Radiohead - OK Computer (1997), 7/10

I personally let my overexposure to this record diminish its status in my eyes for a long time, but after coming back I fell in love again. I do believe that it is supremely overrated due to its easily digestible sound for a very wide audience, even crossing generation lines, but that doesn't take away from its personal impact. I always saw the hits before throwing it on and let them keep me at arm’s length, but there are so many beautiful moments in many of the other tracks (especially in the others in my view) its effectiveness becomes undeniable after a time. Not to mention there is a sound that the band achieved here that is truly prophetic, yet timeless. I've listened to enough Radiohead in my life to be sick of everything they've recorded, but just never seem to and OK Computer is a big part of that phenomenon. Though “Paranoid Android” is something of an operatic dynamics piece, it is excellent as an individual track, perhaps the best on the first half of the album along with “Exit Music (For a Film)”. The second half is stronger, hosting two of my favorite Radiohead songs in “Lucky” and “The Tourist” right at the close of the album. They both deliver delicate and graceful performances from Thom, with “The Tourist” serving as the perfect period piece for the finality of the album’s narrative arc, and “Lucky” leaning more into the delicate approach that would be explored many years later on A Moon Shaped Pool. Perhaps a little bloated and inconsistent in its statements, but still a powerhouse of a rock record, especially considering its release during a creative draught in pop music during the mid/late nineties.