Fitter Happier
OK Computer is the third studio album by English alternative rock band Radiohead, released in 1997 on EMI subsidiaries Parlophone and Capitol Records. The members of Radiohead self-produced the album with Nigel Godrich, an arrangement that the band has used on all of their subsequent albums to date. Other than "Lucky", which was recorded in 1995, Radiohead recorded the album in Oxfordshire and Bath between 1996 and early 1997, mostly in the historic mansion St. Catherine's Court. The band made a deliberate attempt to distance themselves from the guitar-oriented, lyrically introspective style of their previous album, The Bends. OK Computer's abstract lyrics, densely layered sound and eclectic range of influences laid the groundwork for Radiohead's later, more experimental work.
Upon the album's delivery to EMI and its global subsidiary distributors, label representatives generally lowered their sales estimates, deeming the record's sound uncommercial and difficult to market. Nevertheless, OK Computer reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and became the band's highest album entry on the American charts at the time, debuting at number 21 on the Billboard 200. Four songs from the album—"Paranoid Android", "Karma Police", "Lucky", and "No Surprises"—were released as promotional singles. The album expanded Radiohead's international popularity and has sold at least 4.5 million copies worldwide to date.
OK Computer received widespread critical acclaim and in subsequent years has been cited by listeners, critics and musicians as one of the greatest albums of all time. The album initiated a stylistic shift in British rock away from the then-ubiquitous genre of Britpop toward melancholic, atmospheric styles of alternative and indie rock that became more prevalent in the next decade. Critics and fans have noted that the album's lyrics and music depict a world fraught with rampant consumerism, social alienation, emotional isolation and political malaise; in this capacity, OK Computer is often interpreted as having prescient insight into the mood of 21st-century life.
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