Independent music is in a strange position these days. After the likes of Oasis and the rest of their Britpop pals crashed into the mainstream the state of alternative music has - for better or for worse - changed forever. No longer the obscure fodder of the pale bedsit student types, indie (the definition of which warrants several pages on its own) has now reached the state of being a genre, one that is given the "tribute" of having one of those godawful "best albums in the world...ever" compilations made up around it. So now, like rap, soul, metal and others, indie seems to be just another pigeonhole. And although it is undoubtedly good that fresh talent can achieve success no-one would ever have dreamed of a few years ago, deep down inside most indie fans still hanker slightly after the days of true independent labels, singles clubs and flexidiscs and - most of all - innovation and originality.

Thank the lord then for Radiohead. After writing the archetypal indie anthem "Creep" and releasing two storming LPs ("The Bends" being a true masterpiece), the band have become representatives of the Spirit Of Indie. Writers of experimental and exciting music, Radiohead are one band you are unlikely to hear mentioned on the evening news, preferring instead to inhabit the niche they have carved out for themselves as emperors of the alternative intelligent rock world. And now, with the release of "OK Computer", their third LP, the group consolidate that position with an album filled with paranoia, fear, angst, desperation and some of the most hauntingly beautiful music you are likely to hear this year.

"I am born again...I'm back to save the universe!" proclaims Thom Yorke in the opening track "Airbag". A guitar-led salvo with a shuffling rhythm struck through with veins of eerie and golden-toned effects, it is a triumphant and confident beginning to the record, affirming the band's position as masters of sweeping and epic rock. After this introduction comes the single, the six and a half minute opus of "Paranoid Android". Filled with Eraserhead-like images like "unborn chicken voices" and "kicking squealing Gucci little piggy", the song soars into the stratosphere like some chrome-plated version of "Bohemian Rhapsody". Containing at least three tunes for the price of one, the song alternates between the majestic melancholia of Yorke's marvellously-intoned verses and the mad metal mayhem of guitars let loose. A finished symphony, it is extraordinary - even after familiarity has toned it down somewhat.

Next is "Subterranean Homesick Alien", the band's nod to X-Files alien abduction mania. With slightly self-mocking tone (aliens visiting earth to make "home movies for the folks back home", Yorke's friends thinking he's "finally lost it completely"), the song tells of Yorke's desire to be whisked up into a UFO to see the world as he'd "love to see it". Much has been made of this LP's boiling-point, pre-millenial themes, and this is one of the songs that back that up - but the humour turns it into something more. Coupled with a tune dripping shimmering effects and layers of kaleidoscopic guitar similar to the wondrous sounds the Kitchens Of Distinction produce, and a bombastic and dramatic chorus, this song is one of the highlights of the LP.

"Exit Music (For A Film)" was written for the recent Romeo + Juliet movie, and contains the play's themes of young, doomed and absolute love ("today we escape, we escape", "now we are one in everlasting peace"). Yorke sings the lyrics apparently several millimeters from your ear in a claustrophobic mix that sees distorted guitar and overloaded effects smothering the listener. In fact the closing "we hope that you choke" segment of the song does just that, covering you in swathes of effects and horror movie noises as Yorke's voice cracks into pieces. Then we're straight into the first killer tune of the LP, "Let Down". Dealing with themes of monumental disappointment and disgust, the music and vocals combine into a beautiful creation, a moving and shiver-inducing soundtrack to tears flowing down beautiful faces. Angels stop to listen.

Pausing briefly for breath and then "Karma Police" begins. A slow, loping beast marching towards its doom, it hinges around a tortured and acoustic chorus and ends with an angsty outro that slips away into feedback-drowned oblivion. From whence "Fitter Happier" springs, with its speak-and-spell computer generated sloganspeak ("fond but not in love, charity standing orders") over a sad and haunting soundtrack. A poem for the anonymous and the unknown masses, it is strangely affecting and moving, its impersonal presentation contrasting and therefore emphasising the humanity of the subject.

After this, "Electioneering" bursts onto the scene like thunder at a funeral. A rocky, loud and bitter attack on double-standards in politics, it blisters along nicely but doesn't have the same degree of innovation or startling beauty as the rest of the songs on "OK Computer". With "Climbing Up The Walls" though, we're back in experimental territory with a creeping nightmare of a track that with its "either way you turn I'll be there, open up your skull and I'll be there" lyrics is the personification of paranoia. Smouldering until an explosive and pyrotechnic finale, it is uncomfortable but essential listening.

The second killer tune of the record is "No Surprises". With a melody and vocals capable of making you cry, the song deals with the utter desolation of settling for an easy and uncomplicated life. Remarkably moving and completely uncontrived, words cannot do it justice - it is a song you simply have to hear for yourself. Likewise, the similar "Lucky" which comes next, with its heart-rending and soft shades of hope(lesness). Radiohead's contribution to the "Help!" Warchild charity LP, it is an old song but one that fits into the overall theme and atmosphere of "OK Computer" perfectly.

Closing the LP is "The Tourist", a slow and despondent track that sums up the album's square peg in a round hole feelings. Finishing with a gloriously doomed and pain-wracked "hey man slow down" refrain, the song closes "OK Computer" on a suitably downbeat yet romantically dramatic note, one that allows the band to let rip with their respective instruments (including Yorke's voice) to produce a huge and tremendous sound.

"OK Computer" is a work of genius, closer to works by new age composers such as Philip Glass than to fellow alternative rock bands such as the Manics. With its themes of alienation, doomed love, stifling pressure and not fitting in, the album is at times heavy-going, yet never hard to listen to. Doubtless scores of imitators will follow, and it could even spark the revival of the concept LP, but "OK Computer" will take some beating to remove it from its position as the most mature, moving, majestic and intelligent alternative LP yet.

If you haven't bought it yet then do so at the first opportunity: this is what it's all been leading up to for years.