Radiohead
Ok Computer

If you want to understand Radiohead, you must start with this album. Even though chronologically it is the third album by Thom Yorke & Co. (fourth if you also count the EP "my Iron Lung"), "Ok Computer" represents the perfect synthesis of what the English group had done in the past and will do in the future, namely a perfect mix of rock tinged with electronics alongside lyrics infused with unease and an almost paranoid sense of malaise, beautifully interpreted by Thom Yorke's plaintive voice.

(Almost) abandoning the acoustic and brit-pop-like tones that characterized "The Bends" and "Pablo Honey," the album opens with "Airbag," where electronic elements are already present in a rock track with laid back guitars. The paranormal suite "Paranoid Android" is the album’s gem (and perhaps of their entire discography) with a tense acoustic beginning that flows into an intermezzo of distorted guitars, where the accumulated tension explodes until it settles in the chanting verse "...rain down, rain down, come on rain down...".
At this point, the album could end here, but there are still songs like the melancholic and sad ballad "Exit Music (for a film)" (don't worry if it makes you want to cry, it's completely normal), the happy and almost carefree "Let Down," and the splendid "Karma Police," where Thom Yorke's piano and voice take center stage. It concludes with the high-energy "Electioneering," "Climbing Up The Walls," which sounds like a trip-hop track by Massive Attack with an almost industrial beat, and the dreamy lullaby "No Surprises."

Twelve songs that are enough to make an undeniable masterpiece of the nineties that paves the way for Radiohead's purely electronic albums like "Kid A" and "Amnesiac."