Radiohead's album scoops accolade

Radiohead beat Nirvana's Nevermind in the list

Radiohead's album OK Computer has been named the best of the past 20 years by US music magazine Spin.

The British band beat Nirvana's Nevermind and Public Enemy's It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back in the publication's 20th birthday issue.

The band's 1997 release was chosen because it "uncannily predicted our global culture of communal distress".

Other British acts to make it into the magazine's special issue were The Smiths and singer PJ Harvey.

BEST ALBUMS 1985-2005 1 Radiohead - OK Computer 2 Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back 3 Nirvana - Nevermind 4 Pavement - Slanted And Enchanted 5 The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead 6 Pixies - Surfer Rosa 7 De La Soul - 3 Feet High And Rising 8 Prince - Sign O' The Times 9 PJ Harvey - Rid Of Me 10 NWA - Straight Outta Compton Source: Spin magazine

More than a quarter of the top 100 albums were from hip hop artists, while Spin is primarily a magazine for rock music.

Editor-in-chief Sia Michel said releases from 1985 were chosen for their "basic brilliance, innovation and overall relevance".

She added that record sales did not affect the choices. The Pixies, who landed at number six with Surfer Rosa, did not sell millions before their initial split in 1993.

The Spin list contrasts to the Rolling Stone top 500 list, which included The Beatles, The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones in its upper echelons.

The more recent albums which made the reckoning included Kanye West's College Dropout (2004), and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Fever To Tell from 2003.