For OK Computer, Radiohead wanted to get away from the traditional studio atmosphere. Much of the album was therefore recorded at St Catherine's Court, a historic manor house in Somerset.
The band and producer Nigel Godrich moved through the building, using different rooms as recording spaces. That freedom suited the music: songs did not have to sound neat or predictable.
An album about a future that came too close
With The Bends, Radiohead had proved they could make big guitar rock. Instead of repeating that formula, OK Computer introduced strange sounds, electronic details and songs deliberately designed to feel uneasy.
Lyrics about technology, alienation, traffic and modern life sounded futuristic in 1997. In hindsight, that may be exactly why the record has lasted so well.
There is a fitting contrast: an album so preoccupied with an anxious future was made largely inside an old English country house.
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