Radiohead was depressive upon arrival, with its 1993 debut record, but in 1997 “OK Computer” carried the band’s worldview toward something like a concept album, pondering the ways that individuality can be smothered or surrendered, and considering the frailty of the body versus the power of machines. Although “OK Computer” predicted government coercion (as in “Karma Police” and “Electioneering”) rather than the addictive enticements of search engines and social media, Radiohead thoroughly understood how pervasive both technology and the tech mind-set would become. Surely the robot-voiced, tuneless protagonist of “Fitter, Happier” would now be uploading his daily exercise data to the cloud.

One of the B-sides, “Palo Alto,” nicely sums up the current tech-town situation:

In a city of the future

It is difficult to find a space

I’m too busy to see you

you’re too busy to wait.

Its music, meanwhile, is almost merry: a melee of garage-rock guitar blasts and synthesizer swoops, treating overwork as a frantic buzz.

Yet Radiohead built its queasy vision of the future on a foundation from the past. After 20 years, it’s clear that “OK Computer” was the album on which Radiohead most strongly embraced and, simultaneously, confronted the legacy of the Beatles. Radiohead picked up chord progressions (like the pivotal bit of “Sexy Sadie” in “Karma Police”), instrument sounds and ideas on structure from the band, even as it completely inverted its 1960s optimism.