Radiohead

Radiohead

Radiohead's 1997 cornerstone, OK Computer, isn't really a work of science fiction but rather the first album to frame the digital disillusionment at the onset of the 21st century. Accomplishing through tone and texture what William Gibson's Neuromancer did for literature, the seminal UK fivepiece explores the cubicle warfare and programmed paranoia of the modern, if not brave, new world in "Airbag" and "Exit Music (for a Film)," Thom Yorke's quiver unfolding matrices of meaning, communicated in ones and zeros. From the thought-crime totalitarianism of "Karma Police" and interstellar longing in "Subterranean Homesick Alien" to the unnerving resignation of "No Surprises" and epic "Paranoid Android," Radiohead fuses the guitar grandeur of predecessor The Bends while anticipating the fractured electronica of 2000's Kid A. A decade after the artificial intelligence of "Fitter Happier" bleeps instructions for a "healthier and more productive" life, OK Computer still sounds like the future.