Customer Reviews

The Bends [Vinyl]

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4 star:		(73)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

The Bends. Radiohead's most accessible album. Radiohead's most underappreciated album at the time of its release. Dare I say Radiohead's BEST album?

I dare.

Yes, OK Computer purists may find my statement inaccurate, but let me just ask you this, Radiohead fanatics... If you were to loan any Radiohead cd to someone who never heard their music before, which would it be?

Personally, The Bends was my introduction to the band in 1999... and I'm glad it was. Maybe 4 years too late, but hey - it's never too late right?

Anyway, this album is classic. Yorke is at his most comprehensible and his lyrics are more human than on future releases. This is the singer/songwriter at his most passionate. Deep, elegant songs like Fake Plastic Trees and High & Dry soar like the best U2 songs (One, With or Without You, etc).

Jonny Greenwood's uses of spacy guitar and keyboard effects adds mood to the pieces while the rest of the band gels together so well, you don't even notice it.

If you're looking for a rock album that you can really fall in love with, rock out with, sing a long with... you get the idea. You can't go wrong with 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.

After the success of their debut album "Pablo Honey," Radiohead returned in 1995 with the highly-anticipated "The Bends." Now personally, I was not a very big fan of their debut album. It had a few high points but the rest was just boring and flat. I truly believe that if it wasn't for their sophomore album, Radiohead could quite easily have slipped off into obscurity to join a long line of other bands who were so 'promising.' However, that didn't happen because the world caught onto The Bends and rightly hailed it as one of the best albums of the 1990's. I don't consider this Radiohead's best album. Nor do I consider it a monumental masterpiece. It is a fantastic rock album though, and definitely amongst one of the best records I own in my 200+ collection.

The album opens with the brilliant "Planet Telex." The sonic soundscapes of this song's introduction are very memorable, and set the scene for the rest of the song. Thom's vocals are very distinctive on this song and I enjoy the chorus a lot. The album's title track, "The Bends," is the next song and is one of my favourites on the whole album. A lot of people don't really like this song but I bloody love it. It gets off to a rocking start and has a very anthemic chorus, but my favourite part of the song is the part where Thom sings, "I wish it was the sixties, I wish I could be happy, I wish, I wish, I wish that something would happen!" The next song is "High And Dry" and is a bit slower and more melancholy than its predecessors. The sunlight vocals of the chorus are very effective and the guitar in the chorus is great too - very similar to something Oasis were doing at the same time. "Fake Plastic Trees" is a fan favourite and is even slower than the mid-tempo track before it. I find the chorus very emotional and raw considering its 'fake' lyrical content - which is, I suppose, is what the song is aiming for.

"Bones" returns to the all-out rocking that dominated the opening of the album, with brash guitars and electrifying choruses, littered with eccentric vocals. It's not one of the best songs on the album, but it's still a great addition. "(Nice Dream)" is a very beautiful and deep rock ballad. I find this a great song as I listen to it because it just connects to you, but once you stop listening to the album and try to think of the melody of the song, I guarantee you won't remember. Very strange. "Just" is one of the album highlights and one of Radiohead's best ever songs. There's something about this song which makes it very unique and special yet on first-listen it sounds just very run-of-the-mill. The jittery guitars in the chorus that climb higher and higher make it a masterpiece in its own right.

"My Iron Lung" is another one of my favourite songs on the album. It has that instantly recognisable opening which runs again through the choruses that just twists and snakes its way around the lyrics. The way those lyrics are arranged is also very catchy and the song breaks out into a really heavy rocker near the second minute. "Bulletproof..I Wish I Was" is a gloomy yet oh-so-gorgeous ballad with some great soundscapes which create a beautifully atmospheric backdrop to Thom's dark vocals. "Black Star" is another one of my favourite songs from the album, yet again, because of the way the lyrics in the verses are arranged. It is so bloody catchy and I love how the song opens by becoming louder. It's as if we're arriving mid-song and we've missed something at the start. "Sulk" has a superb opening that sounds like something vibrating and bouncing off your speakers. The song itself has a great beat to it but I'm not too fond of the chorus. And then of course, there's the album closer, which is widely-hailed as one of Radiohead's finest-ever songs: "Street Spirit (Fade Out)." The music on this song is beautiful and melancholy, Thom's vocals juxtaposing this with fear and depression. I love the way he goes from a hushed note to a loud yelp within the space of "Fade out again." An absolutely beautiful song to close such a brilliant rock album.

