"Airbag" has a drum loop inspired by DJ Shadow, drummer Phil Selway told Melody Maker at the time. Studio-wise, the band experimented with different techniques. The gnawing "Climbing up the Walls" is aptly named, as it's a song with knocking percussion, creaking sound effects and distorted vocals. "Subterranean Homesick Alien" and "Let Down" are tranquil and resigned, the soundtrack to floating underwater until you need to surface and gasp for air. Yet "OK Computer" finds strange beauty in anxiety and isolation. The gleaming boogie "Electioneering" and multi-part "Paranoid Android" boast abrasive guitars that sound harsher than anything on "The Bends," while "Exit Music (For a Film)" ends in prog-like, agonized sonic buzzing. In light of this, it's no wonder "OK Computer" sounds so fractured and antagonistic. It was backwards-looking, and I didn't want any part of it." As Yorke recently told Rolling Stone, "The whole Britpop thing made me fucking angry. Still, Radiohead very pointedly eschewed the affected mannerisms and jingoistic pride favored by contemporary Britpop bands. Although its cryptic lyrics hinted at where the band would go on "OK Computer," the record fit with the sound of U.K. The group's next album, 1995's "The Bends," was more focused and guitar-heavy, with nods to crunchy glam and shimmering jangle-pop. When the band burst into the public eye in 1993, it was with the self-loathing "Creep." The hit - which band members claimed in interviews was actually a happy song - saw the band touring constantly and, occasionally, coming across as goths marooned on a beach (a memorable MTV Spring Break performance). Radiohead's transformation into incisive cultural commentators was relatively quick. "The claustrophobia - just having no sense of reality at all." "I was basically catatonic," Yorke recently told Rolling Stone about this era. "Exit Music (For a Film)" - which was written for and appeared in Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film "Romeo + Juliet" - mirrors the play's focus on the impossibility of romantic escape, and the knowledge that it's too late for escape. "Subterranean Homesick Alien" is about feeling like a stranger in a strange land. "Political systems worldwide are at the mercy of business and bullshit economies."Įlsewhere, Yorke captures the malaise that comes from dealing with this structural oppression. Lyrics chastise oppressive jobs and bosses ("Karma Police"), the ugly side of being rich ("Paranoid Android" and its memorable line, "Ambition makes you look pretty ugly/Kicking and squealing Gucci little piggy") and the moral bankruptcy of politics ("Electioneering")."We live under a world banking system and media that make it almost irrelevant who is in power," is how vocalist Thom Yorke described the latter song to Vox. Unsurprisingly, "OK Computer" sounds eerily prescient in light of today's post-election gloom. Skepticism and cynicism abound, as does disaffection and a morose outlook on life. Released in 1997, the record is a sophisticated critique of a society on the verge of a technological zeitgeist. However, "OK Computer"- named after a phrase the band heard in an audio version of Douglas Adams' "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"- is a special exception. The retro fanfare might seem out of character for the Oxford, England-formed quintet, whose entire career has been predicated on forward motion and defiant self-invention. Called "OKNOTOK 1997-2017," the deluxe release features remastered audio of the original album, b-sides and three unreleased tracks that have long been fan favorites: "I Promise," "Man Of War" and "Lift." To celebrate the 20th anniversary of "OK Computer," Radiohead is releasing a special edition of the album.