Radiohead Album: “The Bends”

You're sipping lemonade on a warm spring day, watching various modes of transportation sparkle productively in the distance; you've just discovered a new law of physics, and you're inhaling the scent of your neighbor's freshly mown grass mixed with orange tree blossoms. Normally, you would be in your low lit bedroom writing nihilistic poetry, but you've just heard a new album, The Bends, and it has inspired you to brave the sunshine and give in a little to your fundamental human need for social interaction. Unfortunately, as you brush away an excited butterfly, you realize that you don't really know that many people, and become more depressed as you face the fact that it will take more than just stepping outside your door to find like-minded individuals to have silly fun with. This album makes you want to make that effort. Just as an indulgent energy-rich breakfast can be a catalyst for a glorious day of intellectual stimulation, so The Bends has become a honeycomb of new possibilities in the seemingly pointless lives of countless individuals.

There is rock music on this album that will make you move your body, but there is also a cohesive latticework of lurid spontaneity that causes the listener to hear each song as a charming facet of a youthful personality. The lead singer's voice is actually fun to listen to because it relates so well to the music. Sometimes Thom Yorke sounds like a sneering, cynical English fellow (Just, My Iron Lung), and sometimes he sounds like an orphaned angel (Nice Dream, Bullet Proof..I Wish I Was). The last song, Street Spirit (Fade Out), stares a brooding swarm of nothingness in the eye and finds unparalleled beauty. While the music on this album has a more traditional radio-friendly rock sound than their later work, it is certainly no less moving.

Since the Bends turned Radiohead into one of the world's preeminent rock bands, the band has moved away from the more traditional song structures featured on The Bends in favor of new ways to express their themes of alienation, isolation, and seething rage.

But the Bends is still Radiohead's best work, and for obvious reasons. Epic in scope without being self-indulgent, The Bends takes the distorted guitars of grunge and adds a sense of melodrama and good old rock-n-roll majesty that, at that time, had been missing from popular music for almost two decades. In blending the two together, along with adding their own distinctly British personality, Radiohead makes The Bends a landmark recording that still feels fresh today seven years after its initial release.

The record has that wonderful touch of arrogance that transforms the band from one-hit brooders (as on "Creep") to bonafide rock gods. The guitars on the opening "Planet Telex" thunder in, heralding the band's arrival to the rock stratosphere, and the album just goes and goes from there. Every song works, be it balls out rock songs ("Bones"), or quieter, ghostly pieces ("Street Spirit," "Fake Plastic Trees"). All of it is tied together by lead singer Thom Yorke's voice. Credit Yorke with somehow making a voice that should, by all accounts, be incredibly irritating resonate and echo in the mind of the listener. It's alternately haunting, raging, and powerful; even making the transition from gentle lullabying to Billy Idol-quality snarling in the course of a single song ("Nice Dream"). It's a wonderful performance, and the band underneath matches him note for note.

Radiohead has released records more complex (OK Computer), more challenging (Kid A), and more ambiguous (Amnesiac) than The Bends. But they've never made a better record. And, in a way, that's a good thing. Free from the burden of having to create their rock masterpiece (which this is), they've branched out in new directions to see how far they can push the outer limits of both their music and their collective psyche. It is that later work that makes Radiohead one of the world's most important bands, but it is The Bends that makes them [behind] kicking rock stars. And everybody loves the latter.

In the days before the weird electronic layering and strange prog rock beats, Radiohead was a top notch Brit-pop band and The Bends was in many ways a breakthrough album for Radiohead. They had been passed off as one-hit wonders with their self-depracating international sensation "Creep" and many had expected more of the same angry and discontent lyrics. The Bends, however, was the start of the Radiohead custom of doing the opposite of what is expected of them and making their fans fall in love with their material anyways. The Bends hits all the right notes, from emotional and meloncholy with "Fake Plastic Trees" and "Bulletproof... I wish I was" to angry discontented rock with "Just and My Iron Lung" to detatched bliss with the closer "Street Spirit". The mesh of Radiohead's unique guitar sound make for an unforgettable and incredible listening experiece and one of the best albums of the 90's. I'd reccomend this to any alternative rock listner any day.

Tracklisting analysis

Planet Telex - a fantastic opener with U2 inspired guitars. It's probably one of Radiohead's more underrated song, I personally love it and never get bored of it.8/10

The Bends - of the detatched feel of Planet Telex comes the fast paced, rocking Bends which holds the same name as the album. The lyrics are superb. 9/10

High and Dry - My favorite song on the album becuase it was the song that got me into Radiohead. It has a tune that just can't go wrong, catchy and simplistic yet so fun to listen to repeatedly. 10/10

Fake Plastic Trees - One of the most emotional songs on the album. It starts out slow and mellow and builds to a stunning climax. Thom Yorke's voice compliments this track perfectly. 10/10

Bones - not the best track on the album, a bit reminicent of U2. Probably one of the more skippable track, but still a good track nonetheless. 7/10

(Nice Dream) - pretentious use of parenthesis aside, Nice Dream is much like Fake Plastic Trees in that it starts out nice and mellow and ends with a loud and strained climax. The tortured guitar at the end of this song makes it a great addition to the album. 8/10

Just - simply a wonderful song. Grunge-esque in its sound, but having enough guitar variation to be more than just a grunge song, it's superb lyrics and almost perfect mesh of Jonny Greenwood's and Ed O'Brien's guitars make it a masterpiece. 10/10

My Iron Lung - a strange sounding song at first, but on par wit Just by it's unique sound and angry lyrics. Thom wrote this song in response to the one hit wonder critisism Radiohead got earlier in its career. 9/10

Bullet Proof... I wish I was - after the angry and frustrated Just and My Iron lung, Bullet Proof softens the tone of the album a bit with a slow and emotional song. The lyrics are no doubt some of the saddest and make for haunting experience. 8/10

Black Star - One of Thom Yorke's favorite songs, it's also one of my favorites on the album. 10/10

Sulk - Perhaps the weakest song on the album, but still an above average song. 6.5/10

Street Spirit - one of the best closers out of any Album I've listen to. It's detatched and haunting sound is a great way to end such a diverse album. 9/10

Overall, one of my favorite albums. Get it immediately.

