the singles from Pablo Honey, on 12" vinyl in the bargain bin at my local record store for 99p each! Then being in thrall to The Bends album, seeing them live supporting REM at Milton Keynes Bowl promoting The Bends with my son and daughter! My son's school covers band then took up playing Creep and also The Bends as an opening to their gigs - the force of the opening chords blowing people away across the room. Radiohead are one of the reasons my son has made a career in music and their influence abounds in his music to this day.

The only major band I've seen more than once in my whole life(4 times so far). They are so exciting live! Radiohead are unique and a national treasure in my view, and OK Computer remains one of my all time favourite albums.

I don't believe in "Best Of" lists, especially those that are 500 odd long. How do you choose between No. 392 and No. 393? Yes you can try to chunk it down into decades but isn't this a little artificial. Besides which, any list is in the eye of the beholder and is normally dominated by those albums that framed the important and emotional times in their lives. No doubt this is the reason Uncut is heavily biased towards the sixties. The same reason my cherished albums include "Marquee Moon"; "Real Life"; "154"; "Even Serpents Shine" (My god it's getting rediscovered!!) and "Crazy Rhythms".

These are things I care about, and it says something about "OK Computer" that I also care about an album that was released 20 years after my glory days. Perhaps it's because it's informed by bands like Magazine and Wire, but more because it's a damn fine album that tells it like it is. It raised the bar not by a few notches but by a country mile.

Your article gives an image of unremitting desolation. Personally I find it uplifting. There's a lot of hope in there.

Your article also suggests that this was their crowning moment. I disagree. They've done better work since, and they could easily play a gig without a single track from OKC and the fans would still go home happy.

OK computer must be the most overrated, overhyped record of the decade. It is basically two half decent songs and a load of filler. It steals heavily from Pink Floyd with none of the humour. An illustration of this is Fitter Happier which lifts the Steve Hawkin voice box idea from The Division Bell's Keep Talking.

Thom York's voice is a toneless grind that makes Liam Gallagher sound really interseting. The booklet is a mess. Keane, Coldplay, Robbie Williams, The Zutons, Sheryl Crow, Shelby Lynne, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, to name a few, have put out better records. The list is almost endless. In fact even Be Here Now is a better album. OK Computer the best album of the last 10 years, your having a laugh.

Couldn't agree less about OK Computer, I'm afraid. Vastly over-rated tripe, especially given the passage of time. Never mind "best album of the 90s", it's not even the best album of 1997 - it's inferior to Spiritualized's "Ladies and Gentlemen..." and the Scream's "Vanishing Point", which itself is scarcely that band's best work (see Screamadelica and XTRMNTR).

As for the whole "best album of the decade" argument, Thom and his merry band of musos pale into insignificance compared to, off the top of my head, Oasis' "Definitely Maybe", the Whigs' "Gentlemen" and "Black Love", the Scream (see above), Shack's "Waterpistol", the (only) La's album and my particular pick for the decade's best record, MBV's "Loveless".

And I despise Thom's pitiful 6th Form poetry class version of a political conscience as well.

no it's mostly certainly not - the best album of the 90's is undoubtedly 'Pioneer Soundtracks' by Jack. This album is also 10 years old an the reduxe version of 'Pioneer Soundtracks' is released in March '07. How about a feature on Jack/ Anthony Reynolds?

'OK Computer' is a great LP but my favourite album of the 1990's is 'Black Love' by the Afghan Whigs.

Yes, Ok Computer is an excellent album and a classic that can’t be lacking in one decent album collection, but still is one popular album, it is easy to digest. I think they’ve grown a lot creatively. Generally people want to put Radiohead between one of the best bands in the 90’s, this affirmation is so true but I think they still can bring a lot of staff, nowadays more than ever, because is so hard to choose one better band.
And I repeat: Call me crazy… but every time I listen to Thom Yorke, (the Eraser in particular) I think that John Lennon has been finally replaced and Bob Dylan is just a good writer but nothing else.

