OK Computer

File:Thom yorke radiohead2.jpg (pictured in 2001) and the band sought a less introspective direction than previous album The Bends.]]

In 1995, Radiohead toured in support of their second album, The Bends (1995). Midway through the tour, Brian Eno commissioned them to contribute a song to The Help Album, a charity compilation organised by War Child; the album was to be recorded over the course of a single day, 4 September 1995, and rush-released that week.{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=113}} Radiohead recorded "Lucky" in five hours with Nigel Godrich, who had engineered The Bends and produced several Radiohead B-sides. Godrich said of the session: "Those things are the most inspiring, when you do stuff really fast and there's nothing to lose. We left feeling fairly euphoric. So after establishing a bit of a rapport work-wise, I was sort of hoping I would be involved with the next album."{{citation

| first = Andrea

| last = Robinson

| title = Nigel Godrich

| date = August 1997

| magazine = The Mix}} The singer, Thom Yorke, said "Lucky" shaped the nascent sound and mood of their upcoming record: {{"'}}Lucky' was indicative of what we wanted to do. It was like the first mark on the wall."{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=161}}

Radiohead found touring stressful and took a break in January 1996.{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=33}} They sought to move away from the introspective style of The Bends. The drummer, Philip Selway, said: "There was an awful lot of soul-searching [on The Bends]. To do that again on another album would be excruciatingly boring." Yorke said he did not want to do "another miserable, morbid and negative record", and was "writing down all the positive things that I hear or see. I'm not able to put them into music yet and I don't want to just force it."{{citation

| first = Andy

| last = Richardson

| title = Boom! Shake the Gloom!

| date = 9 December 1995

| magazine = NME

}}

The critical and commercial success of The Bends gave Radiohead the confidence to self-produce their third album. Their label, Parlophone, gave them a £100,000 budget for recording equipment.{{citation

| first = Stephen

| last = Dalton

| title = How to Disappear Completely

| date = August 2001

| magazine = Uncut}} The lead guitarist, Jonny Greenwood, said "the only concept that we had for this album was that we wanted to record it away from the city and that we wanted to record it ourselves".

{{citation

| last = Glover

| first = Arian

| title = Radiohead—Getting More Respect.

| magazine = Circus

| date = 1 August 1998

}} According to the guitarist Ed O'Brien, "Everyone said, 'You'll sell six or seven million if you bring out The Bends Pt 2,' and we're like, 'We'll kick against that and do the opposite'."Q, January 2003 A number of producers were suggested, including major figures such as Scott Litt,{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=34}} but Radiohead were encouraged by their sessions with Godrich.{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=189}} They consulted him for advice on equipment,{{sfn|Randall|2000|pp=190–191}} and prepared for the sessions by buying their own, including a plate reverberator purchased from the songwriter Jona Lewie.{{citation

| last = Irvin

| first = Jim

| author-link = Jim Irvin

| title = Thom Yorke tells Jim Irvin how OK Computer was done

| magazine = Mojo

| date = July 1997}} Although Godrich had sought to focus on electronic dance music,{{citation

| last = Beauvallet

| first = JD

| title = Nigel the Nihilist

| magazine = Les Inrockuptibles

| date = 25 January 2000}} he outgrew his role as advisor and became the album's co-producer.{{sfn|Randall|2000|pp=190–191}}

In early 1996, Radiohead recorded demos at Chipping Norton Recording Studios, Oxfordshire.{{cite interview|last=Selway|first=Philip|subject-link=Philip Selway|interviewer=John Kennedy|title=X-Posure with John Kennedy|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7itTi8B7P_4| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211107/7itTi8B7P_4| archive-date=7 November 2021 | url-status=live|work=Radio X|date=June 2017}}{{cbignore}} In July, they began rehearsing and recording in their Canned Applause studio, a converted shed near Didcot, Oxfordshire.{{citation|last=Doyle|first=Tom|title=The Complete Radiohead|url=https://archive.org/details/RHQCompleteRadiohead/page/n1/mode/2up|date=April 2008|magazine=Q}} Even without the deadline that contributed to the stress of The Bends,{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=194}} the band had difficulties, which Selway blamed on their choice to self-produce: "We're jumping from song to song, and when we started to run out of ideas, we'd move on to a new song ... The stupid thing was that we were nearly finished when we'd move on, because so much work had gone into them."{{citation

| first = Bruce

| last = Folkerth

| title = Radiohead: Ignore the Hype

| date = 13 August 1997

| magazine = Flagpole

}}

The members worked with nearly equal roles in the production and formation of the music, though Yorke was still firmly "the loudest voice", according to O'Brien.{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=195}} Selway said, "We give each other an awful lot of space to develop our parts, but at the same time we are all very critical about what the other person is doing." Godrich's role as co-producer was part collaborator and part managerial outsider. He said that Radiohead "need to have another person outside their unit, especially when they're all playing together, to say when the take goes well ... I take up slack when people aren't taking responsibility—the term 'producing a record' means taking responsibility for the record ... It's my job to ensure that they get the ideas across."{{citation

| first = Nick Paton

| last = Walsh

| title = Karma Policeman

| date = November 1997

| newspaper = London Student

| publisher = University of London Union

}} Godrich has produced every Radiohead album since, and has been characterised as Radiohead's "sixth member", an allusion to George Martin's nickname as the "fifth Beatle".{{cite news|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/everything-in-its-right-place-1.587693|title=Everything in Its Right Place|last=McKinnon|first=Matthew|date=24 July 2006|publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|access-date=1 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303170935/http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/everything-in-its-right-place-1.587693|archive-date=3 March 2016|url-status=live}}{{citation

| first = Jason

| last = Pettigrew

| title = How to Reinvent Completely

| date = September 2001

| magazine = Alternative Press

}}

Radiohead decided that Canned Applause was an unsatisfactory recording location, which Yorke attributed to its proximity to the band members' homes, and Jonny Greenwood attributed to its lack of dining and bathroom facilities.{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=195}} The group had nearly completed four songs: "Electioneering", "No Surprises", "Subterranean Homesick Alien" and "The Tourist".{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=25}} They took a break from recording to embark on an American tour in 1996, opening for Alanis Morissette, performing early versions of several new songs. Jonny Greenwood said his main memory of the tour was of "playing interminable Hammond organ solos to an audience full of quietly despairing teenage girls".{{Cite magazine |last=Greene |first=Andy |date=2018-12-13 |title=Flashback: Radiohead open for Alanis Morissette in 1996 |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/see-radiohead-play-paranoid-android-1996-768862/ |access-date=2024-09-13 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}

During the tour, Baz Luhrmann commissioned Radiohead to write a song for his upcoming film Romeo + Juliet and gave them the final 30 minutes of the film. Yorke said: "When we saw the scene in which Claire Danes holds the Colt .45 against her head, we started working on the song immediately." Soon afterwards, Radiohead wrote and recorded "Exit Music (For a Film)", which plays over the film's end credits but was excluded from the soundtrack album at their request.{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=67}} The song helped shape the direction of the rest of the album. Yorke said it "was the first performance we'd ever recorded where every note of it made my head spin—something I was proud of, something I could turn up really, really loud and not wince at any moment."

File:St Catherines Court1.jpg, a rural mansion near Bath, Somerset.]]

Radiohead resumed recording in September 1996 at St Catherine's Court, a historic mansion near Bath owned by the actress Jane Seymour.{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=196}} It was unoccupied but sometimes used for corporate functions. The change of setting marked an important transition in the recording process. Greenwood said it "was less like a laboratory experiment, which is what being in a studio is usually like, and more about a group of people making their first record together".

The band made extensive use of the different rooms and acoustics in the house. The vocals on "Exit Music (For a Film)" feature natural reverberation achieved by recording on a stone staircase, and "Let Down" was recorded in a ballroom at 3 am.{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=35}} Isolation allowed the band to work at a different pace, with more flexible and spontaneous working hours. O'Brien said that "the biggest pressure was actually completing [the recording]. We weren't given any deadlines and we had complete freedom to do what we wanted. We were delaying it because we were a bit frightened of actually finishing stuff."

{{citation

| last = Harris

| first = John

| author-link = John Harris (critic)

| title = Renaissance Men

| date = January 1998

| magazine = Select

}}

Yorke was satisfied with the recordings made at the house, and enjoyed working without audio separation, meaning that instruments were not overdubbed separately. O'Brien estimated that 80 per cent of the album was recorded live, and said: "I hate doing overdubs, because it just doesn't feel natural. ... Something special happens when you're playing live; a lot of it is just looking at one another and knowing there are four other people making it happen."{{citation

| first = Aidin

| last = Vaziri

| title = British Pop Aesthetes

| date = October 1997

| magazine = Guitar Player

}}{{citation

| first = Matt

| last = Diehl

| title = The 50th Anniversary of Rock: The Moments – 1996/1997: Radio Radiohead Get Paranoid

| date = June 2004

| magazine = Rolling Stone

}} Many of Yorke's vocals were first takes; he felt that if he made other attempts he would "start to think about it and it would sound really lame".

Radiohead returned to Canned Applause in October for rehearsals,{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=198}} and completed most of OK Computer in further sessions at St. Catherine's Court. By Christmas, they had narrowed the track listing to 14 songs.{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=199}} Additional recording took place at the Church in Crouch End, London.{{cite web |author=Trendall |first=Andrew |date=17 October 2024 |title=Colin Greenwood on capturing 'the middle era' of Radiohead – and what's next for the band |url=https://www.nme.com/news/music/radiohead-interview-colin-greenwood-how-to-disappear-photo-book-band-future-tour-3803426 |access-date=17 October 2024 |website=NME |publisher=}} The strings were recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London in January 1997. Godrich mixed OK Computer at various London studios.{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=200}} He preferred a quick and "hands-off" approach to mixing, and said: "I feel like I get too into it. I start fiddling with things and I fuck it up ... I generally take about half a day to do a mix. If it's any longer than that, you lose it. The hardest thing is trying to stay fresh, to stay objective." OK Computer was mastered by Chris Blair at Abbey Road{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=200}} and completed on 6 March 1997.{{Cite magazine |date=5 June 2017 |title=OK Computer turns 20 |url=https://timeoutabudhabi.com/music/77402-ok-computer-turns-20 |access-date=28 June 2024 |magazine=Time Out Abu Dhabi |publisher=Time Out Group}}

{{multiple image

| direction = vertical

| alignment = center

| perrow = 2

| total_width = 220

| image1 = Miles Davis - 1986 (cropped).jpg

| image2 = Noam chomsky cropped.jpg

| footer = The jazz fusion of Miles Davis (top, 1986) and political writings of Noam Chomsky (bottom, 2005) influenced OK Computer.

}}

Yorke said Radiohead's starting point was the "incredibly dense and terrifying sound" of Bitches Brew, the 1970 avant-garde jazz fusion album by Miles Davis. He said: "It was building something up and watching it fall apart, that's the beauty of it. It was at the core of what we were trying to do with OK Computer."{{citation

| first = Phil

| last = Sutcliffe

| title = Radiohead: An Interview with Thom Yorke

| magazine = Q

| date = October 1999}} Yorke identified "I'll Wear It Proudly" by Elvis Costello, "Fall on Me" by R.E.M., "Dress" by PJ Harvey and "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles as particularly influential. Radiohead drew further inspiration from the film soundtrack composer Ennio Morricone and the krautrock band Can, musicians Yorke described as "abusing the recording process". Jonny Greenwood described OK Computer as a product of being "in love with all these brilliant records ... trying to recreate them, and missing".

According to Yorke, Radiohead hoped to achieve an "atmosphere that's perhaps a bit shocking when you first hear it, but only as shocking as the atmosphere on the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds". They extended their instrumentation to include electric piano, Mellotron, and glockenspiel. Jonny Greenwood summarised the exploratory approach as "when we've got what we suspect to be an amazing song, but nobody knows what they're gonna play on it".{{citation

| first = Stuart

| last = Bailie

| title = Viva la Megabytes!

| date = 21 June 1997

| magazine = NME}} Spin said OK Computer sounded like "a DIY electronica album made with guitars".

{{citation

| first = Barry

| last = Walters

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_uWz-QtMkI4C&pg=PA112

| title = Radiohead: OK Computer (Capitol)

| date = August 1997

| access-date = 6 April 2020

| magazine = Spin

| volume = 13

| issue = 5

| pages = 112–13}}

Critics suggested a stylistic debt to 1970s progressive rock, an influence that Radiohead have disavowed.{{citation

| first = Kelefa

| last = Sanneh

| author-link = Kelefa Sanneh

| title = The Persistence of Prog Rock

| url = https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/19/the-persistence-of-prog-rock

| date = 19 June 2017

| magazine = The New Yorker

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170612062331/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/19/the-persistence-of-prog-rock

| archive-date = 12 June 2017

| url-status = live}} According to Andy Greene in Rolling Stone, Radiohead "were collectively hostile to seventies progressive rock ... but that didn't stop them from reinventing prog from scratch on OK Computer, particularly on the six-and-a-half-minute 'Paranoid Android'." Tom Hull believed the album was "still prog, but may just be because rock has so thoroughly enveloped musical storytelling that this sort of thing has become inevitable." Writing in 2017, The New Yorker{{'}}s Kelefa Sanneh said OK Computer "was profoundly prog: grand and dystopian, with a lead single that was more than six minutes long".

The album's lyrics, written by Yorke, are more abstract compared to his personal, emotional lyrics for The Bends. Critic Alex Ross said the lyrics "seemed a mixture of overheard conversations, techno-speak, and fragments of a harsh diary" with "images of riot police at political rallies, anguished lives in tidy suburbs, yuppies freaking out, sympathetic aliens gliding overhead."{{sfn|Ross|2010|p=88}} Recurring themes include transport, technology, insanity, death, modern British life, globalisation and anti-capitalism.{{sfn|Footman|2007|pp=142–150}} Yorke said: "On this album, the outside world became all there was ... I'm just taking Polaroids of things around me moving too fast."

{{citation

| first = Mark

| last = Sutherland

| title = Rounding the Bends

| date = 24 May 1997

| magazine = Melody Maker

}} He told Q: "It was like there's a secret camera in a room and it's watching the character who walks in—a different character for each song. The camera's not quite me. It's neutral, emotionless. But not emotionless at all. In fact, the very opposite."

