kindle

 Buy MP3 album with 1-Click® 
Give Album OR Song as Gift
 
 
     
 
 Launch Player 
 
     
The Bends [Explicit]
 
See larger image
 

The Bends [Explicit]

RadioheadMP3 Music
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (653 customer reviews)

Price: $9.49
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Album Savings: $5.99 compared to buying all songs

  • Original Release Date: March 28, 1995
  • Format - Music: MP3
  • Compatible with MP3 Players (including with iPod®), iTunes, Windows Media Player
 
MP3 Songs Previous Play all Next Play all samples MP3 Now Playing Paused Loading...... Unavailable Loading...... Volume slider     Mute/Unmute  
To view this content, download Flash player (version 9.0.0 or higher)
  Song Title Time Price  
Play   1. Planet Telex 4:19 $1.29  Buy MP3 
Play   2. The Bends 4:06 $1.29  Buy MP3 
Play   3. High And Dry 4:17 $1.29  Buy MP3 
Play   4. Fake Plastic Trees 4:50 $1.29  Buy MP3 
Play   5. Bones 3:08 $1.29  Buy MP3 
Play   6. (Nice Dream) 3:52 $1.29  Buy MP3 
Play   7. Just 3:53 $1.29  Buy MP3 
Play   8. My Iron Lung 4:36 $1.29  Buy MP3 
Play   9. Bullet Proof ... I Wish I Was 3:28 $1.29  Buy MP3 
Play 10. Black Star 4:06 $1.29  Buy MP3 
Play 11. Sulk 3:43 $1.29  Buy MP3 
Play 12. Street Spirit (Fade Out) 4:12 $1.29  Buy MP3 
Sold by Amazon Digital Services, Inc.. Additional taxes may apply. By placing your order, you agree to our Terms of Use.


Product Details

  • Original Release Date: March 28, 1995
  • Release Date: March 28, 1995
  • Label: Parlophone
  • Copyright: (C) 1995 EMI Records LtdThis label copy information is the subject of copyright protection. All rights reserved.(C) 1995 EMI Records Ltd
  • Total Length: 48:30
  • Genres:
  • Format: Explicit Lyrics
  • ASIN: B000TERK3C
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (653 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,691 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Customer Reviews

Trust me, and buy Radiohead's 'The Bends', because I guarantee you will like it. Angela M. Healey  |  134 reviewers made a similar statement
Radiohead's most accessible album. Levi Stofer  |  118 reviewers made a similar statement
Its one of the best songs on the album. unmeel  |  112 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
238 of 262 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars There's a reason the average review is 5 stars on amazon November 29, 2004
Format:Audio CD
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.
Was this review helpful to you?
41 of 45 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Honey-coated Sugar Bombs March 16, 2005
By travu2
Format:Audio CD
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.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
26 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
A correction to start: The Amazon listing shows 18 tracks on Disc 2 when, in fact, there are 21 tracks. Amazon forgot to list these three from the "Fake Plastic Trees" single. These three songs are found at tracks 11,12 and 13 on Disc 2 of the "Bends" reissue:

Fake Plastic Trees (Live Acoustic)
Bulletproof....I Wish I Was (Live Acoustic)
Street Spirit (Live Acoustic)

"The Bends" was the disc that caused anyone paying attention in 1995 to realize that Radiohead was going to be a contender. Their mostly-by-the-numbers-alt-rock-format debut disc from 1993 called "Pablo Honey" was, well...somewhat promising, but not really earth-shattering. They had hit the charts fairly big with the late-breaking "Creep" single (which flopped in the UK the first time around), but the title of this one is a clear reference to the discomfort they were feeling from the increasing numbers of so-called fans coming to their shows--many just for that one "I'm a Weirdo" song. The condition known as the bends is a painful onset of wide-ranging physical problems facing those who transition too quickly from high to low pressure, usually associated with surfacing fast after diving in the depths of a body of water---i.e. Radiohead was experiencing the pain of "rising" quickly. In fact, the single that preceded the album release, "My Iron Lung", is directly about this very issue of "Creep" becoming a both a "life-support" as well as a giant millstone around the band's collective neck.

Not much on "Pablo Honey" prepared the listener for the excellence of their second outing, a time at which many bands have been known to display the notorious "sophomore slump". Instead, Radiohead demonstrated exponential development from that debut disc to this one. "The Bends" relied much less on the "needles in the red" three guitar assault that was trotted out time and again on "Pablo Honey". The "Bends" opener, "Planet Telex", with its fast-tremolo guitar sounds, repeated/delayed keyboard signals, and distorted off-kilter beat and vocals, sends the strong message right off the bat that this band is not afraid to experiment and test the boundaries (something they would do in abundance by the end of the decade with "Kid A"). Nearly half of the disc never rises above a mellow, acoustic vibe--much of this quieter territory is explored this time out compared to the very short stretch of "Pablo Honey" that visited a more mellow zone. A share of the harder songs still had the soft versus /loud choruses dynamics of the textbook early 90's alternative rock song going ("Bones", "Just", "My Iron Lung", "Black Star"), but it is clear from the overall collection of 12 songs on Disc 1 that Radiohead are pulling away from the expectations of their little niche in the Rock world. Seen in hindsight, this disc is a natural mid-point between the raw guitar-driven debut of "Pablo Honey" and the more experimental and distinctive "OK Computer" that would follow this disc by two years.