I was a skeptic of Radiohead's staying power in the early days. I didn't particularly like Creep, and heard only lukewarm assessments of the rest of Pablo honey. Then the Bends came out and I walked right past it in the record store without giving it a second thought. But as the last 6 years and 3 more albums have screamed in my face, I was STUPID to dismiss Radiohead so quickly. Luckily, I read several glowing reviews and got the heads-up from my brother that this was just a phenomenal CD. So I bought it a couple months after it came out. Six years later, my first copy of it was lost at the high school radio station, and my second copy of it was played so much that I had to replace it three years ago. such is the staying power of Radiohead.

Radiohead have moved on to different sonic and lyrical horizons since the Bends, but the Bends has just as much musical depth and vision as anything they've put out since. People call it their "straight-foward rock album", and to some extent, that's fair, but not entirely. The Bends just HAPPENS to use GUITARS to express Radiohead's musical vision, rather than using elemtents of electronica, as OK computer started to do, and Kid A relied heavily on. But the depth of sound and other-worldly aura that everyone recognizes in OK, Kid A, and Amnesiac, is present in the Bends too. They twist around their guitars and use loud-soft dynamics to full effect, starting with the opening moments of the album, Planet Telex. They use reverb and a lot of tinkering with distortion and things to create that pulsating guitar beat, and these elements are present in other parts of the album too, such as parts of the Bends, My Iron Lung, and a little bit on black star. The typical sentiment is that Radiohead didn't start experimenting until after the bends, but the sprouts of their vision are quite present here as well. They just happen to be using guitars and, certainly, somewhat more straightforward song structures.

Wow, that was a mouthful. Long story short. Alternative rock lovers (which I was back in 1995) should just adore this album. Recent Radiohead converts who enjoy the electronica aspects or who enjoy somewhat challenging sounds (which I have become lately) should...ALSO adore this album. The songs are too strong, and despite the fact that there is no electronica to speak of, Radiohead still manage to create a unique and powerful sound that is different but somehow akin to their recent outings. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that this album is the ONE Radiohead album that SHOULD appeal to the widest audience. the rock and roll is there, but so is the progressive feel that makes Radiohead unique. 6 years later, it's almost time for my 4th copy of the bends. I still can't get enough.

I don't know where to begin...

OK, now I do.

I was introduced to Radiohead through a burned copy of Amnesiac. BIG MISTAKE!!! The songs were much too wierd. I was currently getting into rock legends like Zeppelin, The Doors and Hendrix. I simply could not enjoy such wierdness as "Pull/Pulk Revolving Doors", "Packt like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box", and "Life In A Glass House". Still, I admired the slow, sometimes haunting beauty of "Morning Bell", "You And Whose Army", "Pyramid Song, "Knives Out", "Dollars and Cents", and "Hunting Bears". So, I ordered The Bends used for a few dollars.

This has been one of the greatest choices in my life.

I pop the CD into my computer, turn it loud, and press PLAY for track 1. The blizzard-like sound rushes from speaker to speaker and seems to ascend into the air like a flock of birds. The piano finally slams into the song and echoes loudly like a hammer to my speakers as the slick yet booming drums go along perfectly. I, enthralled and glued to my seat, crack a smile as I stare at my computer screen mindlessly like a labotomized elephant. It was a sublime experience I'll never forget.

Planet Telex, which I described, is an excellent standout track with Thom yelling "Everything is broken, everyone is broken!!" The follow-up track, The Bends, is a masterfully composed rocker that sounds like nothing I've ever listened to. The acoustic High And Dry; an unfogettable anthem that simply demands to be heard. The gorgeous, elegant Fake Plastic Trees is about whateer you want it to be. So unstructured...I like that! Bones, a nice and short rocker. Nice Dream is a great track which will grow boring to the impatient. But those two tracks that are the least memorable are immediately followed up by the catchy, rocking, commanding song Just; such a classic!! The smooth, haunting futuristic riffs of My Iron Lung make for yet another worthy sequel, a song about the band's hatred for the smash hit Creep. Bullet Proof is a memorable song, but Black Star and Sulk are instant classics. Black Star is pure catchy rockability, and the crazy computer sounds add to the pure greatness and great guitars of Sulk. But the album really ends on an awe-inspiring note with Street Spirit, a slow, beautiful, all-the-way-there ballad.

OVERALL, out of 10, I would give:

Planet Telex: 10

The Bends: 9.5

High And Dry: 10

Fake Plastic Trees: 10

Bones: 8.5

Nice Dream: 9

Just: 10

My Iron Lung: 10

Bullet Proof...I Wish I Was: 8.5

Black Star: 10 (YEAH!!! I LOVE THIS SONG!!! YOU WILL AT LEAST LIKE IT TOO, OR YOU'RE AN IDIOT!!!)

Sulk: 9.5

Street Spirit: 10

Yeah, pretty good rating.

So, if you're looking for a:

Rock album

Pop album

Great album

Album with no really explicit lyrics

1st Radiohead album

Five Star album

Piece Of Art

Album you can sing along with and rock out to

Album You Can Fall In Love With

Album known as the Best Of Radiohead

Then buy this. Bye.