{{citation

| first = Phil

| last = Sutcliffe

| title = Death is all around

| date = 1 October 1997

| magazine = Q}} Yorke also drew inspiration from books, including Noam Chomsky's political writing,{{citation

| last = Sakamoto

| first = John

| author-link = John Sakamoto

| title = Radiohead talk about their new video

| magazine = Jam!

| date = 2 June 1997

}} Eric Hobsbawm's The Age of Extremes, Will Hutton's The State We're In, Jonathan Coe's What a Carve Up! and Philip K. Dick's VALIS.{{citation

| first = Dorian

| last = Lynskey

| title = Welcome to the Machine

| date = February 2011

| magazine = Q|ref=none}}

The songs of OK Computer do not have a coherent narrative, and the album's lyrics are generally considered abstract or oblique. Nonetheless, many musical critics, journalists, and scholars consider the album to be a concept album or song cycle, or have analysed it as a concept album, noting its strong thematic cohesion, aesthetic unity, and the structural logic of the song sequencing.Conversely, other critics have also argued that OK Computer is a concept album only in part, or in a nontraditional or qualified sense, or is not a concept album at all. See Letts 2010, pp. 28–32 Although the songs share common themes, Radiohead have said they do not consider OK Computer a concept album and did not intend to link the songs through a narrative or unifying concept while it was being written.{{citation

| first = Sandy

| last = Masuo

| title = Subterranean Aliens

| date = September 1997

| magazine = Request

}}{{citation|first=Tony|last=Wadsworth|title=The Making of OK Computer|date=20 December 1997|newspaper=The Guardian}}{{sfn|Letts|2010|pp=32}} Jonny Greenwood said: "I think one album title and one computer voice do not make a concept album. That's a bit of a red herring."{{sfn|Clarke|2010|p=124}} However, the band intended the album to be heard as a whole, and spent two weeks ordering the track list. O'Brien said: "The context of each song is really important ... It's not a concept album but there is a continuity there."

{{Listen

| filename = Airbag.ogg

| title = "Airbag"

| description = "Airbag" features sparse bass and a programmed drum beat influenced by the music of DJ Shadow. This audio sample contains a portion of the song's first verse.

| filename2 = Paranoid Android.ogg

| title2 = "Paranoid Android"

| description2 = "Paranoid Android", Radiohead's second-longest song, has a multi-section structure and has been called one of the most ambitious songs of all time. This audio sample is from the middle of the second section to the beginning of the first guitar solo.}}

The opening track, "Airbag", is underpinned by a beat built from a seconds-long recording of Selway's drumming. The band sampled the drum track with a sampler and edited it with a Macintosh computer, inspired by the music of DJ Shadow, but admitted to making approximations in emulating Shadow's style due to their programming inexperience.{{cite journal

|first = Mac

|last = Randall

|title = Radiohead interview: The Golden Age of Radiohead

|url = http://www.guitarworld.com/radiohead_the_golden_age_of_radiohead?page=0,3

|date = 1 April 1998

|journal = Guitar World

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121003065151/http://www.guitarworld.com/radiohead_the_golden_age_of_radiohead?page=0,3

|archive-date = 3 October 2012

|url-status = dead

}}{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=42}} The bassline stops and starts unexpectedly, achieving an effect similar to 1970s dub.{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=43}} The original draft of the lyrics for "Airbag" were written inside a copy of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience that Yorke had also annotated with his own notes; this personal copy was later auctioned off by Yorke in 2016 with proceeds going to Oxfam.{{cite web |first = Parker |last = Hall |title = Thom Yorke to auction original Radiohead lyrics, written inside a William Blake novel |website = Digital Trends |url = https://www.digitaltrends.com/music/radioheads-thom-yorke-auction-handwritten-lyrics/ |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220812070249/https://www.digitaltrends.com/music/radioheads-thom-yorke-auction-handwritten-lyrics/ |date = 4 February 2016 |archive-date = 12 August 2022 |url-status = live}} The song's references to automobile crashes and reincarnation were inspired by a magazine article titled "An Airbag Saved My Life" and The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Yorke wrote "Airbag" about the illusion of safety offered by modern transit, and "the idea that whenever you go out on the road you could be killed". The BBC wrote about the influence of J. G. Ballard, especially his 1973 novel Crash, on the lyrics.{{cite news|last=Dowling|first=Stephen|title=What pop music tells us about JG Ballard|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8008277.stm|publisher=BBC|access-date=17 January 2017|date=20 April 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090423052125/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8008277.stm|archive-date=23 April 2009|url-status=live}} Music journalist Tim Footman noted that the song's technical innovations and lyrical concerns demonstrated the "key paradox" of the album: "The musicians and producer are delighting in the sonic possibilities of modern technology; the singer, meanwhile, is railing against its social, moral, and psychological impact ... It's a contradiction mirrored in the culture clash of the music, with the 'real' guitars negotiating an uneasy stand-off with the hacked-up, processed drums."{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=46}}

Split into four sections with an overall running time of 6:23, "Paranoid Android" is among the band's longest songs. The unconventional structure was inspired by the Beatles' "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", which also eschew a traditional verse-chorus-verse structure.{{sfn|Randall|2000|pp=214–215}} Its musical style was also inspired by the music of the Pixies. The song was written by Yorke after an unpleasant night at a Los Angeles bar, where he saw a woman react violently after someone spilled a drink on her. Its title and lyrics are a reference to Marvin the Paranoid Android from Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.

The use of electric keyboards in "Subterranean Homesick Alien" is an example of the band's attempts to emulate the atmosphere of Bitches Brew.{{citation

| first = Caitlin

| last = Moran

| author-link = Caitlin Moran

| title = Everything was just fear

| magazine = Select

| page = 87

| date = July 1997}}{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=62}} Its title references the Bob Dylan song "Subterranean Homesick Blues", and the lyrics describe an isolated narrator who fantasises about being abducted by extraterrestrials. The narrator speculates that, upon returning to Earth, his friends would not believe his story and he would remain a misfit.{{sfn|Footman|2007|pp=60–61}} The lyrics were inspired by an assignment from Yorke's time at Abingdon School to write a piece of "Martian poetry", a British literary movement that humorously recontextualises mundane aspects of human life from an alien perspective.{{sfn|Footman|2007|pp=59–60}}

William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet inspired the lyrics for "Exit Music (For a Film)". Initially Yorke wanted to work lines from the play into the song, but the final draft of the lyrics became a broad summary of the narrative.{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=67}} He said: "I saw the Zeffirelli version when I was 13 and I cried my eyes out, because I couldn't understand why, the morning after they shagged, they didn't just run away. It's a song for two people who should run away before all the bad stuff starts."{{cite journal|first=Caitlin|last=Moran|author-link=Caitlin Moran|title=I was feeling incredible hysteria and panic ...|journal=Select|date=July 1997|page=92}} Yorke compared the opening of the song, which mostly features his singing paired with acoustic guitar, to Johnny Cash's At Folsom Prison.{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=154}} Mellotron choir and other electronic voices are used throughout the track.{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=66}} The song climaxes with the entrance of drums{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=66}} and distorted bass run through a fuzz pedal.{{citation

| first = Harry

| last = Wylie

| title = Radiohead

| magazine = Total Guitar

| date = November 1997}} The climactic portion of the song is an attempt to emulate the sound of trip hop group Portishead, but in a style that the bassist, Colin Greenwood, called more "stilted and leaden and mechanical".{{citation

| first = Stephen

| last = Dalton

| title = The Dour & The Glory

| magazine = Vox

| date = September 1997}} The song concludes by fading back to Yorke's voice, acoustic guitar and Mellotron.{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=67}}

"Let Down" contains multilayered arpeggiated guitars and electric piano. Jonny Greenwood plays his guitar part in a different time signature to the other instruments.{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=73}} O'Brien said the song was influenced by Phil Spector, a producer and songwriter best known for his reverberating "Wall of Sound" recording techniques. The lyrics, Yorke said, are about a fear of being trapped, and "about that feeling that you get when you're in transit but you're not in control of it—you just go past thousands of places and thousands of people and you're completely removed from it". Of the line "Don't get sentimental / It always ends up drivel", Yorke said: "Sentimentality is being emotional for the sake of it. We're bombarded with sentiment, people emoting. That's the Let Down. Feeling every emotion is fake. Or rather every emotion is on the same plane whether it's a car advert or a pop song." Yorke felt that scepticism of emotion was characteristic of Generation X and that it had informed the band's approach to the album.{{citation

| first = Mary

| last = Gaitskill

| title = Radiohead: Alarms and Surprises

| magazine = Alternative Press

| date = April 1998}}

"Karma Police" has two main verses that alternate with a subdued break, followed by a different ending section.{{cite web

| first = Steve

| last = Huey

| title = Karma Police

| website = AllMusic

| url = https://www.allmusic.com/song/karma-police-t1416670

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101210235903/http://allmusic.com/song/karma-police-t1416670

| archive-date = 10 December 2010

| url-status = live}} The verses centre around acoustic guitar and piano, with a chord progression indebted to the Beatles' "Sexy Sadie".{{citation|last=Lowe|first=Steve|title=Back to Save the Universe|date=December 1999|magazine=Select}}{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=79}} Starting at 2:34, the song transitions into an orchestrated section with the repeated line "For a minute there, I lost myself". It ends with feedback generated with a delay effect.{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=79}} The title and lyrics to "Karma Police" originate from an in-joke during The Bends tour; Jonny Greenwood said "whenever someone was behaving in a particularly shitty way, we'd say 'The karma police will catch up with him sooner or later.{{'"}}

File:Lcii-system.jpg system. Radiohead used the synthesised voice of "Fred", included with older Macintosh software, to recite the lyrics of "Fitter Happier".]]

"Fitter Happier" is a short musique concrète track that consists of sampled musical and background sound and spoken-word lyrics recited by "Fred", a synthesised voice from the Macintosh SimpleText application.{{sfn|Randall|2000|pp=158–159}} Yorke wrote the lyrics "in ten minutes" after a period of writer's block while the rest of the band were playing. He described the words as a checklist of slogans for the 1990s; he considered it "the most upsetting thing I've ever written",{{citation

| first = Mark

| last = Sutherland

| title = Return of the Mac!

| date = 31 May 1997

| magazine = Melody Maker}} and said it was "liberating" to give the words to a neutral-sounding computer voice. Among the samples in the background is a loop from the 1975 film Three Days of the Condor.{{sfn|Randall|2000|pp=158–159}} The band considered using "Fitter Happier" as the album's opening track, but decided the effect was off-putting.

Steve Lowe called the song "penetrating surgery on pseudo-meaningful corporations' lifestyles" with "a repugnance for prevailing yuppified social values". Among the loosely connected imagery of the lyrics, Footman identified the song's subject as "the materially comfortable, morally empty embodiment of modern, Western humanity, half-salaryman, half-Stepford Wife, destined for the metaphorical farrowing crate, propped up on Prozac, Viagra and anything else his insurance plan can cover."{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=86}} Sam Steele called the lyrics "a stream of received imagery: scraps of media information, interspersed with lifestyle ad slogans and private prayers for a healthier existence. It is the hum of a world buzzing with words, one of the messages seeming to be that we live in such a synthetic universe we have grown unable to detect reality from artifice."{{citation

| first = Sam

| last = Steele

| title = Grand Control to Major Thom

| date = July 1997

| magazine = Vox}}

"Electioneering", featuring a cowbell and a distorted guitar solo, is the album's most rock-oriented track and one of the heaviest songs Radiohead has recorded. It has been compared to Radiohead's earlier style on Pablo Honey.{{sfn|Randall|2000|pp=158–159}}{{sfn|Footman|2007|pp=93–94}} The cynical "Electioneering" is the album's most directly political song,{{citation|title=The 100 Greatest Albums in the Universe|magazine=Q|date=February 1998}} with lyrics inspired by the poll tax riots. The song was also inspired by Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent, a book analysing contemporary mass media under the propaganda model. Yorke likened its lyrics, which focus on political and artistic compromise, to "a preacher ranting in front of a bank of microphones".{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=226}} Regarding its oblique political references, Yorke said, "What can you say about the IMF, or politicians? Or people selling arms to African countries, employing slave labour or whatever. What can you say? You just write down 'Cattle prods and the IMF' and people who know, know." O'Brien said the song was about the promotional cycle of touring: "After a while you feel like a politician who has to kiss babies and shake hands all day long."

{{Listen

| filename = Climbing Up the Walls.ogg

| title = 'Climbing Up the Walls'

| pos = left

| description = "Climbing Up the Walls" contains sampled ambient sounds, distorted drums and Jonny Greenwood's Krzysztof Penderecki-influenced string section. This audio sample is from the beginning of the second chorus to the guitar solo.}}

File:Krzysztof Penderecki 20080706.jpg by Krzysztof Penderecki (pictured) inspired the string arrangement on "Climbing Up the Walls".]]

