text: ok computer ok computer is the third studio album by the english alternative rock band radiohead , released on 21 may 1997 by parlophone records internationally and by capitol records in the united states . it was the first album to be self - produced by radiohead with assistance from the producer nigel godrich . the album was recorded in oxfordshire and bath between 1996 and early 1997 , with most of the recording completed 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 wide range of influences laid the groundwork for radiohead 's later more experimental work . ok computer received unanimous critical acclaim and has since been cited by critics and musicians as one of the greatest albums of the 1990s . the album was nominated in the album of the year and best alternative music performance categories at the 1998 grammy awards , ultimately winning the latter . the album initiated a shift away from the popular britpop genre of the time to the more melancholic and atmospheric style of alternative rock that would be prevalent in the next decade . critics and fans have commented on the underlying themes found in the lyrics and album artwork , emphasising radiohead 's views on 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 . upon the album 's delivery to the band 's united states record label capitol records , label representatives lowered their sales estimates , deeming the record uncommercial . nevertheless , ok computer reached number one on the uk albums chart and became radiohead 's highest album entry on the united states charts at the time , debuting at # 21 on the billboard 200 . " paranoid android " , " karma police " , " lucky " , " no surprises " and " airbag " were released as promotional singles from the album . background in 1995 , radiohead toured in support of their second album the bends . midway through the tour , brian eno commissioned the band to contribute a song to the help album , a charity compilation organised by war child . the help album was to be recorded over the course of a single day , 4 september 1995 , and rush - released that week . that day radiohead recorded " lucky " in five hours with engineer nigel godrich , who had assisted producer john leckie with the bends and had produced several radiohead b - sides . godrich said of the help album 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 . " to promote the help album , " lucky " featured as the lead track on the help ep , which charted at number 51 after bbc radio 1 chose not to play it . this disappointed radiohead singer thom yorke , but he later 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 . " radiohead found the bends tour stressful and decided to take a break in january 1996 . the band sought to distance their new material from the introspective style of the bends . drummer phil 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 : " the big thing for me is that we could really fall back on just doing another miserable , morbid and negative record lyrically , but i don 't really want to , at all . and i 'm deliberately just 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 . " the critical and commercial success of the bends gave the band confidence to self - produce their third album . their label parlophone gave them a £ 100 , 000 budget for recording equipment and an open - ended deadline . 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 . " guitarist ed o 'brien , said : " 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 . " a number of producers , including major figures such as scott litt , were offered for the producer role , but the band were encouraged by the sessions with godrich . they consulted him for advice on what equipment to use , and prepared for the sessions by buying their own equipment , including a plate purchased from jona . although godrich had sought to focus his work on electronic dance music , he outgrew his role as advisor and became the album 's coproducer . recording in july 1996 , radiohead started rehearsing and recording ok computer in their studio canned applause , a converted shed near didcot , oxfordshire . even without the deadline that contributed to the stress of the bends , the band had difficulties , which selway blamed on their choice to self - produce the album : " [ 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 . " 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 . 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 worked as a collaborator and a 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 . " from the ok computer sessions onward , godrich has been characterised as radiohead 's unofficial " sixth member " . radiohead decided that canned applause was an unsatisfactory recording location , which yorke attributed to its proximity to the band members ' homes , and which jonny greenwood attributed to its lack of dining and bathroom facilities . the group had nearly completed recording four songs : " electioneering " , " no surprises " , " subterranean homesick alien " and " the tourist " . at their label 's request , the band took a break from recording to embark on a 13 - date american tour in 1996 , opening for alanis morissette , and performed early versions of several new songs . one song , " paranoid android " , evolved from a fourteen - minute song featuring long organ solos to one closer to the six - minute album version . during the tour , filmmaker baz luhrmann commissioned radiohead to write a song for his upcoming film romeo + juliet . luhrmann gave the band footage of 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 , the band wrote and recorded " exit music ( for a film ) " ; the track plays over the film 's end credits but was not included on the soundtrack at the band 's request . yorke later said the song helped shape the direction of the rest of the album , and that 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 . " radiohead resumed their recording sessions in september 1996 at st catherine 's court , a historic mansion near bath owned by actress jane seymour . greenwood said the new location was - in but sometimes used as " a kind of corporate convention hangout . " the change of setting marked an important transition in the recording process . greenwood , comparing the mansion to previous studio settings , said recording at st. catherine 's court " 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 group made extensive use of the different rooms and acoustics throughout the house . the vocals on " exit music ( for a film ) " featured an echo effect achieved by recording on a stone staircase , and " let down " was recorded at 3 a.m. in a ballroom . the 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 . " yorke was satisfied with the quality of the recordings made at the location , and said : " in a big country house , you don 't have that dreadful ' 80s ' separation ' . ... there wasn 't a desire for everything to be completely steady and each instrument recorded separately . " o 'brien was similarly pleased with the recordings , estimating that 80 percent of the album was recorded live . he 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 . " yorke recorded many of the album 's vocals in one take . radiohead returned to canned applause in october for rehearsals , 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 . the string parts were recorded at abbey road studios in london in january 1997 . the album was mastered at the same location , and mixed over the next two months at various studios around the city . godrich preferred a quick and hands - off approach to his mixing work , 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 . " music and lyrics style and influences yorke said that the starting point for the record was the " incredibly dense and terrifying sound " of bitches brew , the 1970 avant - garde jazz fusion album by miles davis . he described the sound of bitches brew to q : " 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 . " yorke has 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 being particularly influential on the album 's songwriting . radiohead drew further inspiration from the recording style of film soundtrack composer ennio morricone and the krautrock band can , musicians yorke described as " abusing the recording process " . according to yorke , the band 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 . " the band expanded their instrumentation to include electric piano , mellotron , cello and other strings , glockenspiel and electronic effects . the band 's exploratory approach to instruments was summarised by jonny greenwood as " when we 've got what we suspect to be an amazing song , but nobody knows what they 're gonna play on it . " one reviewer characterised ok computer as sounding like " a diy electronica album made with guitars " . 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 . " lyrics 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 . " recurring themes include transport , technology , insanity , death , modern life in the uk , globalisation and political objection to capitalism . yorke said , " on this album , the outside world became all there was ... i 'm just taking polaroids of things around me moving too fast . " he explained that " 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 . " yorke was inspired by books he read at the time , including noam chomsky 's writings , eric hobsbawm 's the age of extremes , will hutton 's the state we 're in , jonathan coe 's what a up ! and philip k. dick 's . although the songs do share common themes , radiohead do not consider ok computer to be a concept album and have said that they had no intention to link the songs together with any underlying narrative . the album is intended to be heard as a whole ; o 'brien said , " we spent two weeks track - listing the album . the context of each song is really important ... it 's not a concept album but there is a continuity there . " composition the album 's opening track " airbag " was inspired by the music of dj shadow and is underpinned by an electronic drum beat programmed from a seconds - long recording of selway 's drumming . the band sampled the drum track with a digital sampler and edited it with a macintosh computer , but admitted to making approximations in emulating shadow 's style due to their programming inexperience . the bassline in " airbag " stops and starts unexpectedly , achieving an effect similar to 1970s dub . the song 's references to automobile accidents 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 . " music journalist tim footman notes the song 's technical innovations and lyrical concerns demonstrate 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 . " " paranoid android " , split into four distinct sections , is among the band 's longest recorded studio tracks at 6 : 23 . the unconventional multi - section song was inspired by the beatles ' " happiness is a warm gun " and queen 's " bohemian rhapsody " , which also eschew a traditional verse - chorus - verse structure . the song 's 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 . " this is us desperate to be miles davis … it 's got a groove . and it used to be called ' uptight ' . " – thom yorke its title a reference to the bob dylan song " subterranean homesick blues " , the science fiction - inspired song describes 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 . 