The Bends is the second studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released on 13 March 1995 by Parlophone Records internationally and by Capitol Records in the United States. The album was produced by John Leckie at EMI's studios in London, and engineered by Nigel Godrich, who would go on to produce all future albums by the band. The album also marked the beginning of a shift in aesthetics and themes for the band, with greater use of keyboards, and more abrasive guitar tracks balancing subtler ones. The introspective grunge-influenced style of their debut album Pablo Honey (1993) evolved into more multi-layered rock with cryptic lyrics and larger ideas, as the band and singer Thom Yorke reacted against the rigors of near-constant world tours.

Pablo Honey is the debut studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released in February 1993. The album was produced by Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie and was recorded at Chipping Norton Recording Studios and Courtyard Studio, Oxfordshire from September to November 1992. It features three charting singles: "Anyone Can Play Guitar", "Stop Whispering", and perhaps the band's most well-known hit on mainstream radio, "Creep". Pablo Honey peaked at No. 22 in the United Kingdom charts and went platinum there and in other countries. The album title comes from a Jerky Boys prank call skit in which the prank caller says to his victim: "Pablo, honey? Please come to Florida!" This snippet is sampled by the band on the track "How Do You?".

Kid A is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 2 October 2000 by Parlophone Records and Capitol Records. The band's songwriter Thom Yorke envisioned a radical change in direction for the album after feeling burnt out from promoting the band's acclaimed 1997 album OK Computer. Incorporating influences from genres such as krautrock, jazz, 20th-century classical music and the electronic music of Warp artists, Radiohead replaced their guitars with synthesisers, drum machines, the ondes Martenot, string orchestras and brass instruments. They recorded Kid A with producer Nigel Godrich in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire and their hometown Oxford, England.