"Climbing Up the Walls" – described by Melody Maker as "monumental chaos" – is layered with a string section, ambient noise and repetitive, metallic percussion. The string section, composed by Jonny Greenwood and written for 16 instruments, was inspired by modern classical composer Krzysztof Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima. Greenwood said, "I got very excited at the prospect of doing string parts that didn't sound like 'Eleanor Rigby', which is what all string parts have sounded like for the past 30 years." Select described Yorke's distraught vocals and the atonal strings as "Thom's voice dissolving into a fearful, blood-clotted scream as Jonny whips the sound of a million dying elephants into a crescendo". For the lyrics, Yorke drew from his time as an orderly in a mental hospital during the Care in the Community policy of deinstitutionalising mental health patients, and a New York Times article about serial killers. He said:

{{blockquote|This is about the unspeakable. Literally skull-crushing. I used to work in a mental hospital around the time that Care in the Community started, and we all just knew what was going to happen. And it's one of the scariest things to happen in this country, because a lot of them weren't just harmless ... It was hailing violently when we recorded this. It seemed to add to the mood.}}

"No Surprises", recorded in a single take,{{citation

| first1 = John

| last1 = Harris

| first2 = Serge

| last2 = Simonart

| title = Everything in Its Right Place

| date = August 2001

| magazine = Q}} is arranged with electric guitar (inspired by the Beach Boys' "Wouldn't It Be Nice"),{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=110}} acoustic guitar, glockenspiel and vocal harmonies.{{citation

| first = Bill

| last = Janovitz

| title = No Surprises

| magazine = AllMusic

| url = https://www.allmusic.com/song/no-surprises-t1416673

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101210230041/http://allmusic.com/song/no-surprises-t1416673

| archive-date = 10 December 2010

| url-status = live}} The band strove to replicate the mood of Louis Armstrong's 1968 recording of "What a Wonderful World" and the soul music of Marvin Gaye. Yorke identified the subject of the song as "someone who's trying hard to keep it together but can't". The lyrics seem to portray a suicide or an unfulfilling life, and dissatisfaction with contemporary social and political order.{{sfn|Footman|2007|pp=108–109}} Some lines refer to rural{{citation

| first = Stuart

| last = Berman

| title = Outsiders

| date = July 1997

| magazine = Chart}} or suburban imagery. One of the key metaphors in the song is the opening line, "a heart that's full up like a landfill"; according to Yorke, the song is a "fucked-up nursery rhyme" that "stems from my unhealthy obsession of what to do with plastic boxes and plastic bottles ... All this stuff is getting buried, the debris of our lives. It doesn't rot, it just stays there. That's how we deal, that's how I deal with stuff, I bury it."{{cite web

| first = Ken

| last = Micallef

| title = I'm OK, You're OK

| date = 17 August 1997 | publisher = Yahoo! Launch

| url = http://www.music.yahoo.ca/read/interview/12052847

| archive-url = https://archive.today/20130101173137/http://www.music.yahoo.ca/read/interview/12052847

| archive-date = 1 January 2013

| url-status = dead

}} The song's gentle mood contrasts sharply with its harsh lyrics;{{citation | first = Scott

| last = Kara | title = Experimental Creeps | date = September 2000|url=https://citizeninsane.eu/media/nez/ripitup/pt_2000-09_ripitup.htm | magazine = Rip It Up}} Steele said, "even when the subject is suicide ... O'Brien's guitar is as soothing as balm on a red-raw psyche, the song rendered like a bittersweet child's prayer."

"Lucky" was inspired by the Bosnian War. Sam Taylor said it was "the one track on [The Help Album] to capture the sombre terror of the conflict", and that its serious subject matter and dark tone made the band "too 'real' to be allowed on the Britpop gravy train".{{citation

| first = Sam

| last = Taylor

| title = Gives You the Creeps

| date = 5 November 1995

| magazine = The Observer}} The lyrics were pared down from many pages of notes, and were originally more politically explicit. The lyrics depict a man surviving an aeroplane crash and are drawn from Yorke's anxiety about transportation. The musical centerpiece of "Lucky" is its three-piece guitar arrangement, which grew out of the high-pitched chiming sound played by O'Brien in the song's introduction, achieved by strumming above the guitar nut.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-guitarists-of-all-time-19691231/ed-obrien-20101202|title=Ed O'Brien – 100 Greatest Guitarists: David Fricke's Picks|magazine=Rolling Stone |access-date=24 August 2015|date=3 December 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909205556/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-guitarists-of-all-time-19691231/ed-obrien-20101202|archive-date=9 September 2015|url-status=live}} Critics likened its lead guitar to Pink Floyd and, more broadly, arena rock.{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=161}}{{citation

| first = Sam

| last = Taylor

| title = Mother, Should I Build a Wall?

| date = 5 November 1995

| magazine = The Observer}}{{citation

| first = Jim

| last = Shelley

| title = Nice Dream?

| date = 13 July 1996

| magazine = The Guardian}}

The album ends with "The Tourist", which Jonny Greenwood wrote as an unusually staid piece where something "doesn't have to happen ... every three seconds". He said, {{"'}}The Tourist' doesn't sound like Radiohead at all. It has become a song with space."{{citation

| title = Radiohead: The Album, Song by Song, of the Year

| magazine = HUMO

| date = 22 July 1997}} The lyrics, written by Yorke, were inspired by his experience of watching American tourists in France frantically trying to see as many tourist attractions as possible. He said it was chosen as the closing track because "a lot of the album was about background noise and everything moving too fast and not being able to keep up. It was really obvious to have 'Tourist' as the last song. That song was written to me from me, saying, 'Idiot, slow down.' Because at that point, I needed to. So that was the only resolution there could be: to slow down."{{cite web

| first = Dave

| last = DiMartino

| title = Give Radiohead Your Computer

| publisher = Yahoo! Launch

| date = 2 May 1997

| url = http://music.yahoo.com/read/interview/12048024

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070814183856/http://music.yahoo.com/read/interview/12048024

| archive-date = 14 August 2007}} The "unexpectedly bluesy waltz" draws to a close as the guitars drop out, leaving only drums and bass, and concludes with the sound of a small bell.

The title OK Computer is taken from the 1978 radio series Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in which the character Zaphod Beeblebrox speaks the phrase "Okay, computer, I want full manual control now." The members of Radiohead listened to the series on the bus during their 1996 tour and Yorke made a note of the phrase.{{citation|last=Greene|first=Andy|title=Radiohead's rhapsody in gloom: OK Computer 20 years later|date=31 May 2017|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/exclusive-thom-yorke-and-radiohead-on-ok-computer-w484570|magazine=Rolling Stone|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170531145331/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/exclusive-thom-yorke-and-radiohead-on-ok-computer-w484570|archive-date=31 May 2017|url-status=live}} "OK Computer" became a working title for "Palo Alto", a B-side for the single "No Surprises".{{sfn|Footman|2007|pp=36–37}} The title stuck with the band; according to Jonny Greenwood, it "started attaching itself and creating all these weird resonances with what we were trying to do".

Yorke said the title "refers to embracing the future, it refers to being terrified of the future, of our future, of everyone else's. It's to do with standing in a room where all these appliances are going off and all these machines and computers and so on ... and the sound it makes."{{sfn|Clarke|2010|p=124}} He described the title as "a really resigned, terrified phrase", to him similar to the Coca-Cola advertisement "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing". Wired writer Leander Kahney suggests that it is an homage to Macintosh computers, as the Mac's speech recognition software responds to the command "OK computer" as an alternative to clicking the "OK" button.{{citation

|first = Leander

|last = Kahney

|title = He Writes the Songs: Mac Songs

|url = https://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2002/02/50161

|date = 1 February 2002

|magazine = Wired

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120413184727/http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2002/02/50161

|archive-date = 13 April 2012

|url-status = dead

}} Other titles considered were Ones and Zeroes—a reference to the binary numeral system—and Your Home May Be at Risk If You Do Not Keep Up Payments.{{sfn|Footman|2007|pp=36–37}}

File:OK Computer booklet page.png and English. Yorke said the motif of two stick figures shaking hands symbolised exploitation.]]

The OK Computer artwork is a collage of images and text created by Yorke (credited as the White Chocolate Farm) and Stanley Donwood.{{citation

| first = Sascha

| last = Krüger

| title = Exit Music

| language = de

| date = July 2008

| magazine = Visions}} Yorke commissioned Donwood to work on a visual diary alongside the recording sessions. He said he did not feel confident in his music until he saw a visual representation to accompany it. According to Donwood, the blue-and-white palette was the result of "trying to make something the colour of bleached bone".{{cite web

| first = Ryan

| last = Dombal

| title = Take Cover: Radiohead Artist Stanley Donwood

| url = https://pitchfork.com/news/40032-take-cover-radiohead-artist-stanley-donwood/

| date = 15 September 2010 | magazine = Pitchfork

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110830190855/http://pitchfork.com/news/40032-take-cover-radiohead-artist-stanley-donwood/

| archive-date = 30 August 2011

| url-status = live

}}{{sfn|Griffiths|2004|p=79}}

The image of two stick figures shaking hands appears in the liner notes and on the disc label in CD and LP releases. Yorke said the image symbolised exploitation: "Someone's being sold something they don't really want, and someone's being friendly because they're trying to sell something. That's what it means to me." The image was later used on the cover for Radiohead: The Best Of (2008). Explaining the artwork's themes, Yorke said, "It's quite sad, and quite funny as well. All the artwork and so on ... It was all the things that I hadn't said in the songs."

Motifs in the artwork include motorways, aeroplanes, families, corporate logos and cityscapes.{{sfn|Footman|2007|pp=127–130}} The photograph of a motorway on the cover was likely taken in Hartford, Connecticut, where Radiohead performed in 1996.{{Cite web |last=Young |first=Alex |date=2017-05-09 |title=Location of Radiohead's OK Computer artwork has been discovered |url=https://consequence.net/2017/05/location-of-radioheads-ok-computer-has-been-discovered/ |access-date=2024-06-29 |website=Consequence |language=en-US}} The words "Lost Child" feature prominently, and the booklet artwork contains phrases in the constructed language Esperanto and health-related instructions in both English and Greek. The Uncut critic David Cavanagh said the use of non-sequiturs created an effect "akin to being lifestyle-coached by a lunatic".{{citation

| first = David

| last = Cavanagh

| author-link = David Cavanagh

| title = Communication Breakdown

| date = February 2007

| magazine = Uncut}} White scribbles, Donwood's method of correcting mistakes rather than using the computer function undo, are present everywhere in the collages.{{sfn|Griffiths|2004|p=81}}

The liner notes contain the full lyrics, rendered with atypical syntax, alternate spelling{{citation

| first = Dean

| last = Kuipers

| title = Fridge Buzz Now

| date = March 1998

| magazine = Ray Gun}} and small annotations.For example, the line "in a deep deep sleep of the innocent" from "Airbag" is rendered as ">in a deep deep sssleep of tHe inno$ent/completely terrified". See Footman 2007, p. 45 The lyrics are also arranged and spaced in shapes that resemble hidden images.{{citation

|first = Mark

|last = Arminio

|title = Between the Liner Notes: 6 Things You Can Learn By Obsessing Over Album Artwork

|url = http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/27053

|date = 26 June 2009

|magazine = Mental floss

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121006181755/http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/27053

|archive-date = 6 October 2012

|url-status = dead

}} In keeping with Radiohead's emerging anti-corporate stance, the production credits contain the ironic copyright notice "Lyrics reproduced by kind permission even though we wrote them."{{citation

| first = Michael

| last = Odell

| title = Inside the Mind of Radiohead's Mad Genius!

| date = September 2003

| magazine = Blender}}

According to Selway, Radiohead's American label Capitol saw the album as {{"'}}commercial suicide'. They weren't really into it. At that point, we got the fear. How is this going to be received?"

{{citation

| first = Paul

| last = Cantin

| title = Radiohead's OK Computer confounds expectations

| date = 19 October 1997

| newspaper = Ottawa Sun

}} Yorke recalled: "When we first gave it to Capitol, they were taken aback. I don't really know why it's so important now, but I'm excited about it."{{citation|last=Strauss|first=Neil|title=The Pop Life: The Insane Clown Posse, recalled by Disney and now in demand Promoting Radiohead|date=July 1997|magazine=The New York Times}} Capitol lowered its sales forecast from two million to half a million.{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=202}} In O'Brien's view, only Parlophone, the band's British label, remained optimistic, while global distributors dramatically reduced their sales estimates.{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=242}} Label representatives were reportedly disappointed with the lack of marketable songs, especially the absence of anything resembling Radiohead's 1992 hit "Creep".

{{citation

| first = Pat

| last = Blashill

| title = Band of the Year: Radiohead

| date = January 1998

| magazine = Spin}} "OK Computer isn't the album we're going to rule the world with", Colin Greenwood predicted at the time. "It's not as hitting-everything-loudly-whilst-waggling-the-tongue-in-and-out, like The Bends. There's less of the Van Halen factor."

File:Radiohead Matters.ogg, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, and Phil Selway discussing OK Computer in 1997]]

File:Fitter Happier shirt.png and shirts (shirt design pictured).]]

Parlophone launched an unorthodox advertising campaign, taking full-page advertisements in high-profile British newspapers and tube stations with lyrics for "Fitter Happier" in large black letters against white backgrounds. The same lyrics, and artwork adapted from the album, were repurposed for shirt designs. Yorke said they chose the "Fitter Happier" lyrics to link what a critic called "a coherent set of concerns" between the album artwork and its promotional material.