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 of works that humorously mundane aspects of human life from an alien " martian " perspective . 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 . " we wrote this for romeo + juliet . 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 . a personal song . " – thom yorke yorke compared the opening of the song , which mostly features his singing paired with acoustic guitar , to johnny cash 's at folsom prison . mellotron choir and other electronic voices are used throughout the track . the song climaxes with the entrance of drums , and this section prominently features distorted bass run through a fuzz pedal . the climactic portion of the song is an attempt to emulate the sound of trip hop group portishead , but in a style that bass player colin greenwood called more " stilted and leaden and mechanical " . the song concludes by fading back to yorke 's voice , acoustic guitar and mellotron . " let down " contains multilayered arpeggiated guitars and electric piano . jonny greenwood 's electric piano part is in a different time signature to the other instruments . 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 song 's lyrics are , yorke said , " 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 . " " i was pissed in a club and i suddenly had the funniest thought i 'd had for ages : what if all the people who were drinking were hanging from the bottles ? if the bottles were hung from the ceiling with string , and the floor caved in , and the only thing that kept everyone up was the bottles ? it 's also about an enormous fear of being trapped . " – thom yorke 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 said that it informed not just " let down " but the band 's approach to the whole album . critic steve huey said the structure of " karma police " is " somewhat unorthodox , since there doesn 't seem to be a true chorus section ; the main verse alternates with a short , subdued break ... and after two cycles , the song builds to a completely different ending section . " the first portion is centred around acoustic guitar and piano , with a chord progression indebted to the beatles ' " sexy sadie " . starting at 2 : 34 , the song transitions into an orchestrated section with the repeated line " for a minute there , i lost myself " . the song ends with guitarist ed o 'brien generating feedback using a delay effect . 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 . ' " " fitter happier " is a short musique concrète track that consists of sampled musical and background sound and spoken word lyrics recited by a synthesized voice from the macintosh application . " fitter , happier . more productive . comfortable . not drinking too much . regular exercise at the gym , three days a week . getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries . at ease . eating well , no more microwave dinners and saturated fats . a patient , better driver . a safer car , baby smiling in back seat . sleeping well , no bad dreams . no paranoia . careful to all animals , never washing spiders down the plughole . keep in contact with old friends , enjoy a drink now and then . will frequently check credit at moral bank , hole in wall . for favours , fond but not in love . charity standing orders on , ring - road supermarket . no killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants . car wash , also on . no longer afraid of the dark or midday shadows , nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate . nothing so childish . at a better pace , slower and more calculated . no chance of escape . now self - employed . concerned , but powerless . an empowered and informed member of society , pragmatism not idealism . will not cry in public . less chance of illness . tires that grip in the wet , shot of baby strapped in backseat . a good memory . still cries at a good film . still kisses with saliva . no longer empty and frantic . like a cat tied to a stick that 's driven into frozen winter shit , the ability to laugh at weakness . calm , fitter , healthier and more productive . a pig in a cage on antibiotics . " written after a period of writer 's block , " fitter happier " was described by yorke as a checklist of slogans for the 1990s , which he considered " the most upsetting thing i 've ever written " . " the others were downstairs , rockin ' , and i crept upstairs and did this in ten minutes . i was feeling incredible hysteria and panic , and it was so liberating to give the lyrics to this neutral - sounding computer . " – thom yorke " fitter happier " was considered for the album 's opening track , but rejected because the band considered the effect off - putting . steve lowe called the song " penetrating surgery on pseudo - meaningful corporations ' lifestyles " with " a repugnance for prevailing 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 - , half - stepford wife , destined for the metaphorical farrowing crate , propped up on prozac , viagra and anything else his insurance plan can cover . " 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 . " " electioneering " , featuring a cowbell and a distorted guitar solo , is the album 's most rock - oriented track and one of the heaviest songs the band has recorded . it has been compared to radiohead 's earlier style on pablo honey . the cynical " electioneering " is also the album 's most directly political song . " i was thinking of the poll tax riots when i wrote this : the moment when the horses broke through the barriers and everyone started smashing windows . it 's also from watching too many mps on telly . you just get this feeling of , ' , i 've seen this once too many times . ' " – thom yorke it was partly 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 . " 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 : " when you have to promote your album for a longer period , in the united states for example , you fly around from city to city for weeks to meet journalists and record company people . after a while you feel like a politician who has to kiss babies and shake hands all day long . " " climbing up the walls " – described by a critic as " monumental chaos " – is layered with a string section , ambient noise and repetitive , metallic - sounding percussion . the song 's 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 . " the combination of yorke 's distraught vocals and the atonal strings was described by one critic 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 mental health patients , and a new york times article about serial killers . " 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 . " – thom yorke " no surprises " , recorded in a single take , is arranged with electric guitar ( inspired by the beach boys ' " wouldn 't it be nice " ) , acoustic guitar , glockenspiel and vocal harmonies . 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 . hoping to achieve a slower tempo than could be played well on their instruments , godrich had the band record the song at a faster tempo , then slowed the playback for yorke to overdub his vocals onto , creating an " ethereal " effect . 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 . some lines refer to rural 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 . " critics have said the song 's gentle mood contrasts sharply with its harsh lyrics ; steele said , " even when the subject is suicide ... ed 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 recent conflict in bosnia , and 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 " . the song was originally more politically explicit , but the first draft was pared down from " pages and pages and pages of notes " . 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 intro played by o 'brien . critics have compared its lead guitar to pink floyd and , more broadly , arena rock . the album ends with " the tourist " , which jonny greenwood wrote as an unusually staid piece where something " doesn 't have to happen ... every 3 seconds . " he said , " ' the tourist ' doesn 't sound like radiohead at all . it has become a song with space . " " the lyrics come from being in a beautiful square in france on a sunny day , and watching all these american tourists being wheeled around , frantically trying to see everything in ten minutes . you know : ' we 've got to be in paris tomorrow morning ! ' and then i saw this old bloke on telly , saying that he couldn 't work out why the world had got so fast and in a hurry . i just had an image of him standing on a street corner , watching the traffic hurl by . " – thom yorke yorke 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 . " 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 . title and artwork " ok computer " was the original title for the song " palo alto " , which had been considered for inclusion on the album . although the song was abandoned , its first 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 it " 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 . " yorke 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 suggests that it is an homage to macintosh computers , as " the mac 's built - in speech recognition software responds to the command ' ok computer , ' as an alternative to hitting an ok button onscreen . " 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 . the album 's artwork is a computer - generated collage of images and text created by stanley donwood and yorke , credited under the pseudonym " the white chocolate farm " . donwood was commissioned by yorke to work on a visual diary alongside the recording sessions . yorke explained , " if i 'm shown some kind of visual representation of the music , only then do i feel confident . up until that point , i 'm a bit of a whirlwind . " the colour palette is predominantly white and blue , according to donwood , the result of " trying to make something the color of bleached bone . " used twice on the artwork , once in the booklet and once on the compact disc itself , is the image of two stick figures shaking hands . yorke explained the image as emblematic of exploitation , saying , " 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 . " 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 . " visual motifs in the artwork include motorways , aeroplanes , families with children , corporate logos and cityscapes . the words " lost child " feature prominently on the cover , and the booklet artwork contains phrases in the constructed language esperanto and health - related instructions in both english and greek . the use of disconnected