The Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke impishly said of “OK Computer,” his band’s critically enshrined 1997 multiplatinum album, that he wanted “to make a record that you could sit down and eat to in a nice restaurant, a record that would be cool and be part of the furniture.” In a way, Radiohead succeeded, despite itself. Sure, the album created a restless, chilly roar of alienation, but it also wrapped you in a group hug of conflicted yearning that gradually drifted into just plain yearning – lovely and melancholy. Mr. Yorke’s wail and Jonny Greenwood’s guitar were nothing if not au courant, artfully distorting a deep catalog of references.

“OK Computer” has a reputation as a sprawling dystopian reckoning, a commentary on the time’s relentlessly digitizing means of production by thrashing those very means. It’s an album of the proper sort – striving towards a narrative of sound and vision. If you wish, there are treatises to consult on this matter. Ultimately, the record serves as Radiohead’s sturdiest argument for itself as one of rock’s most thoughtful and sonically compelling bands, a claim that critics and fans have made consistently since its release 20 years ago.

Here, an audio guide to the album’s 12 songs, plus what came before, and what came after. It’s the sound of rock being treated as a virus in urgent need of decoding.