Other unconventional merchandise included a floppy disk containing Radiohead screensavers and an FM radio in the shape of a desktop computer.{{cite news

| first = Chris

| last = Martins

| url = http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2011/03/radiohead_newspaper_collectible_walkman_universal_sigh.php?page=2

| title = Radiohead Gives Out Free Newspaper in LA: Here's a Top Eight List of the Band's Most Peculiar Swag

| newspaper = Los Angeles Times

| date = 29 March 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120423174629/http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2011/03/radiohead_newspaper_collectible_walkman_universal_sigh.php?page=2

| archive-date = 23 April 2012 | url-status = dead

| access-date = 30 September 2011 }} In America, Capitol sent 1,000 cassette players to prominent members of the press and music industry, each with a copy of the album permanently glued inside.{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=243}} Gary Gersh, Capitol's president, said: "Our job is just to take them as a left-of-centre band and bring the centre to them. That's our focus, and we won't let up until they're the biggest band in the world."{{citation

| first = Barney

| last = Hoskyns

| title = Exit Music: Can Radiohead save rock music as we (don't) know it?

| magazine = GQ

| date = October 2000}}

Radiohead planned to produce a video for every song on the album, but the project was abandoned due to financial and time constraints.{{sfn|Clarke|2010|p=113}} According to Grant Gee, the director of the "No Surprises" video, the plan was cancelled when the videos for "Paranoid Android" and "Karma Police" went over budget.{{Cite web|last=Scovell|first=Adam|date=15 January 2018|title=The Bends? Grant Gee On The Day Thom Yorke Nearly Drowned For Art|url=https://thequietus.com/articles/23859-grant-gee-radiohead-interview-meeting-people-is-easy|access-date=15 February 2021|website=The Quietus|language=en-us}} Also cancelled were plans for the trip hop group Massive Attack to remix the album.{{cite web|date=4 March 1998|title=Massive Attack Drops Plans To Remix Radiohead, Teams With Cocteau Twins|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1427202/massive-attack-drops-plans-remix-radiohead-teams-with-cocteau-twins.jhtml|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120621132802/http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1427202/massive-attack-drops-plans-remix-radiohead-teams-with-cocteau-twins.jhtml|archive-date=21 June 2012|publisher=MTV News}}

Radiohead's website was created to promote the album, which went live at the time of its release, making the band one of the first to manage an online presence.{{cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/features/article/9890-internet-explorers-the-curious-case-of-radioheads-online-fandom/|title=Internet Explorers: The Curious Case of Radiohead's Online Fandom|last=Jeremy|first=Gordon|date=12 May 2016|website=Pitchfork|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512175336/http://pitchfork.com/features/article/9890-internet-explorers-the-curious-case-of-radioheads-online-fandom/|archive-date=12 May 2016|access-date=21 October 2019}} The first major Radiohead fansite, Atease, was created shortly following the album's release, with its title taken from "Fitter Happier". In 2017, for OK Computer{{'}}s 20th anniversary, Radiohead temporarily restored their website to its 1997 state.{{Cite web |last=Plaugic |first=Lizzie |date=2 May 2017 |title=Radiohead restores the '1997 version' of its website for OK Computer remaster |url=https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/2/15518820/radiohead-ok-computer-remaster-1997-website |access-date=14 May 2021 |website=The Verge |language=en}}

Radiohead chose "Paranoid Android" as the lead single, despite its unusually long running time and lack of a catchy chorus.{{citation

| first = Mark

| last = Sutherland

| title = Rounding the Bends

| magazine = Melody Maker

| date = 4 March 1998}} Colin Greenwood said the song was "hardly the radio-friendly, breakthrough, buzz bin unit shifter [radio stations] can have been expecting", but that Capitol supported the choice. The song premiered on the Radio 1 programme The Evening Session in April 1997{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=201}} and was released as a single in May 1997.{{citation

| first = David

| last = Broc

| title = Remembering the Future – Interview with Jonny Greenwood

| magazine = MondoSonoro

| date = June 2001}} On the strength of frequent radio play on Radio 1 and rotation of the song's music video on MTV,{{citation

| first = Bob

| last = Gulla

| title = Radiohead: At Long Last, a Future for Rock Guitar

| magazine = Guitar World

| date = October 1997}} "Paranoid Android" reached number three in the UK, giving Radiohead their highest chart position.{{sfn|Randall|2000|pp=242–243}}

"Karma Police" was released in August 1997 and "No Surprises" in January 1998.{{sfn|Clarke|2010|pp=117–119}} Both singles charted in the UK top ten, and "Karma Police" peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.{{cite web|title=Radiohead {{!}} full Official Chart History|url=https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/28161/radiohead/|publisher=Official Charts Company|access-date=15 August 2020}}{{cite magazine|title=Radiohead Chart History: Alternative Songs|url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/radiohead/chart-history/mrt/|magazine=Billboard|access-date=15 August 2020}} "Lucky" was released as a single in France, but did not chart.{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=116}} "Let Down", considered for release as the lead single,{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=74}} was issued as a promotional single in September 1997 and charted on the Modern Rock Tracks chart at number 29.

Radiohead embarked on the "Against Demons" world tour in promotion of OK Computer, commencing at the album launch in Barcelona on 22 May 1997.{{sfn|Randall|2000|pp=202–203}} They toured the UK and Ireland, continental Europe, North America, Japan and Australasia,{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=203}} concluding on 18 April 1998 in New York.{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=247}} A documentary by Grant Gee following Radiohead on the tour, Meeting People Is Easy, premiered in November 1998.{{sfn|Clarke|2010|p=134}}

The tour was taxing for the band, particularly Yorke, who said: "That tour was a year too long. I was the first person to tire of it, then six months later everyone in the band was saying it. Then six months after that, nobody was talking any more."{{citation|last=Paphides|first=Peter|title=Into the Light|date=August 2003|magazine=Mojo|author-link=Peter Paphides}} In 2003, Colin Greenwood said the tour was the lowest point in Radiohead's career: "There is nothing worse than having to play in front of 20,000 people when someone—when Thom—absolutely does not want to be there, and you can see that hundred-yard stare in his eyes. You hate having to put your friend through that experience."{{Cite magazine |last=Klosterman |first=Chuck |author-link=Chuck Klosterman |date=July 2003 |title=No more knives |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N0HASap-qBoC&dq=no%20more%20knives&pg=PA68 |access-date=23 June 2024 |magazine=Spin |page=68}}

The tour included Radiohead's first headline performance at Glastonbury Festival on 28 June 1997. Despite technical problems that almost caused Yorke to abandon the stage, the performance was acclaimed and cemented Radiohead as a major live act.{{cite news |last=White |first=Adam |date=23 June 2017 |title=Radiohead's Glastonbury 1997 set was 'like a form of hell', according to guitarist Ed O'Brien |language=en-GB |work=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/news/radioheads-glastonbury-1997-set-like-form-according-guitarist/ |url-status=live |access-date=24 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170623230959/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/news/radioheads-glastonbury-1997-set-like-form-according-guitarist/ |archive-date=23 June 2017}} Rolling Stone described it as "an absolute triumph", and in 2004 Q named it the greatest concert of all time.{{cite magazine |last=Greene |first=Andy |date=18 July 2013 |title=Flashback: Radiohead Live in 1997 |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/flashback-radiohead-perform-paranoid-android-at-glastonbury-in-1997-76628/ |magazine=Rolling Stone |access-date=26 June 2021}} In 2023, the Guardian named it the greatest Glastonbury headline set, writing that "frustration and tension led to the band playing out of their skins, adding a startling potency to a set that confirmed OK Computer as the defining sound of rock's post-Britpop shift".{{Cite news |last=Petridis |first=Alexis |author-link=Alexis Petridis |date=22 June 2023 |title=Glastonbury headline sets – ranked! |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jun/22/glastonbury-headline-sets-ranked |access-date=22 June 2023 |issn=0261-3077}}

OK Computer was released in Japan on 21 May, in the UK on 16 June, in Canada on 17 June and in the US on 1 July.{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=38}} It was released on CD, double-LP vinyl record, cassette and MiniDisc.{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=126}} It debuted at number one in the UK with sales of 136,000 copies in its first week. In the US, it debuted at number 21 on the Billboard 200.{{cite web |last=Blashill |first=Pat |date=16 June 2017 |title=Radiohead's 'OK Computer' Made Them Our 1997 "Band of the Year" |url=https://www.spin.com/featured/radiohead-ok-computer-profile/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190831035259/https://www.spin.com/featured/radiohead-ok-computer-profile/ |archive-date=31 August 2019 |access-date=18 July 2019 |website=Spin}} It held the number-one spot in the UK for two weeks and stayed in the top ten for several more, becoming the UK's eighth-bestselling record that year.{{Cite web |title=End of Year Album Chart Top 100 - 1997 {{!}} Official Charts Company |url=https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/end-of-year-artist-albums-chart/19970105/37502/ |access-date=25 May 2022 |publisher=Official Charts Company |language=en}}

By February 1998, OK Computer had sold at least half a million copies in the UK and 2{{nbsp}}million worldwide. By September 2000, it had sold 4.5{{nbsp}}million copies worldwide.{{citation

| first = Paul

| last = Sexton

| title = Radiohead won't play by rules

| magazine = Billboard

| date = 16 September 2000}} The Los Angeles Times reported that by June 2001 it had sold 1.4 million copies in the US, and in April 2006 the IFPI announced it had sold 3 million copies across Europe.{{citation

| first = Robert

| last = Hilburn

| url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-jun-03-ca-5681-story.html

| title = Operating on His Own Frequency

| newspaper = Los Angeles Times

| date = 3 June 2001 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130118112957/http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jun/03/entertainment/ca-5681

| archive-date = 18 January 2013

| url-status = live}}{{cite news

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4891672.stm

| title = James Blunt album sales pass 5m

| work = BBC News

| date = 8 April 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120406112932/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4891672.stm

| archive-date = 6 April 2012

| url-status = live}} In the UK, it was certified gold in June 1997, platinum in July, and five-times platinum in August 2013.{{Cite web |title=Radiohead, OK Computer |url=https://www.bpi.co.uk/award/4812-1730-2 |access-date=2024-09-15 |website=British Phonographic Industry |language=en}} It is certified double platinum in the US,{{cite web|url=https://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?artist=%22OK+Computer%22|title=American album certifications – Radiohead – OK Computer|publisher=Recording Industry Association of America|postscript=. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924142353/http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?artist=%22OK+Computer%22|archive-date=24 September 2015}} in addition to certifications in other markets. By May 2016, Nielsen SoundScan figures showed OK Computer had sold 2.5{{nbsp}}million digital album units in the US, plus 900,000 sales measured in album-equivalent units.

{{citation

| first = Nick

| last = DeSantis

| url = https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickdesantis/2016/05/10/radioheads-digital-album-sales-visualized/

| title = Radiohead's Digital Album Sales, Visualized

| magazine = Forbes

| date = 10 May 2016 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20190222204347/https://www.forbes.com/

| archive-date = 22 February 2019 | url-status = live

| access-date = 29 January 2018 | df = dmy-all

}}

Twenty years to the week after its release, the Official Charts Company recorded total UK sales of 1.5{{nbsp}}million, including album-equivalent units. Tallying American and European sales, OK Computer has sold at least 6.9 million copies worldwide (or 7.8 million with album-equivalent units).The LA Times reported US sales of 1.4 million in 2001, before Nielsen SoundScan had begun tracking digital sales in 2003—therefore, this amount only included non-digital sales on CD, cassette, and LP. Forbes reported 2.5 million in digital sales and 900,000 in album-equivalent units in 2016, bringing the US total to at least 3.9 million (or 4.8 million with album-equivalent units). BBC News reported 3 million in sales across Europe in 2006, bringing the worldwide total to at least 6.9 million (or 7.8 million with album-equivalent units). Music Week reported that the album had sold 1.5 million units in the UK by 2017; however, the 2006 European sales figure included UK sales up to that time and, as such, adding the 2017 UK sales figure to the total would result in erroneous double counting of UK units sold before 2006. Exact sales figures from other territories are not known. OK Computer has certainly sold more than 7.8 million units worldwide, but it is impossible to say how many more with any certainty.

{{Album ratings

| title = Contemporaneous reviews

| rev1 = Chicago Tribune

| rev1score = {{Rating|3.5|4}}

| rev2 = Entertainment Weekly

| rev2score = B+

| rev3 = The Guardian

| rev3score = {{Rating|4|5}}

| rev4 = Los Angeles Times

| rev4score = {{Rating|3.5|4}}

| rev5 = NME

| rev5score = 10/10

| rev6 = Pitchfork

| rev6score = 10/10

| rev7 = Q

| rev7score = {{Rating|5|5}}

| rev8 = Rolling Stone

| rev8score = {{Rating|4|5}}

| rev9 = Select

| rev9score = 5/5

| rev10 = Spin

| rev10score = 8/10

}}

OK Computer received acclaim. Critics described it as a landmark release of far-reaching impact and importance,{{sfn|Footman|2007|pp=181–182}}{{sfn|Clarke|2010|p=121}} but noted that its experimentalism made it a challenging listen. According to Tim Footman, "Not since 1967, with the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, had so many major critics agreed immediately, not only on an album's merits, but on its long-term significance, and its ability to encapsulate a particular point in history."{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=182}} In the British press, the album garnered favourable reviews in NME,

{{citation

| last = Oldham

| first = James

| url = https://www.nme.com/reviews/reviews/19980101000014reviews.html

| title = The Rise and Rise of the ROM Empire

| magazine = NME

| date = 14 June 1997

| access-date = 6 April 2020

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20000817181703/http://www.nme.com/reviews/reviews/19980101000014reviews.html

| archive-date = 17 August 2000

| url-status = dead

}} Melody Maker,

{{citation

| last = Parkes

| first = Taylor

| author-link = Taylor Parkes

| title = Review of OK Computer

| magazine = Melody Maker

| date = 14 June 1997

}} The Guardian

{{citation

| last = Sullivan

| first = Caroline

| url = https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-guardian/144405943/

| title = Aching Heads

| newspaper = The Guardian

| date = 13 June 1997

}} and Q.

{{citation

| last = Cavanagh

| first = David

| author-link = David Cavanagh

| title = Moonstruck

| magazine = Q

| issue = 130

| date = July 1997

| url = http://www.qonline.co.uk/reviews/server.asp?id=18513

| access-date = 11 April 2019

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20000423190213/http://www.qonline.co.uk/reviews/server.asp?id=18513

| archive-date = 23 April 2000}} Nick Kent wrote in Mojo that "Others may end up selling more, but in 20 years' time I'm betting OK Computer will be seen as the key record of 1997, the one to take rock forward instead of artfully revamping images and song-structures from an earlier era."