phrases led a critic for uncut to say , " the non - sequiturs created an effect akin to being lifestyle - coached by a lunatic . " white scribbles , donwood 's method of correcting mistakes rather than using the computer function undo , are present everywhere in the collages . the liner notes contain the full lyrics , rendered with atypical syntax , alternate spelling and small annotations . the lyrics are also arranged and spaced in shapes that resemble hidden images . in keeping with the band 's then emergent anti - corporate stance , the production credits contain the ironic copyright notice " lyrics reproduced by kind permission even though we wrote them . " release and promotion selway admitted that when the band delivered the album , the band 's american label capitol saw " more or less , ' commercial suicide ' . they weren 't really into it . at that point , we got the fear . how is this going to be received ? " capitol lowered its sales forecast from two million units to a half a million . in o 'brien 's view only parlophone , the band 's british label , remained optimistic while global distributors dramatically reduced their sales estimates . label representatives were reportedly disappointed with the lack of potential marketable singles , especially the absence of anything resembling their initial hit , " creep " . parlophone 's advertising campaign was unorthodox . the label took full - page advertisements in high - profile british newspapers and tube stations with lyrics for " fitter happier " pitched in large black letters against white backgrounds . the same lyrics , and artwork adapted from the album , were repurposed for shirt designs . yorke said , " we actively chose to pursue the ' fitter happier ' thing " to link what a critic called " a coherent set of concerns " between the album artwork and its promotional material . more unconventional merchandise included a floppy disk with radiohead screensavers and an fm radio in the shape of a desktop computer . 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 . when asked about the campaign after the album 's release , capitol president gary gersh said , " our job is just to take them as a left - of - center band and bring the center to them . that 's our focus , and we won 't let up until they 're the biggest band in the world . " yorke states in an early interview , " when we first gave [ the album ] to capitol , they were taken aback . i don 't really know why it 's so important now , but i 'm excited about it . " radiohead chose " paranoid android " as the lead single , despite its unusually long running time and lack of a catchy chorus . colin greenwood admitted the song was " hardly the radio - friendly , breakthrough , buzz bin unit shifter [ radio stations ] can have been expecting , " but said that capitol was supportive of the band 's choice . the song premiered on the radio 1 programme the evening session in april 1997 and released as a single in may 1997 . on the strength of frequent radio play on radio 1 and rotation of the song 's music video on mtv , " paranoid android " reached number three in the uk , giving radiohead their highest chart position . radiohead embarked on a world tour in promotion of ok computer called the " against demons " tour , commencing at the album launch in barcelona on 22 may 1997 . 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 . in addition to the dominant cd format , the album was released as a double - lp vinyl record , cassette and minidisc . the album debuted at number one on the uk , where it held for two weeks . it stayed in the top 10 for weeks and became the country 's eighth - best selling record of the year . meanwhile , the tour took the band across the uk and ireland , continental europe , north america , japan and australasia , concluding on 29 august 1998 in new york . the tour was mentally taxing for the band , particularly yorke , who later 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 . " " karma police " was released in august 1997 and " no surprises " in january 1998 . both singles charted in the uk top 10 , and " karma police " peaked at number 14 on the billboard modern rock tracks chart . " lucky " was released as a single in france , but did not chart . " let down " , considered for release as the lead single , charted on the modern rock tracks chart at number 29 . the band planned to produce a video for every song on the album to be released as a whole , but the project was abandoned due to financial and time constraints . also considered , but ultimately scrapped , were plans for trip hop group massive attack to remix the entire album . meeting people is easy , grant gee 's rockumentary following the band on its ok computer world tour , premiered in november 1998 . by february 1998 , the album had sold at least half a million copies in the uk and 2 million worldwide . to date , at least 1 . 4 million copies have been sold in the us , 3 million across europe and over 3 million worldwide . ok computer has been certified triple platinum in the uk and double platinum in the us , in addition to certifications in other markets . reception ok computer received near - unanimous critical acclaim . critics in the british and american press generally agreed that the album was a landmark of its time and would have far - reaching impact and importance , and that the band 's willingness to experiment made it a challenging listen . according to 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 . " in the english press , the album garnered favourable reviews in nme , melody maker , the guardian , and q. 