OK Computer by Radiohead

OK Computer is the third studio album by English rock band Radiohead, first released on 21 May 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. 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. 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 June 2017, marking the album's twentieth anniversary. In 2019, in response to an internet leak, Radiohead released MiniDiscs [Hacked], comprising hours of additional OK Computer material. 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 Grammy Award for Album of the Year and won Best Alternative Music Album at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards in 1998. The album initiated a stylistic shift in British rock away from the then-ubiquitous Britpop genre toward melancholic, atmospheric alternative rock that became more prevalent in the next decade. The album depicts a world fraught with rampant consumerism, social alienation, emotional isolation and political malaise; in this capacity, OK Computer is often interpreted as having prescient insight into the mood of 21st-century life. In 2014, it was included by the Library of Congress in the National Recording Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".