10 Perfect Follow Ups To Masterpiece Albums

There has never really been a band that had as steep a career turnaround as Radiohead did at the beginning of their career. After being labeled one hit wonders off of their massive single Creep, OK Computer made them one of the biggest acts of all time, almost closing the chapter on ‘90s music by imagining what the future of humanity might look like being overtaken by the world of technology. Just when they were supposed to usher us into the next decade, here comes Kid A to completely throw rock out the window.

Stripping away all of the rock and roll tropes of their last album, Kid A owes a lot more to the sounds of trip hop and electronic music, with Thom Yorke making it a point to make things more rhythmic and not dwell on the bright choruses of the last few records. While it took most fans a while to really catch on to what Radiohead were doing on this album, this record serves as an almost dividing line in the band’s discovery, where they would go on to make more art rock pieces.

Listening back through this record, you can hear them pulling from different outside influences, like the jazzy horn section on the National Anthem or building almost an entire song off of a single sample of electronic ambience on Idioteque. OK Computer may have been the final chapter of the golden age of alternative rock, but if it wasn’t for Kid A warping things inside out, there’s a good chance that rock and roll may not have made it into the next decade in one piece.