Radiohead's OK Computer was released on this day in 1997. Sometimes considered the band's magnum opus, the Dark Side Of The Moon of it's generation, while others consider it the final act in Radiohead's guitar trilogy, the last time the band really "rawked".
I was in my late teens and about to graduate from high school when OK Computer was released and, along with Foo Fighters' The Colour And The Shape and Longpigs' The Sun Is Often Out, it was the soundtrack of the summer of 1997.
I saw Radiohead for the first time in concert that summer. No one of their stature (both in coolness and actual record sales) came to Ottawa in those days. That event is something I'm convinced I will be telling my children about when they discover Radiohead for themselves ("I remember seeing them in concert in the summer of '97..."). Teenage Fanclub were the opening band. I couldn't tell you the setlist though, I was too busy... taking it all in. I do remember I was to the right of the stage and that it was a wall of noise (I wouldn't have had it any other way).
There was something about the way OK Computer sounded that was so enthralling. It was guitar music sure(which you might remember was kind of popular in the 90s), but it was guitar music from another planet or another time. Like something the Doctor had accidentally transported back in time inside the Tardis.
While I've been a fan of Radiohead for many years, I can say without a second thought that OK Computer was the last Radiohead album I thoroughly enjoyed from front to back. While I like most of their output since (except The King Of Limbs, where were the songs?), OK Computer continually transports me back to the summer of 1997 and because of that it will remain one of my favourite albums of all time.
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