I was 13 when I first listened to "OK Computer" on Sputnik, best ever spanish music tv programm. I remember the full coloured cartoons of the videoclip more than the song itself.
I much rather prefer "The Tourist", which a friend described as "intense".

Ok computer is a great album but Grace by jeff buckley is simply the best album of the 90s. The most beautiful creative piece of music ever to be penned.

Screamadelica. The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld. Stanley Road. Blue Lines. Songs of Faith and Devotion. Signify. Everything Must Go. Leftism. Music For the Jilted Generation. Achtung Baby. 101 Damnations. Come To Daddy. Pills 'n' Thrills 'n' Bellyaches. Portishead's two studio albums.

Yes, in 1997 British music really needed a shot in the arm from Radiohead, didn't it?

I've always preferred "The Bends" to "OK Computer". The Bends is absolutely flawless, there ain't one single song in it that's not amazing, and (louder or quieter) it's straightforward rock'n roll. I find OK Computer too cerebral sometimes, and "Karma Police" started to get on my nerves after all the airplay it got (which didn't happen to "High and Dry" or "No surprises", because they're much better songs).

Debates like this are a bit chicken and the egg. Do we consider OK Computer the greatest album because it is, or because the media have relentlessly told us so? It thereafter gets canonised and although it's legitimacy is questioned, it stays there regardless of forums like this.

Nevertheless I think that Thom and Co created a timeless slice of melancholic sonic delight. Its strength lies in the unity of the music and it always makes me sad when albums like this are sliced up for singles, because they make so much more sense as a whole. Anyone from the i-tunes generation who just downloads 'karma police' or 'paranoid android' would heavily miss out on the seamless glory of one of the most critically and popularly acclaimed albums of the decade.

postscript: 1997 also produced the spice girls didn't it?

OK Computer IS the greatest album of the 90s. Anything that Radiohead comes up with, is... simply genius. I love all OK Computer and I think it deserves to be the gretest album of the 90s.

C'mon, get real everyone.

The greatest album of the 90s is "Nevermind" by Nirvana.

Its influence on music, the music industry, bands, attitude, you name it, is as strong today as it was 15 years ago.

In fact, it's one of the pivotal albums of all time, and anyone who doesn't understand that just doesn't understand rock, and the history of rock.

Radiohead's masterpiece is one of the best albums of the 90's,with "definitely maybe","time out of mind","deserter's songs","the soft bulletin","automatic for the people","murder ballads",etc...
David Huret

When it was released it didn't immediately grab me but this is one of those records that takes a few listens before the penny drops. Never a CD to put on at a party but always worth a listen in the small hours when you need it.

The great thing about this album is the fact that it hasn't dated at all and the songs are incredibly original and most importantly leave you feeling an emotion.

I can't believe some of the comparisons that are being mentioned in some of the other reviews. Oasis? C'mon get real! An overated Beatles tribute band versus a band that created their own sound so much so that the media had to try and connect it to prog-rock, whatever that might be? I've listened to enough Floyd, Focus, Yes and Gabriel-era Genesis to know that this was something very different.

It's just simply a great piece of music from start to finish which is something every band strives for but few achieve. I particularly like the little touches such as the start and finish of Subterranean Homesick Alien sounding just like the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Like the theme music to Doomwatch or something from that era.

Personally I think this was the best album since The Cocteaus called it a day and more importantly will be cited as an inspiration to a lot of great new bands.

Hi,

To be honest, I really dont care about the discussion of if it´s or not the best album of 90´s.

In 2003 Radiohead went Lisbon to present and to "test" songs from "Hail to the thief". At that, time I remember to have that kind of discussions with friends my about the best album/band..., but after the show, I realized: "This is what I like, why spend time arguing about that!?". Since then I became more tolerant!


OK Computer, belongs to "my own word". In Songs like "No Surprises", "Slow Down" or "Climing up the walls" I ll find forever a part of me.

It's nice time to time, find that album again, and win 1 hour of great peace, fun, and pleasure.


For sure OK Computer is a great album, dont know if the Best One.