{{citation

| last = Kent

| first = Nick

| author-link = Nick Kent

| title = Press your space next to mine, love

| magazine = Mojo

| date = July 1997}} John Harris wrote in Select: "Every word sounds achingly sincere, every note spewed from the heart, and yet it roots itself firmly in a world of steel, glass, random-access memory and prickly-skinned paranoia."{{cite journal|first=John|last=Harris|title=Ground control to Major Thom|journal=Select|date=July 1997|page=92}}

The album was well received by critics in North America. Rolling Stone,{{citation | last = Kemp | first = Mark | author-link = Mark Kemp | url = https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/ok-computer-19970710 | title = OK Computer | magazine = Rolling Stone | date = 10 July 1997| access-date = 29 September 2008| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110117031912/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/ok-computer-19970710 | archive-date = 17 January 2011| url-status = live }} Spin, the Los Angeles Times,{{citation|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-06-29-ca-7952-story.html|title=Radiohead, 'OK Computer,' Capitol|work=Los Angeles Times|date=29 June 1997|access-date=6 April 2020|last=Scribner|first=Sara}} the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,{{cite news|last=Masley|first=Ed|title=Turn up your Radiohead|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=oLNRAAAAIBAJ&pg=4155%2C5812800|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|access-date=11 January 2017|date=8 August 1997}} Pitchfork{{citation

| last = Schreiber

| first = Ryan

| url = http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/r/radiohead/ok-computer.shtml

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20010303103405/http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/r/radiohead/ok-computer.shtml

| archive-date = 3 March 2001 | title = Radiohead: OK Computer: Pitchfork Review

| website = Pitchfork

| date = 1997

| access-date = 16 May 2009 | url-status = dead

}} and the Daily Herald{{cite news|title=File This One: 'Computer' Complex, but Worthwhile|url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-69084355.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180808012052/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-69084355.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 August 2018|newspaper=Daily Herald|access-date=7 June 2017|url-access= |date=15 August 1997}} published positive reviews. In The New Yorker, Alex Ross praised its progressiveness, and contrasted Radiohead's risk-taking with the musically conservative "dadrock" of their contemporaries Oasis. Ross wrote: "Throughout the album, contrasts of mood and style are extreme ... This band has pulled off one of the great art-pop balancing acts in the history of rock."{{citation

| last = Ross

| first = Alex

| author-link = Alex Ross (music critic)

| title = Dadrock

| magazine = The New Yorker

| date = 29 September 1997

| url = https://www.newyorker.com/archive/1997/09/29/1997_09_29_088_TNY_CARDS_000378726

| access-date = 29 September 2008

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080718150746/http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1997/09/29/1997_09_29_088_TNY_CARDS_000378726

| archive-date = 18 July 2008

| url-status = live

}} Ryan Schreiber of Pitchfork lauded the record's emotional appeal, writing that it "is brimming with genuine emotion, beautiful and complex imagery and music, and lyrics that are at once passive and fire-breathing".

Reviews for Entertainment Weekly,{{citation

|last = Browne

|first = David

|author-link = David Browne (journalist)

|url = https://ew.com/article/1997/07/11/ok-computer/

|title = OK Computer

|magazine = Entertainment Weekly

|date = 11 July 1997

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120930071153/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20202376,00.html

|archive-date = 30 September 2012

|url-status = live

}} the Chicago Tribune,{{citation

| last = Kot

| first = Greg

| author-link = Greg Kot

| title = Radiohead: OK Computer (Capitol)

| newspaper = Chicago Tribune

| date = 4 July 1997 | url = https://www.chicagotribune.com/1997/07/04/radioheadok-computer-capitol-star-star-star-12ambition/

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130118110121/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1997-07-04/entertainment/9707040186_1_ambition-ugly-star

| archive-date = 18 January 2013 | url-status = live

}} and Time{{citation

|last = Farley

|first = Christopher John

|author-link = Christopher John Farley

|title = Lost in Space

|magazine = Time

|date = 25 August 1997

|url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986902,00.html

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111112233751/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986902,00.html

|archive-date = 12 November 2011

|url-status = dead

}} were mixed. Robert Christgau from The Village Voice said Radiohead immersed Yorke's vocals in "enough electronic marginal distinction to feed a coal town for a month" to compensate for the "soulless" songs, resulting in "arid" art rock.{{citation

| url = http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/cgv997-97.php

| title = Consumer Guide

| last = Christgau

| first = Robert

| author-link = Robert Christgau

| magazine = The Village Voice

| date = 23 September 1997 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110826195622/http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/cgv997-97.php

| archive-date = 26 August 2011

| url-status = live

}} In an otherwise positive review, Andy Gill wrote for The Independent: "For all its ambition and determination to break new ground, OK Computer is not, finally, as impressive as The Bends, which covered much the same sort of emotional knots, but with better tunes. It is easy to be impressed by, but ultimately hard to love, an album that luxuriates so readily in its own despondency."{{citation|last=Gill|first=Andy|title=Andy Gill on albums: Radiohead OK Computer Parlophone|date=13 June 1997|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/andy-gill-on-albums-radiohead-ok-computer-parlophone-cdnodata-02-1255626.html|newspaper=The Independent|access-date=27 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304094929/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/andy-gill-on-albums-radiohead-ok-computer-parlophone-cdnodata-02-1255626.html|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=live}}

OK Computer was nominated for Grammy Awards as Album of the Year and Best Alternative Music Album at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards in 1998,{{cite news

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/45225.stm

| title = Brits vie for Grammys

| work = BBC News

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160329151642/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/45225.stm

| archive-date = 29 March 2016}} winning the latter.{{cite news

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/26/arts/the-1998-grammy-award-winners.html

| title = The 1998 Grammy Award Winners

| date = 26 February 1998

| newspaper = The New York Times

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304232050/http://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/26/arts/the-1998-grammy-award-winners.html

| archive-date = 4 March 2016}} It was also nominated for Best British Album at the 1998 Brit Awards.{{citation

| first = David

| last = Sinclair

| title = Brits Around the World '98: Four to Watch For

| page = 48

| magazine = Billboard

| date = 7 February 1998}} The album was shortlisted for the 1997 Mercury Prize, a prestigious award recognising the best British or Irish album of the year. The day before the winner was announced, oddsmakers gave OK Computer the best chance to win among ten nominees, but it lost to New Forms by Roni Size/Reprazent.{{cite news

| url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/it-is-size-that-counts-as-roni-wins-mercury-prize-1247754.html

| title = It is Size that counts as Roni wins Mercury prize

| last = Williams

| first = Alexandra

| date = 29 August 1998

| newspaper = The Independent

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160906163601/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/it-is-size-that-counts-as-roni-wins-mercury-prize-1247754.html

| archive-date = 6 September 2016}}

OK Computer was named the best album of the year by Mojo, Vox, Entertainment Weekly, Hot Press, Muziekkrant OOR, HUMO, Eye Weekly and Inpress, and tied for first place with Daft Punk's Homework in The Face. It was named the second-best in NME, Melody Maker, Rolling Stone, Village Voice, Spin and Uncut. Q and Les Inrockuptibles listed the album in their year-end polls.{{sfn|Footman|2007|pp=183–184}}

The praise overwhelmed the band. Jonny Greenwood felt it had been exaggerated because The Bends had been "under-reviewed possibly and under-received". Radiohead rejected links to progressive rock and art rock, despite comparisons to Pink Floyd's 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon.

{{citation

| last = Varga

| first = George

| title = Radiohead's Jazz Frequencies

| magazine = JazzTimes

| date = November 2001

}} Yorke responded: "We write pop songs ... There was no intention of it being 'art'. It's a reflection of all the disparate things we were listening to when we recorded it."{{sfn|Clarke|2010|p=124}} He was nevertheless pleased that listeners identified their influences: "What really blew my head off was the fact that people got all the things, all the textures and the sounds and the atmospheres we were trying to create."{{citation

| last = Gill

| first = Andy

| url = https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/ok-computer-why-the-record-industry-is-terrified-of-radioheads-new-album-394276.html

| title = Ok computer: Why the record industry is terrified of Radiohead's new album

| newspaper = The Independent

| date = 5 October 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121103152654/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/ok-computer-why-the-record-industry-is-terrified-of-radioheads-new-album-394276.html

| archive-date = 3 November 2012

| url-status = live

}}

{{Album ratings

| title = Retrospective reviews (after 1997)

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/ok-computer-mw0000024289|title=OK Computer – Radiohead|website=AllMusic|access-date=8 July 2015|last=Erlewine|first=Stephen Thomas|author-link=Stephen Thomas Erlewine|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181121081725/https://www.allmusic.com/album/ok-computer-mw0000024289|archive-date=21 November 2018|url-status=live}}

| rev2 = The A.V. Club

| rev2Score = A

| rev3 = Blender

| rev3Score = {{rating|5|5}}{{cite magazine|url=http://www.blender.com/guide/new/50809/ok-computer.html|title=Radiohead: OK Computer|magazine=Blender|access-date=6 April 2020|last=Slaughter|first=James|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090927055342/http://www.blender.com/guide/new/50809/ok-computer.html|archive-date=27 September 2009|url-status=dead}}

| rev4 = Christgau's Consumer Guide

| rev4Score = B−{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|year=2000|title=Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s|publisher=St. Martin's Griffin|isbn=0312245602|chapter=R|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=R&bk=90|access-date=11 June 2020|via=robertchristgau.com}}

| rev5 = Encyclopedia of Popular Music

| rev5Score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite book|chapter=Radiohead|title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music|title-link=Encyclopedia of Popular Music|publisher=Omnibus Press|edition=5th concise|year=2011|last=Larkin|first=Colin|author-link=Colin Larkin|isbn=978-0-85712-595-8}}

| rev6 = MusicHound Rock

| rev6Score = 5/5{{cite book|editor-first=Gary|editor-last=Graff|editor-link=Gary Graff|title=MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide|publisher=Schirmer Trade Books|year=1998|edition=2nd|isbn=0825672562|chapter=Radiohead}}

| rev7 = Q

| rev7Score = {{rating|5|5}}{{cite magazine|title=Radiohead: OK Computer|magazine=Q|issue=393|date=January 2019|page=104}}

| rev8 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev8Score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{Sfn|Sheffield|2004|p=671}}

| rev9 = Slant Magazine

| rev9Score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}

| rev10 = Tom Hull – on the Web

| rev10Score = B+{{cite web|last=Hull|first=Tom|author-link=Tom Hull (critic)|date=15 April 2007|url=http://tomhull.com/ocston/notebook/0704.php|title=April 2007 Notebook|website=Tom Hull – on the Web|access-date=8 July 2020}}

}}

OK Computer has frequently appeared in professional lists of the greatest albums of all time. A number of publications, including NME, Melody Maker, Alternative Press,{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=185}} Spin,{{citation

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=bGjsvmNt8UgC&pg=PA123

| title = 09: Radiohead: OK Computer

| last = Smith

| first = RJ

| magazine = Spin

| date = September 1999}} Pitchfork,

{{cite web

| last = DiCrescenzo

| first = Brent

| url = https://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/5923-top-100-albums-of-the-1990s/10/

| title = Top 100 Albums of the 1990s

| magazine = Pitchfork

| date = 17 November 2003

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090622023306/http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/5923-top-100-albums-of-the-1990s/10/

| archive-date = 22 June 2009

| url-status = live

}} Time,

{{citation

|url = http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1955625_1955759_1956108,00.html

|title = OK Computer – The ALL-TIME 100 Albums

|last = Tyrangiel

|first = Josh

|author-link = Josh Tyrangiel

|date = 2 November 2006

|magazine = Time

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110731085032/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1955625_1955759_1956108,00.html

|archive-date = 31 July 2011

|url-status = dead

}} Metro Weekly{{cite web

| url = http://www.metroweekly.com/2014/04/50-best-alternative-albums-of-the-90s/

| title = 50 Best Alternative Albums of the '90s

| magazine = Metro Weekly

| last = Gerard

| first = Chris

| date = 4 April 2014

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160221085312/http://www.metroweekly.com/2014/04/50-best-alternative-albums-of-the-90s/

| archive-date = 21 February 2016}} and Slant Magazine{{cite journal

| url = https://slantmagazine.com/music/feature/best-albums-of-the-90s/251/page_10

| title = Best Albums of the '90s

| date = 14 February 2011 | journal = Slant Magazine

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110809110046/http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/feature/best-albums-of-the-90s/251/page_10

| archive-date = 9 August 2011

| url-status = live

}} placed OK Computer prominently in lists of best albums of the 1990s or of all time. It was voted number 4 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000). Rolling Stone ranked it 42 on its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2020.{{Cite magazine|last=Greene|first=Andy|date=24 September 2020|title=Rolling Stone 500: Radiohead's Futuristic Breakthrough 'OK Computer'|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/500-greatest-albums-radiohead-ok-computer-1059469/|access-date=24 September 2020|magazine=Rolling Stone|language=en-US}} It was previously ranked at 162 in 2003{{cite magazine

|url = https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-19691231/ok-computer-radiohead-19691231

|title = 162 OK Computer – Radiohead

|magazine = Rolling Stone

|year = 2004

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110729151012/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-19691231/ok-computer-radiohead-19691231

|archive-date = 29 July 2011

|url-status = dead

}} and 2012.{{cite magazine| url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-156826/radiohead-ok-computer-158139/| year=2012| title=500 Greatest Albums of All Time Rolling Stone's definitive list of the 500 greatest albums of all time| magazine=Rolling Stone| access-date=18 September 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925171407/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-156826/radiohead-ok-computer-158139/| archive-date=25 September 2019| url-status=live}} In 2019, Classic Rock ranked it at 47 in its list of "The 50 best rock albums of all time": "Combining prog with alternative influences, they came up with a style that was supple, subtle and sensuous. This wasn't Pink Floyd for the end of the millennium, it was original, visionary and brilliant [...] An epochal album that called time on the narrow colloquial nostalgia of Britpop, sold millions and turned Radiohead into global angst-rock superstars, OK Computer is not quite the flawless masterpiece of fond folklore, but it holds up extremely well."{{cite web |date=12 October 2019 |title=The 50 best rock albums of all time |url=https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-50-best-rock-albums-ever |access-date=11 March 2024 |work=Louder Sound}}

