OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997 2017
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''OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997 2017'' is a reissue of the 1997 album '' OK Computer'' by the English rock band Radiohead. It was released in June 2017, the album's 20th anniversary, following the 2016 acquisition of Radiohead's back catalogue by
XL Recordings XL Recordings is a British independent record label founded in 1989 by Tim Palmer and Nick Halkes. It has been ran and co-owned by Richard Russell since 1996. It forms part of the Beggars Group. Although only releasing an average of six albu ...
from
EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...
. ''OKNOTOK'' comprises remastered versions of ''OK Computer'' and its B-sides, plus three previously unreleased songs: " I Promise", " Man of War", and "
Lift Lift or LIFT may refer to: Physical devices * Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods ** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop ** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobil ...
". The special edition includes an art book, notes, and a cassette tape of demos and session recordings. Unlike previous Radiohead reissues, which were released by EMI without Radiohead's involvement and contained no new material, the band curated the ''OKNOTOK'' material themselves. Radiohead promoted ''OKNOTOK'' with a teaser campaign of posters and videos. Music videos were released for the three new songs, and "I Promise" and "Man of War" were released as singles. ''OKNOTOK'' debuted at number two in the
UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...
and was the bestselling album in UK independent record stores for a year. It reached number 23 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 and received critical acclaim.


Background

Radiohead released '' OK Computer'', their third album, in May 1997, through
EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...
. It was recorded in 1996 and 1997 at St Catherine's Court, a historic mansion near Bath. The album won Best Alternative Album at the
40th Grammy Awards The 40th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 25, 1998, at Radio City Music Hall, New York City. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Rock icon Bob Dylan, Alison Krauss & Union Station, and R. Kelly were ...
and has sold at least 4.5 million copies worldwide. According to Acclaimed Music, which tracks music reviews, ''OK Computer'' is the eighth-most acclaimed album of all time. Radiohead's record contract with EMI ended with the release of '' Hail to the Thief'' in 2003''.'' Their subsequent albums have been released by
XL Recordings XL Recordings is a British independent record label founded in 1989 by Tim Palmer and Nick Halkes. It has been ran and co-owned by Richard Russell since 1996. It forms part of the Beggars Group. Although only releasing an average of six albu ...
, while EMI retained the copyright to Radiohead's back catalogue. After a period of being out of print on vinyl, EMI reissued a double LP of ''OK Computer'' without Radiohead's involvement in 2008, and again in 2009 as an expanded "Collector's Edition". The reissues were not remastered and contained no new material. In 2016, with Radiohead's approval, their back catalogue was transferred to XL Recordings and the "Collector's Editions" were removed from streaming services. In May 2016, XL reissued Radiohead's back catalogue on vinyl, including ''OK Computer''.


Content

''OKNOTOK 1997 2017'' comprises remastered versions of ''OK Computer'' and its eight B-sides, plus three previously unreleased tracks: " I Promise", featuring strummed acoustic guitar,
marching band A marching band is a group of musical instrument, instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass instrument, brass, woodwind instrument, woodwind, and percus ...
-like drums, and Mellotron; " Man of War", a ballad with strings, piano, and electric guitar; and "
Lift Lift or LIFT may refer to: Physical devices * Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods ** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop ** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobil ...
", a
Britpop Britpop was a mid-1990s British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. It produced brighter, catchier alternative rock, partly in reaction to the popularity of the darker lyrical themes of the US-led grunge music and to the ...
-like ballad. The special edition includes the album on vinyl, a hardcover artbook, a book of songwriter
Thom Yorke Thomas Edward Yorke (born 7 October 1968) is an English musician and the main vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Radiohead. A multi-instrumentalist, he mainly plays guitar and keyboards and is noted for his falsetto. He has been descri ...
's notes, and a sketchbook of preparatory artwork by Yorke and cover artist Stanley Donwood. It also includes an audio cassette containing audio experiments, session recordings, demos (including demos for two previously unheard songs), and early versions of " The National Anthem", "Motion Picture Soundtrack", " Nude" and " True Love Waits", songs released on later albums. The final track on the cassette, "OK Computer Program", comprises computer tones which, when run on a
ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...
computer, load a short computer program. The program lists the band members and the date 19 December 1996, then plays several minutes of electronic tones and displays the text: "Congratulations....you've found the secret message syd lives hmmmm. We should get out more". ''OKNOTOK'' is dedicated to
Rachel Owen Rachel Mary Owen (30 November 1968 – 18 December 2016) was a Welsh photographer, printmaker and lecturer on medieval Italian literature. She was married to Radiohead singer Thom Yorke. Life and career Owen was born in Cardiff, Wales. She ...
, Yorke's ex-wife, who died from cancer months prior to the album release.


