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OK Computer es el tercer álbum de estudio de la banda británica de rock alternativo Radiohead, lanzado el 16 de junio de 1997. Fue grabado en la zona rural de Oxfordshire y Bath, durante 1996 y principios de 1997, junto al productor Nigel Godrich. Aunque en la mayoría de la música domina el sonido de guitarra, su extenso sonido y la amplia gama de influencias lo distinguen de muchas bandas populares de britpop y rock alternativo de la época, y sentó las bases para el trabajo posterior de Radiohead, más experimental. El grupo no considera a OK Computer un álbum conceptual; sin embargo, sus letras y el arte visual hacen hincapié en temas comunes, como el consumismo, la desconexión social, el estancamiento político, y el malestar moderno.
OK Computer alcanzó el número uno en las listas británicas de álbumes y marcó el ingreso de Radiohead en el mercado estadounidense, donde debutó en la posición número 21 del Billboard 200. El álbum amplió la popularidad de la banda en todo el mundo, y ha sido certificado triple platino en el Reino Unido, doble platino en los Estados Unidos, y platino en Australia.
OK Computer ha recibido la aclamación de la crítica desde su lanzamiento, y ha sido catalogado por los críticos musicales como uno de los mejores álbumes de la historia y como una obra maestra del rock moderno. De hecho, muchas listas tanto de críticos como encuestas populares, lo consideran el mejor de la historia, por sobre los míticos The Dark Side of the Moon de Pink Floyd y Abbey Road de The Beatles.
User Album Review
As an occasional admirer of this band, I’ve never quite got my head around the fact that OK Computer is considered by many (British) music fans to be one of the Greatest Albums of All Time. On its release, I listened to it just once and, unmoved, moved on. Ten years after its release, OK Computer’s slow-growing appeal has finally worked its magic. I still wouldn’t rate it as a desert island disc, but it is undeniably a great album, well deserving of the ‘classic rock’ tag.
Recorded during the dying days of Conservative rule in the UK, perhaps it was the despairing-yet-hopeful tone and the theme of alienation that captured the Zeitgeist of the time. Intelligent without being intellectual, and political (Electioneering) yet never literal or linear enough to be hectoring, it also must have represented a sophisticated alternative to mainstream Britpop, which by then had lost much of its spark. The ‘prog rock for the nineties’ tag that some critics lumbered it with doesn¹t really stand up, even if the three-part structure and ambition of “Paranoid Android” does have more than a whiff of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” about it. But contrasted with the muscular economy of the opening “Airbag” and the wonderfully evocative, saturated soundscape of “Subterranean Homesick Alien”, it makes perfect sense as part of a seamless sequence that runs all the way (via tunes as memorable as “Karma Police” and “No Surprises”), to the emotionally bruised finale of “The Tourist”. This is one of those rare albums that can be listened to as a single piece of music.
The dense instrumental textures never seem over-stuffed and are wide-ranging and often thrilling, driven by Phil Selway¹s meaty drumming, layered with growling guitars and the varied use of keyboards, synthesisers and electronic treatments. Tom Yorke’s dread-filled voice will get on some peoples’ nerves. It sometimes rises into a trademark falsetto and is often partly buried in the mix, but when it emerges, there are none of the usual boy-meets-girl cliches. And for that, we must be thankful.
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