Retrospective reviews from BBC Music,{{cite journal

| url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/wcp2

| title = Radiohead: OK Computer

| last = Lusk

| first = Jon

| journal = BBC Music

| publisher = BBC

| date = 5 August 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110818094645/http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/wcp2

| archive-date = 18 August 2011

| url-status = live

}} The A.V. Club{{citation

|last = Thompson

|first = Stephen

|author-link = Stephen Thompson (journalist)

|url = https://www.avclub.com/radiohead-ok-computer-1798194046

|title = Radiohead: OK Computer

|magazine = The A.V. Club

|date = 29 March 2002

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110629182946/http://www.avclub.com/articles/radiohead-ok-computer,21296/

|archive-date = 29 June 2011

|url-status = live

}} and Slant{{citation

| last = Cinquemani

| first = Sal

| url = https://slantmagazine.com/music/review/radiohead-ok-computer/1123

| title = Radiohead: OK Computer

| magazine = Slant Magazine

| date = 27 March 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110809090417/http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/review/radiohead-ok-computer/1123

| archive-date = 9 August 2011

| url-status = live

}} were favourable. Rolling Stone gave the album five out of five in the 2004 edition of The Rolling Stone Album Guide, with Rob Sheffield writing: "Radiohead was claiming the high ground abandoned by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, U2, R.E.M., everybody; and fans around the world loved them for trying too hard at a time when nobody else was even bothering."{{Sfn|Sheffield|2004|p=671}} Christgau said later that "most would rate OK Computer the apogee of pomo texture".{{cite news|last=Christgau|first=Robert|date=18 February 2003|url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pj02.php|title=Party in Hard Times|newspaper=The Village Voice|access-date=25 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181026025050/https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pj02.php|archive-date=26 October 2018|url-status=live}} In 2014, the United States National Recording Preservation Board selected the album for preservation in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, which designates it as a sound recording that has had significant cultural, historical or aesthetic impact in American life.{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/recording-registry/complete-national-recording-registry-listing/|title=Complete National Recording Registry Listing |website=Library of Congress|access-date=15 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200309102746/https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/recording-registry/complete-national-recording-registry-listing/|archive-date=9 March 2020|url-status=live}} In The New Yorker, Kevin Dettmar of described it as the record that made modern world possible for alternative rock music.{{Cite magazine |last=Dettmar |first=Kevin |date=20 May 2022 |title=Radiohead's "OK Computer" Turns Twenty-Five |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/radioheads-ok-computer-turns-twenty-five |access-date=12 March 2023 |magazine=The New Yorker}}

OK Computer has been cited by some as undeserving of its acclaim. In a poll surveying thousands conducted by BBC Radio 6 Music, OK Computer was named the sixth-most overrated album.{{cite web

| url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/events/overrated/shortlist.shtml

| title = Most Overrated Album in the World

| publisher = BBC Radio 6 Music

| date = October 2005

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120408035917/http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/events/overrated/shortlist.shtml

| archive-date = 8 April 2012

| url-status = live

}} David H. Green of The Daily Telegraph called the album "self-indulgent whingeing" and maintains that the positive critical consensus towards OK Computer is an indication of "a 20th-century delusion that rock is the bastion of serious commentary on popular music" to the detriment of electronic and dance music.{{cite news

| first = David H.

| last = Green

| url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandjazzmusic/5011623/OK-Computer-Box-Set-Not-OK-Computer.html

| title = OK Computer Box Set: Not OK Computer

| newspaper = The Daily Telegraph

| date = 18 March 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111015073211/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandjazzmusic/5011623/OK-Computer-Box-Set-Not-OK-Computer.html

| archive-date = 15 October 2011

| url-status = live

}} The album was selected as an entry in "Sacred Cows", an NME column questioning the critical status of "revered albums", in which Henry Yates said "there's no defiance, gallows humour or chink of light beneath the curtain, just a sense of meek, resigned despondency" and criticised the record as "the moment when Radiohead stopped being 'good' [compared to The Bends] and started being 'important{{'"}}.{{cite journal

|first = Henry

|last = Yates

|url = http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=140&title=sacred_cows_radiohead_ok_computer&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

|title = Sacred Cows – Is Radiohead's 'OK Computer' Overrated?

|journal = NME

|date = 3 April 2011

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110711160441/http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=140&title=sacred_cows_radiohead_ok_computer&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

|archive-date = 11 July 2011

|url-status = dead

}} In a Spin article on the "myth" that "Radiohead Can Do No Wrong", Chris Norris argues that the acclaim for OK Computer inflated expectations for subsequent Radiohead releases.{{cite journal

| first = Chris

| last = Norris

| url = https://www.spin.com/2009/11/myth-no-1-radiohead-can-do-no-wrong/?aggr_node=55990

| title = Myth No. 1: Radiohead Can Do No Wrong

| journal = Spin

| date = 9 November 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160306145616/http://www.spin.com/2009/11/myth-no-1-radiohead-can-do-no-wrong/?aggr_node=55990

| archive-date = 6 March 2016

| url-status = live

}} Christgau felt "the reason the readers of the British magazine Q absurdly voted OK Computer the greatest album of the 20th century is that it integrated what was briefly called electronica into rock". Having deemed it "self-regarding" and overrated, he later warmed to the record and found it indicative of Radiohead's cerebral sensibility and "rife with discrete pleasures and surprises".{{cite news|last=Christgau|first=Robert|date=8 July 2003|url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/radiohead-03.php|title=No Hope Radio|newspaper=The Village Voice|access-date=25 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140325185359/https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/radiohead-03.php|archive-date=25 March 2014}}

File:TonyBlairArmagh1998.jpg (pictured in 1998) and his New Labour government – echoing the album's pervasive theme of political disillusionment.]]

OK Computer was recorded in the lead up to the 1997 general election and released a month after the victory of Tony Blair's New Labour government. The album was perceived by critics as an expression of dissent and scepticism toward the new government and a reaction against the national mood of optimism. Dorian Lynskey wrote, "On May 1, 1997, Labour supporters toasted their landslide victory to the sound of 'Things Can Only Get Better.' A few weeks later, OK Computer appeared like Banquo's ghost to warn: No, things can only get worse."{{Sfn|Lynskey|2011|pp=496}} According to Amy Britton, the album "showed not everyone was ready to join the party, instead tapping into another feeling felt throughout the UK—pre-millennial angst. ... huge corporations were impossible to fight against—this was the world OK Computer soundtracked, not the wave of British optimism."{{Sfn|Britton|2011|pp=259–261}}

In an interview, Yorke doubted that Blair's policies would differ from the preceding two decades of Conservative government. He said the public reaction to the death of Princess Diana was more significant, as a moment when the British public realised "the royals had had us by the balls for the last hundred years, as had the media and the state." The band's distaste with the commercialised promotion of OK Computer reinforced their anti-capitalist politics, which would be further explored on their subsequent releases.{{sfn|Clarke|2010|p=142}}

Critics have compared Radiohead's statements of political dissatisfaction to those of earlier rock bands. David Stubbs said that, where punk rock had been a rebellion against a time of deficit and poverty, OK Computer protested the "mechanistic convenience" of contemporary surplus and excess.{{Cite AV media

| date = 10 October 2006

| title = Radiohead: OK Computer – A Classic Album Under Review

| medium = DVD

| publisher = Sexy Intellectual}} Alex Ross said the album "pictured the onslaught of the Information Age and a young person's panicky embrace of it" and made the band into "the poster boys for a certain kind of knowing alienation—as Talking Heads and R.E.M. had been before."{{Sfn|Ross|2010|p=88}} Jon Pareles of The New York Times found precedents in the work of Pink Floyd and Madness for Radiohead's concerns "about a culture of numbness, building docile workers and enforced by self-help regimes and anti-depressants".{{cite news

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/28/arts/miserable-and-loving-it-it-s-just-so-very-good-to-feel-so-very-very-bad.html

| title = Miserable and Loving It: It's Just So Very Good to Feel So Very, Very Bad

| last = Pareles

| first = Jon

| author-link = Jon Pareles

| newspaper = The New York Times

| date = 28 August 1997

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090801142435/http://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/28/arts/miserable-and-loving-it-it-s-just-so-very-good-to-feel-so-very-very-bad.html

| archive-date = 1 August 2009

| url-status = live}}

The album's tone has been described as millennial{{citation

| title = Is OK Computer the Greatest Album of the 1990s?

| date = 1 January 2007 | url = http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/radiohead/special_features/9209

| magazine = Uncut

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110724124036/http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/radiohead/special_features/9209

| archive-date = 24 July 2011

| url-status = dead

}} or futuristic,{{citation

| last = Dwyer

| first = Michael

| title = OK Kangaroo

| date = 14 March 1998

| magazine = Melody Maker}} anticipating cultural and political trends. According to The A.V. Club writer Steven Hyden in the feature "Whatever Happened to Alternative Nation", "Radiohead appeared to be ahead of the curve, forecasting the paranoia, media-driven insanity, and omnipresent sense of impending doom that's subsequently come to characterise everyday life in the 21st century."{{citation

|last = Hyden

|first = Steven

|title = Whatever Happened to Alternative Nation? Part 8: 1997: The ballad of Oasis and Radiohead

|date = 25 January 2011

|url = https://www.avclub.com/part-8-1997-the-ballad-of-oasis-and-radiohead-1798223989

|magazine = The A.V. Club

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110801232704/http://www.avclub.com/articles/part-8-1997-the-ballad-of-oasis-and-radiohead,50557/

|archive-date = 1 August 2011

|url-status = live

}} In 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, Tom Moon described OK Computer as a "prescient ... dystopian essay on the darker implications of technology ... oozing [with] a vague sense of dread, and a touch of Big Brother foreboding that bears strong resemblance to the constant disquiet of life on Security Level Orange, post-9/11."{{sfn|Moon|2008|pp=627–628}} Chris Martin of Coldplay remarked that, "It would be interesting to see how the world would be different if Dick Cheney really listened to Radiohead's OK Computer. I think the world would probably improve. That album is fucking brilliant. It changed my life, so why wouldn't it change his?"{{citation

| last = McLean

| first = Craig

| title = The importance of being earnest

| date = 27 May 2005 | url = https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/may/28/popandrock.coldplay

| newspaper = The Guardian

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110927075558/http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2005/may/28/popandrock.coldplay

| archive-date = 27 September 2011

| url-status = live

}}

The album inspired a radio play, also titled OK Computer, which was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2007. The play, written by Joel Horwood, Chris Perkins, Al Smith and Chris Thorpe, interprets the album into a story about a man who awakens in a Berlin hospital with memory loss and returns to England with doubts that the life he's returned to is his own.{{cite web

| url = http://drownedinsound.com/news/2494978

| title = Radiohead: OK Computer play live on BBC this Friday

| last = Kharas

| first = Kev

| date = 16 October 2007 | magazine = Drowned in Sound

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304114432/http://drownedinsound.com/news/2494978

| archive-date = 4 March 2016}}

{{clear}}

{{quote box

| align = right

| width = 30%

| quote = A lot of people have taken OK Computer and said, 'This is the yardstick. If I can attain something half as good, I'm doing pretty well.' But I've never heard anything really derivative of OK Computer—which is interesting, as it shows that what Radiohead were doing was probably even more complicated than it seemed.

| source = —Josh Davis (DJ Shadow){{cite web|url=https://citizeninsane.eu/media/uk/uncut/07/pt_2007-02_uncut.htm|title=Uncut #117|website=citizeninsane.eu|access-date=2020-03-31}}

}}

{{quote box

| align = right

| width = 30%

| quote = The whole sound of it and the emotional experience crossed a lot of boundaries. It tapped into a lot of buried emotions that people hadn't wanted to explore or talk about.

| source = —James Lavelle{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bGjsvmNt8UgC&pg=PA123|title=SPIN|date=September 1999|language=en}}

}}

The release of OK Computer coincided with the decline of Britpop.Britpop, which reached its peak popularity in the mid-1990s and was led by bands such as Oasis, Blur and Pulp, was typified by nostalgic homage to British rock of the 1960s and 1970s. The genre was a key element of the broader cultural movement Cool Britannia. Starting in 1997, a number of events marked the end of the genre's heyday; these included Blur spurning the conventional Britpop sound on Blur and Oasis' Be Here Now failing to live up to the expectations of critics and the public. See Footman 2007, pp. 177–178 Alexis Petridis of The Guardian called the album "the defining sound of rock's post-Britpop shift". Through OK Computer{{'}}s influence, the dominant UK guitar pop shifted toward an approximation of "Radiohead's paranoid but confessional, slurry but catchy" approach.{{citation

| title = The 50 Greatest Bands: 15

| magazine = Spin

| date = February 2002}} Many newer British acts adopted similarly complex, atmospheric arrangements; for example, the post-Britpop band Travis worked with Godrich to create the languid pop texture of The Man Who, which became the fourth best-selling album of 1999 in the UK.{{citation

| title = A Marriage Made in Song

| last = Gulla

| first = Bob

| magazine = CMJ New Music Monthly

| date = April 2000}} Some in the British press accused Travis of appropriating Radiohead's sound.{{citation

| title = Travis

| last = Sullivan

| first = Kate

| magazine = Spin

| date = May 2000}} Steven Hyden of AV Club said that by 1999, starting with The Man Who, "what Radiohead had created in OK Computer had already grown much bigger than the band," and that the album went on to influence "a wave of British-rock balladeers that reached its zenith in the '00s".

