From guitarist Jonny Greenwood’s menacing riff that introduces the opener, “Airbag,” to Yorke’s fragile pleas to “slow down” on the final track, “The Tourist,” each song takes time to reveal itself as a narrative link to the album’s ultimately spiritual message. At a time when they could have played it safe, selling their psychedelic souls for more radio-friendly rock & roll, Radio-head have released a concept album whose theme - based on rock’s age-old fear of the imminence of a world run by computers - unfolds gradually during the course of the album’s 12 songs. On OK Computer, Radiohead take the ideas they had begun toying with on The Bends into the stratosphere. 'We Were Just Kids With Unswerving Focus and Drive': Radiohead's Ed O'Brien Celebrates 25 Years of 'OK Computer' The songs were stronger - owing more to the Beatles this time than to U2 - and Radiohead had expanded their palette to include heavy doses of psychedelic guitar, electronics and hints of glam rock. ”) into universal meditations on the kind of primal anguish that we all experience from time to time. On that record, the music not only complemented Yorke’s pretty voice and pensive lyrics but it built on them, sculpting his expressions of inner conflict (“I need to wash myself again to hide all the dirt and pain. Pablo Honey was a spotty affair, but Yorke’s soaring, Bono-esque voice and the instrumental prowess of the band pointed to Radiohead’s more ambitious second outing, The Bends. In retrospect, the seeds of a powerful band were there from the beginning.

But one listen to Radiohead’s third album, OK Computer - a stunning art-rock tour de force - will have you reeling back to their debut, Pablo Honey, for insight into the group’s dramatic evolution. When their first single, “Creep,” leapt out of MTV’s Buzz Bin, in 1993, it came off like a Nirvana wanna-be from hell the song’s obligatory loud/soft dynamics and Yorke’s self-deprecating lyrics rang empty.

On the contrary, Radiohead are one of the few guitar-based bands of the mid-’90s that has grown by leaps and bounds. Which hardly means that his group’s music hasn’t matured. He has survived the demise of grunge with all of his anxiety and disillusionment intact. The days of whine and poses may be over, but don’t tell that to Radiohead singer Thom Yorke.

Stephen sondheim ok computer radiohead