OK Computer

Radiohead

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 1, 1997)
• Original Release Date: July 1, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B000002UJQ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2,053 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #724 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Radiohead's third album got compared to Pink Floyd a lot when it came out, and its slow drama and conceptual sweep certainly put it in that category. OK Computer, though, is a complicated and difficult record: an album about the way machines dehumanize people that's almost entirely un-electronic; an album by a British "new wave of new wave" band that rejects speed and hooks in favor of languorous texture and morose details; a sad and humanist record whose central moment is Thom Yorke crooning "We hope that you choke." Sluggish, understated, and hard to get a grip on, OK Computer takes a few listens to appreciate, but its entirety means more than any one song. --Douglas Wolk

Product Description

Radiohead Photos

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

511 of 572 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Music that moves me, October 12, 2003

By	Andrew J. Staudt (Iowa City, IA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Previously, while browsing through the reviews, I noticed a common theme in the suprising amount of negative responses this album has gotten. The reviewers who wrote them seemed for some reason angry at the fact that so many people enjoy this album. I was appalled by the number of people who seemed to have no respect for other people's opinions. The thought that all the people are "just faking" liking the album to seem cool and hip is just absurd. They seem to be infuriated that many people seem to genuinly like something that they do not, and failing to realize that opinions are subjective, are drawn to the rash conclusion that everyone else is wrong, stupid, or "faking it". These people need to realize that it is ok not to like an album that many other people like. Please don't critisize others for their opinions, even if they differ from your own, for it is the exact nature of our free will that allows us to have differing thoughts and feelings when interpreting art, or anything for that matter. Without this gift, we would be nothing but mindless robots, without the freedom of choice or individual thought.

That being said, OK Computer is one of my favorite albums. Each track on the album has the ability of conjering up different emotions, and by the end, the emotional wirlwind leaves me dizzy. The album's central theme of encountering genuin beauty in our world of technology, yet being unable to shake a certain feeling of unease, comes across perfectly. It's funny that the people who are angered by this album may be the people it was really geared towards. It attempts to send the message that you don't have to be compliant all the time: treasure your individuality, don't let anyone take it away from you. At least that's what I got from this album, which brings the point across beautifully with it's layered sounds and melodic, peircing, and haunting vocals. I'm genuinly moved by this album everytime I listen to it. For those that think I'm saying this just to be hip, and cannnot and do not want anyone to have opinions different than their own, I'm with Tom Yorke in saying "We hope that you Choke."

55 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Radiohead's best, October 11, 2002

By	16x9 aspect ratio (Pico Rivera, CA USA) - See all my reviews

I agree with another reviewer that this CD deserves an average rating of 5 stars and not 4.5. This album is a masterpiece and will go down in history as one of the greats of the 90's. What's interesting about Radiohead is that they weren't as commercialy succesful as other bands from the 90's yet they remain one of the most powerful and original bands out there. Most people don't realize that after their monstrous hit "Creep" Radiohead produced their best music.

This indeed is an album and not just a collection of songs. From the first track "Airbag" all the way to the sixth track "Karma Police" the album flows seamlessly with emotional continuity and thought. Thom Yorke's lyrics are haunting and deeply symbolic. From rich layerd guitar sounds, out of this world keyboard riffs and of course Thom's unforgettable vocals the sound of this album is unforgettable. I must have listened to this CD hundeds of times and it never gets old because there is always something new for me to discover. What's great about OK Computer is that it combines the experimentation of Kid A and Amnesiac and the brilliant guitar work of The Bends. Ok Computer won't disappoint and belongs in your music library.

174 of 207 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars God loves his children, yeah..., February 4, 2000

By A Customer

If it is possible for (less than) an hour's worth of music to encapsulate all that is misguided, shallow and spiritually vacant about the foundations that modern Western society is built on, it is Radiohead's masterpiece, OK Computer. Intense, uncomfortable, dark and moving, OK Computer is the culmination of an incredible progression from the relative mediocrity of Pablo Honey, through the flawed brilliance of The Bends to an astounding third album which they may not be able to surpass. Apparently Thom Yorke almost went mad trying to decide the track order, but from the opening bars of Airbag, with it's uncomfortable, frankly bizarre, guitar line, to the microwave oven's ring that marks the end of The Tourist, the whole is incontestably a journey of the brain, the heart and the senses that seems to make perfect sense. The manic, Bohemian Rhapsodiesque apocalyptic soundtrack that is Paranoid Android still renders me speechless today. The pure beauty of the final chorus of Let Down, the frazzled mute trumpet solo on Climbing up the Walls, the fact that Johnny Greenwood seems to have reinvented the guitar and above all Thom Yorke's unutterably beautiful voice throughout, leaves you questioning quite where five middle class blokes from Oxford discovered the ability to move you so much. Before OK Computer, yuppies networking were an irritating banality. After OK Computer they are pure evil. My eyes have been opened...