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 . " " every word sounds achingly sincere , every note spewed from the heart , " wrote john harris in select , " and yet it roots itself firmly in a world of steel , glass , random - access memory and prickly - skinned paranoia . " 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 . " the album was well received by critics in north america . rolling stone , spin , and pitchfork media published positive reviews . in the new yorker , alex ross praised its progressiveness , and contrasted radiohead 's risk - taking with the musically conservative " " of their contemporaries oasis . ross wrote that " 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 . " reviews for entertainment weekly , the chicago tribune , and time were mixed or contained qualified praise . 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 " and to compensate for how soulless the songs are , resulting in " arid " art rock . the album appeared in many 1997 critics ' lists and listener polls for best album of the year . it topped the year - end polls of mojo , vox , entertainment weekly , hot press , oor , , eye weekly and , and tied for first place with daft punk 's homework in the face . the album came second in nme , melody maker , rolling stone , village voice , spin and uncut . q and les inrockuptibles both listed the album in their unranked year - end polls . it was a nominee for the 1997 mercury prize , a prestigious award recognising the best british or irish album of the year . the near universal positive reception to the album overwhelmed the band , and some members thought the press was excessively congratulatory . particularly irksome to the band were links to progressive rock and art rock , with frequent comparisons to pink floyd 's 1973 album the dark side of the moon . 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 . " he was nevertheless pleasantly surprised that many listeners identified the album 's musical 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 . " " in england , i think a lot of the reviews have been slightly over - the - top , " remarked jonny greenwood , " because the last album [ the bends ] was somewhat under - reviewed possibly and under - received . " legacy retrospective acclaim ok computer has appeared frequently in professional lists of greatest albums . a number of publications , including nme , melody maker , alternative press , spin , pitchfork media , time , metro weekly and slant placed ok computer prominently in lists of best albums of the 1990s or of all time . in 2003 , the album was ranked number 162 on rolling stone magazine 's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time . retrospective reviews from bbc music , the a.v. club slant and paste have received the album favourably ; likewise , rolling stone gave the album five stars in the 2004 rolling stone album guide , with critic rob sheffield saying " 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 . " according to acclaimed music , a site which uses statistics to numerically represent reception among critics , ok computer is the 10th most celebrated album of all time . nme listed ok computer at 35 on its list of the 50 darkest albums . the album has been cited by some as undeserving of its acclaim , while others assert that radiohead 's career was negatively impacted by the album 's critical success . in a poll surveying thousands conducted by bbc radio 6 music , ok computer was named the sixth most over - rated album " in the world " . david h. green of the daily telegraph called the album " self - indulgent whingeing " and maintains that the positive critical consensus toward 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 . 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 of the album " there 's no defiance , gallows humour or chink of light beneath the curtain , just a sense of meek , resigned despondency , " and further criticised the record as " the moment when radiohead stopped being ' good ' [ compared to the bends ] and started being ' important ' . " in a spin article on the " myth " that " radiohead can do no wrong " , chris norris argues that the acclaim for ok computer created an inflated set of expectations for each successive radiohead release . ( * ) designates unordered lists . awards the album won a grammy award for best alternative music album in the 40th annual grammy awards in 1998 . the album was nominated in the 1998 brit awards and mercury prize for best british album and 1997 album of the year respectively . the album won the nme awards and q awards for album of the year and best album respectively . it was nominated for the grammy award for album of the year in 1998 . commentary and interpretation 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 . " 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 - angst . ... huge corporations were impossible to fight against — this was the world ok computer soundtracked , not the wave of british optimism . " 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 political viewpoint , which would be further explored on their subsequent releases . 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 . 