OVERALL GRADE: 10/10

"The Bends" isn't my favourite Radiohead album. That title belongs to "OK Computer," and even "Kid A," in my opinion, is better than this second album. I'm a man of musical complexity - the weirder it is, the more I'll usually like it. It's a challenge to appreciate the music on OK Computer and Kid A, and I do appreciate it, after many listens, which is why I love them so much. I really took to "The Bends" quite easily so it was almost instantaneous that I loved it. Some people may not take to this album as well as I did, but out of all their six studio albums, I'd recommend this as the first one you listen to.

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.

I've never understood all the hype over OK COMPUTER and the lack of recognition THE BENDS received. Both albums are excellent, but THE BENDS is more melodic and showcases the beauty in Thom Yorke's vocals better than Radiohead's two other major releases. Nothing here is as plodding as "Creep" from PABLO HONEY and there's as much depth overall musically and lyrically as on OK COMPUTER's best moments. Perhaps the best song Radiohead has recorded yet is "High And Dry," which has to be one of the most underappreciated rock ballads of the 90's. Nearly every song on THE BENDS is notable, but my other favorites are the odd "The Bends," the hard rocking "Bones," the sad love song "Black Star," and the touching "Street Spirit (Fade Out)," which has both a beautiful and dark tone similar to "High And Dry." Some may find the concept and experimental nature of OK COMPUTER more appealing, but I prefer simply the good songs found here.

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.

If I were ever to recommend a Radiohead album for a potential first-time listener, it would no doubt be this one. That should make a lot of sense to most fans. But if I was to recommend just one Alternative album in general to a first-timer, this would take that spot as well. It deserves it.

THIS (and no other RH album) is actual music for the masses. Ignorant self-proclaimed Radiohead haters still hum "high and Dry" down high school hallways. "The Bends" changed the band from what critics were calling a one-song act ("Creep") to what critics would later call "the world's best band" (after the release of "Ok Computer.")

"The Bends" celebrates an amazing 6 singles, though some recieved much more air-time than others, with the most significant being "High and Dry," the beautiful acousticity of "Fake Plastic Trees," the hard-driving "My Iron Lung" and the dark and unsettling "Street Spirit." Forget the hype, listen to the reality; "The Bends" was the beginning of Radiohead History. And NONE of the other albums posses an equal track strength.

There's no filler to be found. The only song listeners my have trouble digesting would be "Bullet Proof." The slow acoustic approach was perfect for "Trees," but "Bullet Proof" lacks it's power. Besides that, the album is nearly flawless. It was ranked #5 in top albums of 1995 (Billboard) and included in Rolling Stones essential albums of the 90's.

Nice dream....

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.

it's amazing how quick people are to point out that "ok computer" is the greatest album of the 90s. it's a damn good record, but it isn't even the best radiohead material out there. "the bends" is better. yeah, yeah, crazy experimentation is great, especially when it all works out well, but sometimes it's a little excessive and seems forced. this album is decidedly different from conventional pop-rock, but it never sounds like that was done intentionally. thom yorke himself admitted that "the bends" dealt with his personal demons or whatever you want to call them - a trait that is not readily apparent in any of the newer albums. as with poetry, music is always better when it is personal, simply because it's what you know best. maybe i'm generalizing, but this album has a much more passionate, emotional feel to it, especially in comparison to the intentionally lifeless (in my opinion) "kid a." listening to "high & dry", "fake plastic trees", and "black star", that much is evident. not surprisingly, this is also yorke's best singing. "planet telex" has a slight psychedelic tinge to it with the reverb on full display, creating a spacey, but intricate sound that is perfect for such an intro. what follows is a stunning example of balance and beauty. unlike other bands' sorry attempts to recreate the aura of this album, this is not sappy, mushy pop-rock. yorke pulls off the cobain-esque trick of spouting out his feelings wholeheartedly, yet the listener immediately makes a deep connection. as he sings in the record's best song, the loud and energetic "just", "don't get my sympathy, hanging out the 15th floor." that pretty much sums up his take on misplaced sympathy, which instantly ups his credibility throughout the album. once you realize that, somehow the title track sounds like your life; somehow "my iron lung" is an eerily familiar picture of your frustrations, even though the song is about radiohead's hatred for "creep." somehow, i think that "the bends" will be lost in the shuffle when people mention radiohead twenty years down the road, but that doesn't take anything away from this. it's easier to enjoy every single song here equally, and it's easier to associate with them as well. in the end, that is what makes this one of the best and most important rock albums of the 90s. if you're a fan of u2, travis, or coldplay, this is the only radiohead album that will truly satisfy you.

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.