Radiohead - OK Computer

This is probably the most bittersweet Radiohead album out there for me. It’s by far my favorite (relatively speaking), marking the band’s ascension to the immense potential expressed in their first two albums. But to me, after this album, the promising sound that had been so reluctant to emerge just… up and died. The potential greatness I grew to enjoy from this album never came about again, replaced by a face-stealing computerized band of pretentious derivative imposters. Uhh, ahem, no offense.

So while I do enjoy this album in its own, it’s difficult to hear it knowing what great music might have come after if the band had continued exploring the sound they had developed by 1997. I know many will disagree. Reinvention is every artist’s right, and I don’t begrudge Radiohead for reinventing themselves in order to find artistic fulfillment. But as a selfish fan, it stinks to lose potentially good music to a reinvention I found extremely weird - especially when I know what we could have had.

From the roundup Greatest Albums of 1997.