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Radiohead restores the ‘1997 version’ of its website for OK Computer remaster

Radiohead restores the ‘1997 version’ of its website for OK Computer remaster

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Today Radiohead tweeted a cryptic announcement for an OK Computer remaster in honor of the album’s 20-year anniversary. “OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997 2017,” the tweet reads. There’s also a link to the band’s website, which appears to have been reverted to its 1997 version.

“This is the Radiohead website [from about 1997],” reads an announcement at the top of the website. If you click on it, you’ll be directed to a series of stark white pages featuring phrases like “More laws that exploit fear” written in black block letters. Clicking on different phrases will bring you to a series of images until ultimately dropping you off at the OK Computer remaster landing page.

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It’s not immediately obvious if the band’s redesigned website is actually what the page looked like in 1997, or just an approximation of it. According to the website, the various phrases and posters are “discarded ephemera from the broken hard drives of Donwood and Tchock” — two artists responsible for much of Radiohead’s visual style.

The remastered album is available as a box set, on vinyl, on CD, and as a 320k mp3, 16-bit WAV, or 24-bit WAV download. Each format includes the original album remastered from analog tapes, three unreleased tracks, and eight B-sides. The boxed edition includes three 12-inch records, a hardcover book of Radiohead’s artwork, a notebook of Thom Yorke’s lyrical brainstorms, a sketchbook from Donwood and Tchock, and a cassette tape of archival and demo tracks. It costs $130 and will ship in July.

The Verge has reached out for more information about the website and will update when we hear back.

Correction, 4:42 ET: An earlier version of this story stated that it was OK Computer’s 10-year anniversary, not 20-year. But time moves faster than we’d all like it to.