OK Computer influenced the next generation of British alternative rock bands,Specifically, critics have cited the album's influence on Muse, Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Keane, Travis, Doves, Badly Drawn Boy, Editors and Elbow. See:

• {{citation

| url = https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2007/jun/15/tenyearsofokcomputerandwd

| last = Aza

| first = Bharat

| title = Ten years of OK Computer and what have we got?

| newspaper = The Guardian

| date = 15 June 2007 | archive-url = https://www.webcitation.org/60jE5qiBg?url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2007/jun/15/tenyearsofokcomputerandw

| archive-date = 6 August 2011 | url-status = live

| ref = none

}}

• {{citation

| title = The Empire Strikes Back

| last = Eisenbeis

| first = Hans

| magazine = Spin

| date = July 2001

| ref = none }}

• {{citation

| title = Album review: Radiohead Reissues – Collectors Editions

| date = 8 April 2009 | url = http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/radiohead/reviews/13013

| newspaper = Uncut

| last = Richards

| first = Sam

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101206061947/http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/radiohead/reviews/13013

| archive-date = 6 December 2010 | access-date = 29 August 2011 | url-status = live

| ref = none

}} and musicians in a variety of genres have praised it.Musicians who have praised the album include R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe, former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, DJ Shadow, Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, Manic Street Preachers member Nicky Wire, The Divine Comedy frontman Neil Hannon, Mo' Wax label owner James Lavelle, Sonic Youth and Gastr del Sol member and experimental musician Jim O'Rourke, former Depeche Mode member Alan Wilder and contemporary composer Esa-Pekka Salonen. See:

• {{citation

| first = Chad

| last = Bidwell

| title = Jim O'Rourke

| date = 25 February 1999

| url = http://ink19.com/1999/02/magazine/interviews/jim-orourke-2

| website = Ink 19

| access-date = 11 May 2017

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170331030644/http://ink19.com/1999/02/magazine/interviews/jim-orourke-2

| archive-date = 31 March 2017

| url-status = live

| ref = none

}}

• {{citation

| first = David

| last = Cavanagh

| author-link = David Cavanagh

| title = Communication Breakdown

| date = February 2007

| magazine = Uncut

| ref = none }}

• {{citation

| title = 09: Radiohead: OK Computer

| last = Smith

| first = RJ

| magazine = Spin

| date = September 1999

| ref = none }}

• {{citation

| title = The maestro rocks

| date = 28 January 2003 | url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jan-28-et-timberg28-story.html

| newspaper = Los Angeles Times

| last = Timberg

| first = Scott

| access-date = 5 August 2011 | archive-url = https://www.webcitation.org/60jEeH0tI?url=http://articles.latimes.com/2003/jan/28/entertainment/et-timberg28

| archive-date = 6 August 2011 | url-status = live

| ref = none

}}

• {{citation

| title = Alan Wilder of Recoil & Depeche Mode's 13 Favourite LPs – Page 8

| date = 9 May 2011 | url = http://thequietus.com/articles/06219-alan-wilder-depeche-mode-favourite-records?page=8

| magazine = The Quietus

| last = Turner

| first = Luke

| access-date = 6 September 2011 | archive-url = https://www.webcitation.org/61VQGlUlk

| archive-date = 6 September 2011 | url-status = live

| ref = none

}} Bloc Party{{citation

| title = Introducing Bloc Party

| date = 4 December 2003

| url = http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/8568-introducing-bloc-party

| newspaper = Drowned in Sound

| last = Nunn

| first = Adie

| access-date = 29 July 2011

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110806055102/http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/8568-introducing-bloc-party

| archive-date = 6 August 2011

| url-status = live

}} and TV on the Radio{{citation

| title = TV on the Radio: Coming in Loud and Clear

| date = 13 April 2007 | url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/12/AR2007041200693.html

| newspaper = The Washington Post

| last = Harrington

| first = Richard

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121102102404/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/12/AR2007041200693.html

| archive-date = 2 November 2012

| url-status = live

}} listened to or were influenced by OK Computer; TV on the Radio's debut album was titled OK Calculator as a lighthearted tribute.{{citation

| title = Tough Questions for TVOTR's Tunde Adebimpe

| date = 11 April 2011 | url = http://www.spin.com/articles/tough-questions-tvotrs-tunde-adebimpe/

| magazine = Spin

| last = Sellers

| first = John

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111209174537/http://www.spin.com/articles/tough-questions-tvotrs-tunde-adebimpe

| archive-date = 9 December 2011

| url-status = live

}} Radiohead described the pervasiveness of bands that "sound like us" as one reason to break with the style of OK Computer for their next album, Kid A.{{citation

| first = Peter

| last = Murphy

| title = How I learned to stop worrying and loathe the bomb

| date = 11 October 2001 | magazine = Hot Press

| url = http://www.hotpress.com/archive/1607168.html

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110525145608/http://www.hotpress.com/archive/1607168.html

| archive-date = 25 May 2011

| url-status = live

}}

Although OK Computer{{'}}s influence on rock is widely acknowledged, several critics believe that its experimental inclination was not authentically embraced on a wide scale. Footman said the "Radiohead Lite" bands that followed were "missing [OK Computer{{'s}}] sonic inventiveness, not to mention the lyrical substance".{{sfn|Footman|2007|p=219}} David Cavanagh said that most of OK Computer{{'}}s purported mainstream influence more likely stemmed from the ballads on The Bends. According to Cavanagh, "The populist albums of the post-OK Computer era—the Verve's Urban Hymns, Travis's Good Feeling, Stereophonics' Word Gets Around, Robbie Williams' Life thru a Lens—effectively closed the door that OK Computer{{'}}s boffin-esque inventiveness had opened." John Harris believed that OK Computer was one of the "fleeting signs that British rock music might [have been] returning to its inventive traditions" in the wake of Britpop's demise.{{sfn|Harris|2004|p=369}} While Harris concludes that British rock ultimately developed an "altogether more conservative tendency", he said that with OK Computer and their subsequent material, Radiohead provided a "clarion call" to fill the void left by Britpop.{{sfn|Harris|2004|p=369}} The Pitchfork journalist Marc Hogan argued that OK Computer marked an "ending point" for the rock-oriented album era, as its mainstream and critical success remained unmatched by any rock album since.{{cite magazine|last=Hogan|first=Marc|author-link=Marc Hogan|url=https://pitchfork.com/features/ok-computer-at-20/10038-exit-music-how-radioheads-ok-computer-destroyed-the-art-pop-album-in-order-to-save-it/|title=Exit Music: How Radiohead's OK Computer Destroyed the Art-Pop Album in Order to Save It|magazine=Pitchfork|access-date=11 March 2010|date=20 March 2017}}

OK Computer triggered a minor revival of progressive rock and ambitious concept albums, with a new wave of prog-influenced bands crediting OK Computer for enabling their scene to thrive. Brandon Curtis of Secret Machines said, "Songs like 'Paranoid Android' made it OK to write music differently, to be more experimental ... OK Computer was important because it reintroduced unconventional writing and song structures."

{{citation

| first = Matt

| last = Allen

| title = Prog's progeny

| date = 14 June 2007 | url = https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/aug/11/popandrock

| newspaper = The Guardian

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100404071217/http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2006/aug/11/popandrock

| archive-date = 4 April 2010

| url-status = live

}} Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree said, "I don't think ambition is a dirty word any more. Radiohead were the Trojan Horse in that respect. Here's a band that came from the indie rock tradition that snuck in under the radar when the journalists weren't looking and started making these absurdly ambitious and pretentious—and all the better for it—records."{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8266922.stm|title=It's back ... Prog rock assaults album charts|work=BBC News|first=Tim|last=Masters|date=23 September 2009|access-date=8 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170805093418/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8266922.stm|archive-date=5 August 2017|url-status=live}} In 2005, Q named OK Computer the tenth-best progressive rock album,{{cite news|url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/music/news/az-of-progressive-rock-28548926.html|title=A-Z of progressive rock|work=Belfast Telegraph|first=Jonathan|last=Brown|date=27 July 2010|access-date=5 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161105160805/http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/music/news/az-of-progressive-rock-28548926.html|archive-date=5 November 2016|url-status=live}} and in 2014 it was voted the 87th-greatest by readers of Prog.{{cite web | url= https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-100-greatest-prog-albums-of-all-time-100-81 | title= The 100 Greatest Prog Albums Of All Time | work=Louder | author1=Hannah May Kilroy | author2=Jerry Ewing | date=6 August 2014 | access-date=11 March 2024}}

In 2006, the American reggae band the Easy Star All-Stars released Radiodread, a reggae interpretation of OK Computer.{{Cite web |last=Tangari |first=Joe |title=Easy Star All-Stars: Radiodread |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/9417-radiodread/ |access-date=30 May 2024 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}} In 2007, the music blog Stereogum released OKX: A Tribute to OK Computer, with covers by artists including Vampire Weekend.{{Cite web |last=Lapatine |first=Scott |date=12 March 2015 |title=Stereogum Presents... OKX: A Tribute To OK Computer |url=https://www.stereogum.com/1787251/stereogum-presents-okx-a-tribute-to-ok-computer/columns/theme-week/radiohead-week/ |access-date=30 May 2024 |website=Stereogum |language=en}}

Radiohead's record contract with EMI, the parent company of Parlophone, ended in 2003. EMI retained the rights to Radiohead's material recorded under their contract, including OK Computer.{{citation

| first = Adam

| last = Sherwin

| title = EMI accuses Radiohead after group's demands for more fell on deaf ears

| url = https://www.thetimes.com/sunday-times-rich-list/profile/article/emi-accuses-radiohead-after-groups-demands-for-more-fell-on-deaf-ears-rlxzn35rvk3

| newspaper = The Times

| date = 28 December 2007

| access-date = 4 February 2015

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150204235954/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/music/article2414653.ece

| archive-date = 4 February 2015

| url-status = live

}} In 2007, EMI released Radiohead Box Set, a compilation of albums recorded while Radiohead were signed to EMI.{{cite news |last=Nestruck |first=Kelly |date=8 November 2007 |title=EMI stab Radiohead in the back catalogue |url=http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2207489,00.html |access-date=22 November 2007 |work=The Guardian |location=London}} On 19 August 2008, EMI reissued OK Computer as a double LP as part of the "From the Capitol Vaults" series, along with other Radiohead albums.{{cite web |date=10 July 2008 |title=Coldplay, Radiohead to be reissued on vinyl |url=https://www.nme.com/news/music/coldplay-396-1336094 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216012653/http://www.nme.com/news/coldplay/37969 |archive-date=16 February 2012 |access-date=2 November 2011 |website=NME }} It became the tenth-bestselling vinyl record of 2008, selling almost 10,000 copies.{{citation

| first = Petey

| last = V

| title = Animal Collective Rides Vinyl Wave into '09, Massive 2008 Vinyl Sales Figures Confuse Everyone but B-52s Fans

| url = http://www.tinymixtapes.com/news/animal-collective-rides-vinyl-wave-09-massive-2008-vinyl-sales-figures-confuse-everyone-b

| magazine = Tiny Mix Tapes

| date = 9 January 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100924015145/http://www.tinymixtapes.com/news/animal-collective-rides-vinyl-wave-09-massive-2008-vinyl-sales-figures-confuse-everyone-b

| archive-date = 24 September 2010

| url-status = live

}} The reissue was connected in the press to the resurgence of interest in vinyl in the early 21st century.{{citation

| first = Daniel

| last = Kreps

| title = Radiohead, Neutral Milk Hotel Help Vinyl Sales Almost Double in 2008

| url = https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/radiohead-neutral-milk-hotel-help-vinyl-sales-almost-double-in-2008-20090108

| magazine = Rolling Stone

| date = 8 January 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110731134553/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/radiohead-neutral-milk-hotel-help-vinyl-sales-almost-double-in-2008-20090108

| archive-date = 31 July 2011

| url-status = live

}}{{citation

| title = The 7in. revival – fans get back in the groove

| url = https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-7in-revival--fans-get-back-in-the-groove-870493.html

| newspaper = The Independent

| date = 18 July 2008

| url-status = dead

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101101063232/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-7in-revival--fans-get-back-in-the-groove-870493.html

| archive-date = 1 November 2010}}

{{Album ratings

| title = "Collector's Edition" ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|5|5}}

| rev2 = The A.V. Club

| rev2score = A

| rev3 = Paste

| rev3score = 100/100

| rev4 = Pitchfork

| rev4score = 10/10

| rev5 = Rolling Stone

| rev5score = {{Rating|5|5}}

| rev6 = Q

| rev6score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{citation

| first = Victoria

| last = Segal

| title = Reissues: Radiohead

| magazine = Q

| date = May 2009}}

| rev7 = Uncut

| rev7score = {{Rating|5|5}}

}}On 24 March 2009, EMI reissued OK Computer as an expanded "Collector's Edition", alongside Pablo Honey and The Bends, without Radiohead's involvement. The reissue was released in a 2-CD edition and an expanded 2-CD, 1-DVD edition. The first disc contains the original album, the second disc contains B-sides collected from OK Computer singles and live recording sessions, and the DVD contains a collection of music videos and a live television performance.{{citation |last=Fitzmaurice |first=Larry |title=Radiohead's First Three Albums Reissued with Extras |date=15 January 2009 |magazine=Spin |url=https://www.spin.com/2009/01/radioheads-first-three-albums-reissued-extras/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090122214440/http://spin.com/articles/radioheads-first-three-albums-reissued-extras |archive-date=22 January 2009 |url-status=live}} All the material had been previously released and the music was not remastered.{{citation

| first = Ryan

| last = Dombal

| title = Radiohead's First Three Albums Reissued and Expanded

| url = https://pitchfork.com/news/34391-radioheads-first-three-albums-reissued-and-expanded/

| magazine = Pitchfork

| date = 14 January 2009

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090317215443/http://pitchfork.com/news/34391-radioheads-first-three-albums-reissued-and-expanded/

| archive-date = 17 March 2009

| url-status = live}}{{cite magazine |last=McCarthy |first=Sean |date=18 December 2009 |title=The Best Re-Issues of 2009: 18: Radiohead: Pablo Honey / The Bends / OK Computer / Kid A / Amnesiac / Hail to the Thief |url=https://www.popmatters.com/best-album-re-issues-2009-2496140735.html |url-status=live |magazine=PopMatters |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091220175703/http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/117848-the-best-re-issues-of-2009/ |archive-date=20 December 2009 |access-date=29 August 2011}}