Thanks Radiohead!!

ok computer is a masterpiece in it's own right...it challenged me in many ways and most of all, sparked thought and creativity in me which is what i think music should do...the writing is amazing.
Tori Amos' Boys for Pele was a huge record for me in '96 and is still my all time favorite album - not easily accessible but once your in, and you invest the time to think of whats happening there...it's like nothing else. These people are on the same page. I'd be dead without music.

I was just starting college when Ok Computer hit. I was always in to Radiohead but I had lost my "Bends" and never replaced it. I read all the hype and thought, "I'll give this album a listen." I came home, put it on and began doing algebra. I failed that class but I dove in the deep end of Radiohead. I bought everything... every single, bootleg and dvd.

They are my favorite artist ever because I re-found them at a turning point in my life and I respect them and their art due to how it relates to me personally. OK COMPUTER is definatley my favorite album of the 90s'. Nirvana is right behind for thier simplicity and aggressive coverage of similar themes.

who power their lives with insipid pontifications about the pluck and might of a donkey and a battleship!Would I capture my personal dream of clomping together with you(or someone quite like you) across yonder hillock in search of a mystical stone? Chances are not bright for that lovely vision ever coming to fruition-but the intrepid lads from from hardcore U certainly did!...find a mystical stone of sorts that is.

changing a life is a fine thing and I (master bates) daresay that the boys did a wonderful job of smearing the lines betwixt the self-evident and the sane back in old 97', eh?

it is an album that will drive thee mad with joy at the realization that you are indeed a fellow human traveller thru life with the searing incandesence of r-heads majesterial glory!!
using paragraphical impudence to state the obvoius is neither witty nor annoying, but rerfusing to tie random non-sequiters together IS!
THE DROMEDARY MACHINE RIDES TONIGHT!!

it is an insanely beautiful document that trancends music and will stand as a testament to creative flower f$#*ing for all of time-easily the greatest of the 90's and one of the gretest in the entire musical spectrum- what, you gonna put Brittney frikkin' Spears in the same idiomatic millenium? HOW DARE YOU!!
thank you for thy kindness and time
yer pal,
Master Bates

Way better

After reading the article in Uncut I dug out the CD and gave it a listen to for old times sake. I must admit that I am still moved by it as much as I was ten years ago, maybe even more. I'm at a more mature stage in my music tastes now than I was back then, and although i still enjoy it, I can see it in a different light now. Take for instance, the words. How depressing! Not the sort of jolly tone to whistle to while washing the car, or seek solace in after a break-up, but the way Thom Yorke sings the lyrics make the words rather undecipherable, leaving it to your own imagination to make the words up. I think this is what has got the album through, for me. I love the tunes and the sound even when the lyrics aren't even in the same universe as mainstream. Being different has taken a different, more meaningful road.

As for the songs individually, I would love to see a video image of each story. It could be so subtle like the songs, fantastic imagery with a bittersweet aftertaste. The song that stands out for me is Fitter Happier. I don't know why, but I can't help but imagine a paraplegic talking into the camera with a Steven Hawking style set up, ignoring his own demons that are painfully apparent to everyone else.

Anyhoo, Ok Computer was cool to me 10 years ago, and it is even cooler now.

I don't think "OK Computer" is overrated at all. Nor would I immediately place it at No. 1 for the nineties' greatest albums. Like most people in their early twenties, I was still fairly young at the time of its release and was just beginning my own musical exploration beyond the bile they typically feed us over the airwaves...

But I will say this: "OK Computer" to me is the 53 minutes and 27 seconds separating who I was before I heard it from who I was after. It absolutely changed my perception of music, art, and modern life. Period. Some people will call it needlessly abstract and overly indulgent, and I couldn't agree less. For one thing, I think it's the concept album that made concept albums cool again. Secondly, it has nuances and moments of brilliance that one can still discover after years of listens.

There are a few other nineties albums that come close to affecting me as profoundly. Neutral Milk Hotel's "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" is one, as is Nirvana's "In Utero" which, I'm sorry, is vastly superior to "Nevermind." But "OK Computer" is definitely one of the best of the decade - easily in the top five.