Oddly, I just got around to loading Sea Change today. It's a great album, but it's just a great album. I've had OK Computer for 9.5 years, and it never stops shattering me.

I went with OK Computer, but if the Beck album had been Guero or Odelay it might have been different.

I've got Johny Greenwood as my Avatar, that pretty much explains my views on this poll.

Actually, no. I like beck but theres simply no comparison, OK Computer is a masterpiece and probably the best album of the 90's.

If it had been Odelay against OK Computer, Odelay would take the cake, no question about it.

That said, it is Sea Change, not Odelay we're talking about here. And honestly, I don't think it's fair to compare Sea Change to OK Computer. OK Computer can function well as individual tracks, but Sea Change needs to be heard as a complete album to truly feel it's impact. It also helps if you're familiar with Beck's back catalog and personal quarrels. OK Computer is far more accessible all around (not a statement on its depth or lack there of) and that makes it a hell of a lot easier to pick as the better album.

But at the end of the day, they're so close in terms of quality that saying one is better than another is more a matter of what mood you're in that day than which one is actually superior.

So, my personal opinion is that they're equal, but my official answer is OK Computer.

what's so deep about sea change? as far as i know it's a record beck wrote after breaking up with his long term girlfriend (10 years or so). sure it was slowed down like his early folky stuff but it had none of the social commentary that made his acoustic music stand out from the glut of whiny guys with acoustics. it's a great disc when you want to hear melancholy songs about breaking up and moving on but that's about the extent of the album for my ears. OK Computer on the other hand transcends a hell of a lot more ground than SC.

It isn't so much that Sea Change breaks the mold of the broken hearted troubadour as it is that it's simply really well done. Beck's emotional suffering is almost palpable and the record lacks the self-indulgence of most break up albums.

I'll agree that OK Computer covers more ground lyrically than Sea Change, but it does lack that emotional strength. Though we may sympathize, not once during OK Computer do we ever actually become as paranoid as Yorke. Yet by the end of Sea Change, most of us will be feeling the hurt.

good points, very well said.

It isn't a logical comparison. All of you have stated in many different ways that Sea Change is emotional and Ok Computer is cold and calculating (like a computer)....so, in essence, when you strip it down to two brilliant artists and these two albums, you're comparing emotion with non-emotion. It's not a logical comparison. Both albums are brilliant, both for different reasons using different messages and ways of conveying their point.

~Cadence
http://www.cadenceforthemind.blogspot.com

OK Computer versus The Information. Now that's a fair comparison

Mutations was Beck's greatest album. I went with OK Computer.