This month’s MMMM challenged solvers to find a rock album from the ’90s.

The clue for NBA, [Three-letter sports gp.], provides a hint to the meta mechanism: Five entries in the grid are NBA team names, and the three-letter scoreboard code for each team appears at the beginning of an entry elsewhere in the grid, as follows:

The leftover letters, in order, spell out T-H-UN-D-ER, or THUNDER, Oklahoma City’s NBA team. The Thunder’s scoreboard code is OKC, and there’s only one well-known rock album that starts with those letters. It’s OK Computer, the 1997 Radiohead album and this month’s meta answer. Radiohead aficionados also know that “OKC” is shorthand for this classic album!

Meta Song: The backing band for my last record, “More Time,” came to New York City for a video shoot, and we took the opportunity to film this month’s cover of the Radiohead classic “Karma Police.” Joining them were the Kindred Souls and some badass horn players. Enjoy!

Selected Solver Comments:

Neville   OUTSTANDING puzzle!!

LaceyK   This puzzle was BOSS, CHIC & MINT! Slam dunk!

Burak O’Drama   As an NBA fan who watches a ton of games and as a huge fan of Radiohead, this was right up my alley!

Jwaan   I was *this* close to answering “Thunderstruck” but then realized it’s not an album. So then I figured, this is October, it’s gonna be complicated, so I’ll try the MMMM rule of “do the thing again.” I didn’t know OKC was shorthand for this album, but someone on Reddit said so and it’s very worthy, so good enough!

ant   (Somewhat) ironically, the OKC Thunder didn’t exist in the 90s. They didn’t move from Seattle until 2008.

m5rammy   My only “issue” (or “concern”) was that in the grid you added 1 or 2 letters to each abbreviation, but I had to add 7 letters to “OKC” get the album name.

Alternative Music Clues:

Redhead64 suggests cluing PEPSI as [Cola that the singer of “Institutionalized” by Suicidal Tendencies wants, but never gets] and INERTIA as [It “creeps” in the title of a Massive Attack song].

Norm H points out that the Thunder’s center, CHET Holmgren, is (unintentionally!) in the grid.

Groaners:

sym   Karma Police, arrest this crossword!

Zoltar   It’s enough to make any Android Paranoid.

Matthew   If the Karma Police were a real thing the Celtics wouldn’t have won another damn title.

FunkyPhD   I hope I’m LUCKY and there are NO SURPRISES. I feel like Marvin, the PARANOID ANDROID, and that I’m not LET DOWN, but in the meantime, I’ll be CLIMBING UP THE WALLS with the SUBTERRANEAN HOMESICK ALIEN. I’ll be FITTER HAPPIER once the KARMA POLICE provide an AIRBAG. In the meantime, that’s my EXIT MUSIC.

TMart   Thunderous applause for this one!

samkat9 Now that I have finished this meta, I am now fitter, happier, and more productive.

Totals this month:

191 correct, 75 incorrect

Rating: 4.30 out of 5 stars

Difficulty: 3.77 out of 5

Monthly mug winner:  Rammy Meyerowitz from Ohio.

Thanks to Matt Gaffney for blogging the puzzle at Crossword Fiend, where you can rate the puzzle (thanks!) and/or leave a comment.

Thanks to Tamara Brenner for the graphic.

Thanks for playing and see you next month!