Promotion and release

Before its announcement on 2 May 2017, Radiohead promoted ''OKNOTOK'' with posters in cities around the world featuring "cryptic" messages, and a teaser video featuring "glitchy" computer graphics and lyrics from "Climbing Up the Walls". The download and CD editions of ''OKNOTOK'' were released on 23 June 2017, and the boxed edition shipped in July. Radiohead released "I Promise" on 2 June and "Man of War" on 22 June as downloads for those who had pre-ordered ''OKNOTOK,'' accompanied by music videos. A video for "Lift" followed on 12 September. On 11 July, Radiohead released an "
unboxing Unboxing is the unpacking of products, especially high tech consumer products, where the process is captured on video and uploaded to the internet. The item is then also explained in detail and also can sometimes be demonstrated as well. Yah ...
" video previewing the contents of the special edition. The video features Chieftain Mews, a character created by the band who appears in webcasts and promotional material. In December 2019, Radiohead uploaded all their albums, including ''OKNOTOK,'' to
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
. In January 2020, they added the ''OKNOTOK'' special edition cassette to their website as part of the Radiohead Public Library, an online archive of their work.


Sales

''OKNOTOK'' debuted at number two in the
UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...
, boosted by Radiohead's third headline performance at Glastonbury Festival. It was the bestselling album in UK independent record shops between April 2017 and April 2018. In the US, it sold 13,000 copies in its first week, reaching number 36 on the ''Billboard'' 200. Following the vinyl and boxed edition release two weeks later, it re-entered the chart at number 23, selling another 17,000 copies (including 8,000 on vinyl and 7,000 on CD). On 19 October 2018, ''OKNOTOK'' was
certified gold Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
by the BPI for sales of over 100,000.


Reception

On the
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, ''OKNOTOK'' has a score of 100 out of 100 based on 15 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Praise focused on the previously unreleased material. The ''
Observer An observer is one who engages in observation or in watching an experiment. Observer may also refer to: Computer science and information theory * In information theory, any system which receives information from an object * State observer in co ...
'' wrote that the reissue, with its "excellent" unreleased songs, proved that Radiohead were "the world's greatest rock band, pushing the limits of what they, or anyone else, could achieve". ''
PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...
'' selected "Man of War" as the best of the new tracks.'' Pitchfork'' wrote that the best feature was "hearing how the lost material informs the original album". The ''
Record Collector ''Record Collector'' is a British monthly music magazine. It was founded in 1980 and distributes worldwide. History The early years The first standalone issue of ''Record Collector'' was published in March 1980, though its history stretches ba ...
'' critic Jamie Atkins praised the cassette in the special edition, particularly its version of "Motion Picture Soundtrack", writing: "To these ears it’s one of the performances of orke'scareer. He begins sounding utterly wounded until – as if revelling in the places his voice is capable of taking the song – it ends up becoming something quite defiant."


Track listing


Personnel

*
Nigel Godrich Nigel Timothy Godrich (born 28 February 1971) is an English record producer, recording engineer and musician. He is known for his work with the English rock band Radiohead, having produced all their studio albums since '' OK Computer'' (1997). ...
committing to tape, production * Radiohead – committing to tape, music, strings arrangement **
Thom Yorke Thomas Edward Yorke (born 7 October 1968) is an English musician and the main vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Radiohead. A multi-instrumentalist, he mainly plays guitar and keyboards and is noted for his falsetto. He has been descri ...
** Jonny Greenwood **
Philip Selway Philip James Selway (born 23 May 1967) is an English musician and the drummer of the English rock band Radiohead. Along with the other members of Radiohead, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. Selway released his deb ...
** Ed O'Brien **
Colin Greenwood Colin Charles Greenwood (born 26 June 1969) is an English musician and the bassist for the rock band Radiohead. Along with bass guitar, Greenwood plays upright bass and electronic instruments. With his younger brother, the Radiohead guitari ...
*
Nick Ingman Nicholas Ingman (born 29 April 1948) is an English arranger, composer and conductor in the commercial music field. His collaborators include Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Björk, and the British X-factor. Born and educated in London, Ingman moved ...
– strings conducting * Gerard Navarro – original studio assistance * Jon Bailey – original studio assistance * Chris Scard – original studio assistance * Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – strings on "Man of War" ** Robert Ziegler – conducting ** Sam Petts Davis – engineering ** Fiona Cruickshank – engineering * Bob Ludwig – remastering * Stanley Donwood – pictures * The White Chocolate Farm – pictures


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Notes


References

;Bibliography * {{Radiohead 2017 compilation albums Radiohead compilation albums Albums produced by Nigel Godrich XL Recordings compilation albums