AllMusic,{{citation

| first = Stephen Thomas

| last = Erlewine

| author-link = Stephen Thomas Erlewine

| title = OK Computer [Collector's Edition] [2CD/1DVD]

| url = https://www.allmusic.com/album/ok-computer-collectors-edition-2cd1dvd-r1503993/review

| magazine = AllMusic

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120512104033/https://www.allmusic.com/album/ok-computer-collectors-edition-2cd1dvd-r1503993/review

| archive-date = 12 May 2012

| url-status = live}} Uncut,{{citation

| title = Album review: Radiohead Reissues – Collectors Editions

| date = 8 April 2009

| url = http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/radiohead/reviews/13013

| newspaper = Uncut

| last = Richards

| first = Sam

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101206061947/http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/radiohead/reviews/13013

| url-status = dead

| archive-date = 6 December 2010}} Q, Rolling Stone,{{citation

| first = Will

| last = Hermes

| title = OK Computer (Collector's Edition)

| url = https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/ok-computer-collectors-edition-20090430

| magazine = Rolling Stone

| date = 30 April 2009

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130122002857/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/ok-computer-collectors-edition-20090430

| archive-date = 22 January 2013

| url-status = live}} Paste{{citation

| last = Kemp

| first = Mark

| author-link = Mark Kemp

| url = https://pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/03/radiohead-pablo-honey-the-bends-ok-computer-reissu.html

| title = Radiohead: Pablo Honey, The Bends, OK Computer (reissues)

| magazine = Spin

| date = 27 March 2009

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090330005140/http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/03/radiohead-pablo-honey-the-bends-ok-computer-reissu.html

| archive-date = 30 March 2009

| url-status = live

}} and PopMatters praised the supplemental material, but with reservations. Scott Plagenhoef of Pitchfork awarded the reissue a perfect score, arguing that it was worth buying for fans who did not already own the extra material. Plagenhoef said: "That the band had nothing to do with these is beside the point: this is the final word on these records, if for no other reason that the Beatles' September 9 remaster campaign is, arguably, the end of the CD era."{{cite web

| first = Scott

| last = Plagenhoef

| title = Radiohead: Pablo Honey: Collector's Edition / The Bends: Collector's Edition / OK Computer: Collector's Edition

| url = https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12938-pablo-honey-collectors-edition-the-bends-collectors-edition-ok-computer-collectors-edition/

| magazine = Pitchfork

| date = 16 April 2009

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090417043256/http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12938-pablo-honey-collectors-edition-the-bends-collectors-edition-ok-computer-collectors-edition/

| archive-date = 17 April 2009

| url-status = live}} The A.V. Club writer Josh Modell praised the bonus disc and DVD, and said OK Computer was "the perfect synthesis of Radiohead's seemingly conflicted impulses".{{citation

|first = Josh

|last = Modell

|title = Pablo Honey / The Bends / OK Computer

|url = https://www.avclub.com/radiohead-1798205963

|magazine = The A.V. Club

|date = 3 April 2009

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111015041153/http://www.avclub.com/articles/radiohead,26177/

|archive-date = 15 October 2011

|url-status = live

}}

In April 2016, XL Recordings acquired Radiohead's back catalogue. The EMI reissues, released without Radiohead's approval, were removed from streaming services.{{cite magazine |last=Christman |first=Ed |date=4 April 2016 |title=Radiohead's Early Catalog Moves From Warner Bros. to XL |url=https://www.billboard.com/pro/radioheads-early-catalog-warner-bros-xl/ |magazine=Billboard |access-date=6 May 2017}} In May 2016, XL reissued Radiohead's back catalogue on vinyl, including OK Computer.{{cite web |last=Spice |first=Anton |date=6 May 2016 |title=Radiohead to reissue entire catalogue on vinyl |url=http://www.thevinylfactory.com/vinyl-factory-news/radiohead-reissue-entire-catalogue-vinyl/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826093045/http://www.thevinylfactory.com/vinyl-factory-news/radiohead-reissue-entire-catalogue-vinyl/ |archive-date=26 August 2016 |access-date=6 May 2017 |website=The Vinyl Factory}}

On 23 June 2017, Radiohead released a 20th-anniversary OK Computer reissue, OKNOTOK 1997 2017, on XL. It includes a remastered version of the album, plus eight B-sides and three previously unreleased tracks: "I Promise", "Man of War" and "Lift". The special edition includes books of artwork and notes and an audio cassette of demos and session recordings, including previously unreleased songs.{{cite web|url=http://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/ok-computer-oknotok-1997-2017|title=OK Computer – OKNOTOK 1997-2017 - Record Collector Magazine|last=Atkins|first=Jamie|date=22 June 2017|website=Record Collector|access-date=23 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170625083556/http://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/ok-computer-oknotok-1997-2017|archive-date=25 June 2017|url-status=dead}} OKNOTOK debuted at number two on the UK Album Chart,{{cite web|url=http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/albums-chart/20170630/7502/|title=Official Albums Chart Top 100|website=Official Charts Company|language=en|access-date=9 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180909113733/http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/albums-chart/20170630/7502/|archive-date=9 September 2018|url-status=live}} boosted by Radiohead's third headline performance at Glastonbury Festival.{{cite news|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/markbeech/2017/06/26/the-glastonbury-effect-radiohead-back-at-top-of-u-k-chart-foo-fighters-follow/|title=The Glastonbury Effect: Radiohead Back At Top Of U.K. Chart, Foo Fighters Follow|last=Beech|first=Mark|work=Forbes|access-date=27 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170627000813/https://www.forbes.com/sites/markbeech/2017/06/26/the-glastonbury-effect-radiohead-back-at-top-of-u-k-chart-foo-fighters-follow/#496824ad5506|archive-date=27 June 2017|url-status=live}} It was the best-selling album in independent UK record shops for a year.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/radiohead-tops-list-of-bestselling-albums-in-independent-record-stores-36826977.html|title=Radiohead tops list of best-selling albums in independent record stores |work=Irish Independent|access-date=21 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180421232612/https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/radiohead-tops-list-of-bestselling-albums-in-independent-record-stores-36826977.html|archive-date=21 April 2018|url-status=live}}

{{main|MiniDiscs (Hacked)}}

In early June 2019, nearly 18 hours of demos, outtakes and other material recorded during the OK Computer period leaked online. On 11 June, Radiohead made the archive available to stream or purchase from the music sharing site Bandcamp for 18 days, with proceeds going to the environmental advocacy group Extinction Rebellion.{{cite web|last=Terry|first=Josh|title=Radiohead Officially Release 18 Hours of Leaked 'OK Computer' Sessions|url=https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xwn753/radiohead-release-18-hours-of-leaked-ok-computer-demos|website=Vice|access-date=11 June 2019|date=11 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190611175313/https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xwn753/radiohead-release-18-hours-of-leaked-ok-computer-demos|archive-date=11 June 2019|url-status=live}}

All tracks are written by Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Philip Selway, Ed O'Brien and Colin Greenwood.

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

Personnel adapted from OK Computer liner notes{{Cite AV media notes |title=OK Computer |others=Radiohead |year=1997 |type=CD liner notes |publisher=Parlophone}}

• Nigel Godrich – committing to tape, audio level balancing
• Radiohead – committing to tape, music, string arrangements
• Thom Yorke
• Jonny Greenwood
• Philip 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

{{col-begin}}

{{col-2}}

{{col-2}}

{{col-end}}

{{Certification Table Top|caption=Sales certifications for OK Computer}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Argentina|type=album|title=OK Computer|artist=Radiohead|award=Platinum|relyear=1997|certyear=1997|certref={{cite web|url=http://www.capif.org.ar/Default.asp?PerDesde_MM=0&PerDesde_AA=0&PerHasta_MM=0&PerHasta_AA=0&interprete=&album=&LanDesde_MM=1&LanDesde_AA=1980&LanHasta_MM=12&LanHasta_AA=2010&Galardon=O&Tipo=1&ACCION2=+Buscar+&ACCION=Buscar&CO=5&CODOP=ESOP|publisher=CAPIF|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110820130534/http://www.capif.org.ar/Default.asp?PerDesde_MM=0&PerDesde_AA=0&PerHasta_MM=0&PerHasta_AA=0&interprete=&album=&LanDesde_MM=1&LanDesde_AA=1980&LanHasta_MM=12&LanHasta_AA=2010&Galardon=O&Tipo=1&ACCION2=+Buscar+&ACCION=Buscar&CO=5&CODOP=ESOP|archive-date=20 August 2011|access-date=10 January 2021|title=Discos de Oro y Platino|language=es}}}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Australia|type=album|award=Platinum|relyear=1997|certyear=1997|access-date=25 September 2012}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Belgium|type=album|title=OK Computer|artist=Radiohead|award=Platinum|number=2|relyear=1997|certyear=2007|certmonth=3|access-date=30 October 2012}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Canada|type=album|title=OK Computer|artist=Radiohead|award=Platinum|number=5|relyear=1997|certyear=2022|access-date=16 December 2022}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Denmark|type=album|title=OK Computer|artist=Radiohead|award=Platinum|number=4|relyear=1997|certyear=2023|id=12723|access-date=2 August 2023}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=France|type=album|title=OK Computer|artist=Radiohead|award=Gold|number=2|relyear=1997|certyear=1997}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Italy|type=album|title=OK Computer|artist=Radiohead|award=Platinum|number=2|relyear=1997|certyear=2025|access-date=13 January 2025|id=13868|note=sales since 2009}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Japan|type=album|artist=レディオヘッド|title=OKコンピューター|award=Gold|relyear=1997|certyear=1998|access-date=15 September 2013|certmonth=4}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Netherlands|type=album|title=OK Computer|artist=Radiohead|award=Platinum|relyear=1997|certyear=1997|access-date=30 August 2018}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=New Zealand|type=album|title=OK Computer|artist=Radiohead|award=Platinum|relyear=1997|id=1998-10-09|source=newchart|access-date=2024-11-20|certyear=1997}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Norway|type=album|title=OK Computer|artist=Radiohead|award=Gold|relyear=1997|certyear=1997|access-date=30 October 2012}}

{{certification Table Entry|artist=Radiohead|title=OK Computer|type=album|relyear=1997|certyear=1997|region=Spain|award=Gold|certref={{cite book|url=http://www.mediafire.com/view/pd758fesp2w7i7f|title=Solo Exitos 1959–2002 Ano A Ano: Certificados > 1995–1999|publisher=Iberautor Promociones Culturales|isbn=84-8048-639-2|year=2005|access-date=16 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131227031501/http://www.mediafire.com/view/pd758fesp2w7i7f|archive-date=27 December 2013|url-status=live}}}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Sweden|type=album|title=OK Computer|artist=Radiohead|award=Gold|relyear=1997|certyear=1997|access-date=30 October 2012}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Switzerland|type=album|title=OK Computer|artist=Radiohead|award=Gold|relyear=1997|certyear=1997|access-date=25 September 2012}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=United Kingdom|type=album|title=OK Computer|artist=Radiohead|award=Platinum|number=5|relyear=1997|certyear=2013|id=4812-1730-2|salesamount=1,579,415|salesref={{cite news |url=http://www.musicweek.com/analysis/read/official-charts-analysis-ed-sheeran-s-returns-to-no-1-following-glastonbury-appearance/068989 |title=Official Charts Analysis: Ed Sheeran's ÷ returns to No.1 following Glastonbury appearance |last=Jones |first=Alan |date=30 June 2017 |work=Music Week |publisher=Intent Media |access-date=22 February 2019 |quote=The first of six No.{{nbsp}}1 albums for Radiohead, OK Computer debuted atop the chart this week in 1997 on sales of 136,476 copies, and is the Oxfordshire band's biggest seller, with a to-date tally of 1,579,415 including 16,172 from sales-equivalent streams. |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190627124414/https://www.musicweek.com/analysis/read/official-charts-analysis-ed-sheeran-s-returns-to-no-1-following-glastonbury-appearance/068989 |archive-date=27 June 2019 |url-status=live }}|access-date=11 September 2013}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=United States|type=album|title=OK Computer|artist=Radiohead|award=Platinum|number=2|relyear=1997|access-date=25 September 2012}}

{{Certification Table Summary}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Europe|type=album|title=OK Computer|artist=Radiohead|award=Platinum|number=3|relyear=1997|certyear=2006|access-date=25 September 2012}}

{{Certification Table Bottom | streaming=true}}

{{reflist|35em|group=nb}}

{{reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |last=Britton |first=Amy |year=2011 |title=Revolution Rock: The Albums Which Defined Two Ages |publisher=AuthorHouse |isbn=978-1-4678-8710-6}}
• {{cite book |title=Radiohead: Hysterical and Useless |last=Clarke |first=Martin |year=2010 |publisher=Plexus |location=London |isbn=978-0-85965-439-5}}
• {{cite book |title=Welcome to the Machine: OK Computer and the Death of the Classic Album |last=Footman |first=Tim |author-link=Tim Footman |year=2007 |publisher=Chrome Dreams |location=New Malden |isbn=978-1-84240-388-4}}
• {{cite book |title=OK Computer |last=Griffiths |first=Dai |year=2004 |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |location=New York |isbn=0-8264-1663-2 |series=33⅓ series |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/okcomputer0000grif }}
• {{cite book |title=Britpop!: Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English Rock |last=Harris |first=John |author-link=John Harris (critic) |year=2004 |publisher=Da Capo Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=0-306-81367-X}}
• {{cite book |last=Letts |first=Marianne Tatom |year=2010 |title=Radiohead and the Resistant Concept Album: How to Disappear Completely |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington, Indiana |series=Profiles in Popular Music |isbn=978-0-253-35570-6}}
• {{cite book |last=Lynskey |first=Dorian |year=2011 |title=33 Revolutions per Minute: A History of Protest Songs, from Billie Holiday to Green Day |title-link=33 Revolutions per Minute (book) |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-06-167015-2}}
• {{cite book |title=1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die |chapter=OK Computer |last=Moon |first=Tom |year=2008 |publisher=Workman |location=New York |isbn=978-0-85965-439-5 |chapter-url=http://www.1000recordings.com/music/ok-computer/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240525110215/https://www.webcitation.org/60jDH5t2v?url=http://www.1000recordings.com/music/ok-computer/ |archive-date=25 May 2024 |url-status=dead |pages=627–628}}
• {{cite book |title=Exit Music: The Radiohead Story |last=Randall |first=Mac |year=2000 |publisher=Delta Trade Paperbacks |location=New York |isbn=0-385-33393-5}}
• {{cite book |title=Listen to This |last=Ross |first=Alex |author-link=Alex Ross (music critic) |year=2010 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |location=New York |isbn=978-0-374-18774-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/listentothis00ross }}
• {{cite book |last=Sheffield |first=Rob |author-link=Rob Sheffield |chapter=Radiohead |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac |editor1-last=Brackett |editor1-first=Nathan |editor2-last=Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |year=2004 |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |publisher=Fireside |location=New York |isbn=0-7432-0169-8}}

{{refend}}

• {{cite book|title=A Brief History of Album Covers|first=Jason|last=Draper|publisher=Flame Tree Publishing|location=London|year=2008|pages=330–331|isbn=9781847862112|oclc=227198538}}
• {{Cite magazine |last=Greene |first=Andy |date=16 June 2017 |title=Radiohead's 'OK Computer': An Oral History |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/radioheads-ok-computer-an-oral-history-196156/ |access-date=1 October 2023 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}

• {{Discogs master|type=album|21491|name=OK Computer}}

{{Radiohead}}

{{Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album}}

{{Authority control}}

{{featured article}}

Category:1997 albums

Category:Radiohead albums

Category:Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album

Category:United States National Recording Registry recordings

Category:Albums produced by Nigel Godrich

Category:Capitol Records albums

Category:Parlophone albums

Category:United States National Recording Registry albums