Radiohead - OK Computer [2 LP] (180 Gram Vinyl in Gatefold Jacket) Radiohead - OK Computer [2 LP] (180 Gram Vinyl in Gatefold Jacket)

Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time - Rated 162/500!
Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time - "Paranoid Android" - Rated 257/500!

Radiohead's third studio album, and their last offering of the 90s, was the magnum opus OK Computer. Released in 1997, just two years after The Bends and four years after Pablo Honey, OK Computer solidified Radiohead's reputation as one of the most innovative and provocative bands of the decade.

"Radiohead recorded their third album in the mansion of actress Jane Seymour while she was filming Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. OK is where the band began pulling at its sound like taffy, seeing what happened, not worrying if it was still "rock." What results is a slow, haunting album with unforgettable tracks such as "Karma Police." Said guitarist Jonny Greenwood, "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 thirty years. . . . We used violins to make frightening white-noise stuff, like the last chord of 'Climbing Up the Walls.'" - www.rollingstone.com

For OK Computer, Radiohead stripped away many of the obvious elements of guitar rock. Instead, they created music that is complex and textured. Exemplary of their stylistic growth is the multi-segmented "Paranoid Android". Tight, melodic, and muscular, this song pushed Radiohead to their very extremes with its electronic elements, odd time signatures, and intricate syncopations. It's a brilliant contrast to the wonderfully plaintive "Karma Police", which rests in the crucial halfway point of the album and serves to remind the listener that Radiohead can still write a brilliant piano ballad.

Sonic evolution notwithstanding, the lyrical themes are also a marked deviation from past work. Singer Thom Yorke makes extensive use of a bleak outlook on consumerism, social disconnection, political stagnation, and modern malaise. Each song is a dreary Polaroid picture of a post-modern world, seen through different colored lenses. Certain themes and motifs reappear throughout the album, but each song exists within its own universe, tells its own tale, and carries substantial weight.

OK Computer is frequently compared to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, and with good reason. Its slow drama and conceptual sweep certainly invite the comparison. It's an epic, career-making, timeless classic; certainly, their pièce de résistance. It's bleak, it's dystopian, and it's unmistakably Radiohead.

"'Paranoid Android' is about the dullest f*cking people on Earth,' said singer Yorke, referring to lyrics such as 'Squealing Gucci little piggy,' about a creepy coked-out woman he once spied at an L.A. bar. The sound was just as unnerving: a shape-shifting three-part prog-rock suite. Spooky fact: It was recorded in actress Jane Seymour’s 15th-century mansion, a house that Yorke was convinced was haunted." - Rolling Stone

Features:
• Double LP
• 180 Gram Vinyl
• Audiophile Quality
• Gatefold Jacket
• Color labels
• Printed Sleeves

Selections:
1. Airbag
2. Paranoid Android
3. Subterranean Homesick Alien
4. Exit Music (For a Film)
5. Let Down
6. Karma Police
7. Electioneering
8. Climbing Up the Walls
9. No Surprises
10. Lucky
11. The Tourist

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