Paranoid android (Radiohead) (LP 3586 - 3587)

Radiohead  OK Computer (CD, Parlophone Records, 1997) *****  

Radiohead  Kid A (CD, Parlophone Records, 2000) ****

Genre: Alt rock, prog rock

Places I remember: St Lukes music shop, The Warehouse in Cambridge 

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Karma Police (OK Computer)

Gear costume: The National Anthem (Kid A)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: I am not a huge Radiohead fan but I do love OK Computer's ability to wash over me. I bought it after I heard Karma Police on an EMI sampler and then the record was named album of the year in various music magazines. It was quite the thing in 1997. Creep and Anyone Can Play Guitar were also songs I knew before being pulled into OK Computer's dystopian world.

It remains a really rewarding album to listen to, and will surely figure in many best album lists from critics and fans alike. Same with Kid A, which was their next album.

It has a totally different feel to OK Computer but retains the experimental direction they were headed in. I bought it to see what all the fuss was about and was impressed. For some reason, though, that's the end of my interest in Radiohead. Hard to figure - I like both of these albums but the rest of their output has passed me by.

Where do they all belong? I should go back and grab a copy of their debut album - Pablo Honey - I love those rock songs.