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 . " 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 . " many felt the tone of the album was millennial or futuristic , 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 . " 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 . " 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 ? " the album inspired a radio play , also titled ok computer , which was first broadcast on bbc radio 4 in 2007 . the play was written by joel horwood , chris perkins , al smith and chris thorpe . musical influence the release of ok computer coincided with the decline of britpop . through ok computer 's influence , the dominant style of uk guitar pop shifted toward an approximation of " radiohead 's paranoid but confessional , slurry but catchy approach " . many newer british acts adopted similarly complex , atmospheric arrangements . a prominent example of this trend , 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 . some in the british press accused travis of appropriating radiohead 's sound . steven hyden of av club said that by 1998 , 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 " . critics have said ok computer 's popularity paved the way for the next generation of british alternative rock bands , and established musicians in a variety of genres have praised the album , including r.e.m. frontman michael stipe , former smiths guitarist johnny marr , dj shadow , former guns n ' roses guitarist slash , manic street preachers member nicky wire , the divine comedy frontman neil hannon , mo ' wax label owner james lavelle , former depeche mode member alan wilder and contemporary composer esa - pekka salonen . members of coldplay , bloc party and tv on the radio said they were influenced by ok computer . tv on the radio 's debut album was even titled ok calculator as a lighthearted tribute . 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. although ok computer 's influence on rock musicians 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 . " 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 . 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 . ok computer did trigger a minor revival of progressive rock and ambitious concept albums , and a new wave of prog - influenced bands credited ok computer for enabling their scene to thrive . brandon curtis of the 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 . " 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 . " the band has rejected any affiliation with the genre and denies having attempted to make a coherent concept album . jonny greenwood dismissed such claims by saying " i think one album title and one computer voice do not make a concept album . that 's a bit of a red herring . " reissues radiohead left emi , parent company of parlophone , in 2007 after failed contract negotiations . emi retained the copyright to radiohead 's back catalogue of material recorded while signed to the label . after a period of being out of print on vinyl , emi reissued a double - lp of ok computer on 19 august 2008 , along with later albums kid a , amnesiac and hail to the thief as part of the " from the capitol vaults " series . ok computer became the year 's tenth best - selling vinyl record , shifting just under 10 , 000 units . the reissue was connected in the press to a general upswing in vinyl sales and cultural appreciation of records as a format . ok computer was reissued again on 24 march 2009 simultaneously with pablo honey and the bends , without radiohead 's involvement . the reissue came in two editions : a 2 - cd " collector 's edition " and a 2 - cd 1 - dvd " special collector 's edition " . the first disc contains the original studio 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 . all material on the reissue had been previously released . in a march 2009 interview , o 'brien claimed that emi had not notified the band members of the reissue and said " i think the fans have got most of [ the material on the reissues ] , it 's all the stuff up on youtube . this is just a company who are trying to squeeze every bit of lost money , it 's not about [ an ] artistic statement . " press reaction to the reissue announcement reflected the concern that emi was exploiting radiohead 's back catalogue . larry fitzmaurice of spin accused emi of planning to " issue and re - issue [ radiohead 's ] discography until the cash stops rolling in " , and pitchfork 's ryan dombal said it was " hard to look at these reissues as anything other than a cash - grab for emi / capitol — an old media company that got dumped by their most forward - thinking band . " daniel kreps of rolling stone defended emi , saying " while it 's easy to accuse capitol of milking the cash cow once again , these sets are pretty comprehensive . " the reissue was critically well received , although critics were mixed about the supplemental material . reviews in allmusic , uncut , q , rolling stone and popmatters praised the supplemental material , but with reservations . a review written by scott plagenhoef for pitchfork awarded the reissue a perfect score , arguing that it was worth buying for fans who did not already own the rare 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 . " the a.v. club writer josh modell praised both the bonus disc and the dvd , and said of the album , " and what can be said about 1997 's ok computer that hasn 't been said before ? it really is the perfect synthesis of radiohead 's seemingly conflicted impulses . " track listing all songs written and composed by radiohead ( colin greenwood , ed o 'brien , jonny greenwood , philip selway , and thom yorke ) . personnel charts and certifications