OK Computer is the third studio album by English alternative rock band Radiohead. It was released in Japan on 21 May 1997 and in the United Kingdom on 16 June by Parlophone, and in the United States on 1 July by Capitol Records. The members of Radiohead self-produced the album with Nigel Godrich, an arrangement that the band has used on all of their subsequent albums to date. Other than the song "Lucky", which was recorded in 1995, Radiohead recorded the album in Oxfordshire and Bath between 1996 and early 1997, mostly in the historic mansion St. Catherine's Court. The band made a deliberate attempt to distance themselves from the guitar-oriented and lyrically introspective style of their previous album The Bends (1995). OK Computer's abstract lyrics, densely layered sound, and eclectic range of influences laid the groundwork for Radiohead's later, more experimental work.
Upon the album's delivery to the band's record company EMI, label representatives generally lowered their sales estimates, deeming the record's sound "uncommercial" and difficult to market. Nevertheless, OK Computer reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and became the band's highest album entry on US charts at the time, debuting at number 21 on the US Billboard 200. Five songs from the album—"Paranoid Android", "Karma Police", "Lucky", "No Surprises", and "Airbag"—were released as promotional singles. The album expanded Radiohead's international popularity and received widespread critical acclaim; in subsequent years, it has been cited by listeners, critics, and musicians as one of the greatest albums of all time. The album initiated a stylistic shift in British rock music away from the then-ubiquitous genre of Britpop toward melancholic, atmospheric styles of alternative rock that became more prevalent in the next decade. Critics and fans have noted that the album's lyrics and music depict a world fraught with rampant consumerism, social alienation, emotional isolation, and political malaise; in this capacity, OK Computer is often interpreted as having prescient insight into the mood of 21st-century life. OK Computer has sold more than 6 million copies worldwide. A remastered version with additional tracks, titled OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997 2017, was released on 22 June 2017, commemorating the album's twentieth anniversary. In 2015, the album was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant."
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