This period was extremely prolific for Radiohead; they had a hard time selecting the 12 songs to go on the album and were left with essentially more than an entire CD worth of unreleased recordings, usually of very high quality, for their B-sides. Disc 2 contains four BBC session recordings that are rarities as well as all of the "regular" mixes of the 14 studio B-sides released on the "Bends"-era singles (and the three live acoustic songs I mentioned at the beginning). This lengthy second disc is far from comprehensive, however; many of the songs released during the year and a half or so around the album release are not to be found here. By my count, there are another 14 songs released mostly as B-sides or promos in this period (they are all alternate mixes/re-mixes of "Bends" era songs or live tracks) that did not make it to the reissue. This release could easily have added a third CD (instead of the DVD as the third disc on the "deluxe" version) to round up all of these missing items. Here's a list of what did not make it on the reissue bonus disc:

Planet Telex (hexadecimal mix) High and Dry single (CD2)
Planet Telex (l.f.o. jd mix) High and Dry single (CD1)
Planet Telex (Karma Sunra mix) Just single (CD1)
Killer Cars (Mogadon version) Just single (CD1)
Talk Show Host (Romeo + Juliet Soundtrack Remix Version)
Bones (Live At The Forum) Just single (CD2)
Planet Telex (Live At The Forum) Just single (CD2)
Just (Live At The Forum) US High and Dry single
Anyone Can Play Guitar (Live At The Forum) Just single (CD2)
(Plus all five songs on the Dutch "Pinkpop Edition"/Belgian "Live" promo EP):
Fake Plastic Trees (Live)
Blow Out (Live)
Bones (Live)
You (Live)
High And Dry (Live)

The other two 2009 2-disc reissues, "Pablo Honey" and "OK Computer", are much more comprehensive than this one in terms of containing virtually all released material from the same timeframe as the main album. This one certainly included the cream of the crop, but it fell short of serving the very customer base a release like this is aimed at--rabid Radiohead fans that want everything. It's a shame that this misses the remixes of the album's lead-off and most experimental tune, as these demonstrate the dawning signs of the band's open-mindedness regarding dance/electronic/hip hop music. They were surely the only guitar-oriented band commissioning such radical remixes in 1995, and they were telegraphing an affinity and willingness to color outside the lines that would certainly crop up later on their regular releases like "Kid A/Amnesiac".

You will have to do some further digging to get the full picture of the "Bends" era Radiohead, but this collection is the equivalent of a portrait that cuts off the top of one's head. Most of the important features are there, but there's something integral to the overall image that is missing.
Was this review helpful to you?
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible Album
This album marks Radiohead's transition from Nirvana-lite to, well, Radiohead. There's still the three chord guitar anthems, but their built up into dense, multi layered epics. Read more
Published 11 days ago by Savonarola
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Album!!!
I think this is one of my favorite Radiohead albums,,,probably number 1. I think it's a really well played well written well everything album, the songs are strong and with lots of... Read more
Published 16 days ago by Jaguar XS
5.0 out of 5 stars LOVE THE BENDS!!!!!!!!!
RADIOHEAD THE BENDS IS THE BAND AT THEIR HIGHEST PEEK THE GRUNGY GUITARS AND HAUNTING VOCALS OF THOM YORKE. THE BENDS IS ONE ALBUM THAT REPRESENTS THE 90'S. Read more
Published 1 month ago by MUSICFAN89
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome
Unique offering from one of the most unique artists of the modern era. This really lays the groundwork for where they will branch out on OK Computer, but is a more simplified,... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Ryan Farrar
1.0 out of 5 stars Bad Pressing
The sound on This Pressing sounds like They Used a Highly Compressed Cd as the Source Material...Unlistenable with booming Bass and no Highs---Sounds as Bad as My Copy of Joe Walsh... Read more
Published 1 month ago by David C. Holmes
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome.
The best alt-rock oriented Radiohead record available. It's fun to sit and listen to a band evolve and this is a great sophomore lp. Highly recommend.
Published 1 month ago by Lefthandlester
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best
I'm thrilled to have one of my favorite albums on vinyl--it's a high-quality pressing and lets you listen to all the layers that MP3 versions don't have.
Published 2 months ago by Nathan Carpenter
4.0 out of 5 stars Great album
I mostly like country music, but I listen to just about anything except rap. This is a good collection of Radiohead music and if you like them it should be in your collection.
Published 2 months ago by John A. Vonesh Jr.
5.0 out of 5 stars Great!
Got to my house really quickly, was packaged really nicely.

Besides, I LOVE this album, so I definitely can't wait to hear it on vinyl!!!!! AHH! :)
Published 2 months ago by Naomi Steva
5.0 out of 5 stars Love it
This is a great album, I must say. Every track a winner. Every listen brings joy. If you haven't heard Radiohead before, but want to love them, this is the record to start with.
Published 2 months ago by SeanySeanerson
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

Forums

Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions

Topic From this Discussion
WHY?
well, i am 22 right now and i started listening to radiohead back when this album came out. i was immediately drawn in to their music. i had not heard any songs from pablo honey, so that album doesn't hold much for me. as far as the band goes, this is their most reasonable to comprehend and... Read more
Apr 19, 2007 by Schuyler W. Deal |  See all 32 posts
Bands I've Really Tried to Like but... Be the first to reply
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 



What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Look for Similar Items by Category