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The Bends

RadioheadAudio CD
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (652 customer reviews)

Price: $9.99 & FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
MP3 Music, 12 Songs, 1995 $5.00  
Audio CD, 1995 $9.99  
Vinyl, Limited Edition, 2008 $14.99  
Audio Cassette, 1995 --  

Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Samples
Song Title Time Price
listen  1. Planet Telex 4:19$1.29  Buy MP3 
listen  2. The Bends 4:06$1.29  Buy MP3 
listen  3. High And Dry 4:17$1.29  Buy MP3 
listen  4. Fake Plastic Trees 4:50$1.29  Buy MP3 
listen  5. Bones 3:08$1.29  Buy MP3 
listen  6. (Nice Dream) 3:52$1.29  Buy MP3 
listen  7. Just 3:53$1.29  Buy MP3 
listen  8. My Iron Lung 4:36$1.29  Buy MP3 
listen  9. Bullet Proof ... I Wish I Was 3:28$1.29  Buy MP3 
listen10. Black Star 4:06$1.29  Buy MP3 
listen11. Sulk 3:43$1.29  Buy MP3 
listen12. Street Spirit (Fade Out) 4:12$1.29  Buy MP3 


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Biography

Radiohead is Colin Greenwood, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Philip Selway and Thom Yorke.

Radiohead's previous recordings have included 1993's Pablo Honey, 1995's The Bends, 1997's OK Computer (the tour for which was documented by the 1998 film Meeting People Is Easy), 2000's Kid A, 2001's Amnesiac, 2003's Hail To The Thief and In Rainbows, which was ... Read more in Amazon's Radiohead Store

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Frequently Bought Together

The Bends + OK Computer + Kid A
Price for all three: $36.97

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  • OK Computer $18.99
  • Kid A $7.99

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Product Details

  • Audio CD (April 4, 1995)
  • Original Release Date: April 4, 1995
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Capitol
  • ASIN: B000002TQV
  • Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (652 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,481 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

While Radiohead saw its stock rising in 1994, it wasn't until 1995's The Bends that it really became a blue chip band. And for good reason. The quintet honed its talent for bombastic Brit Rock, yet still preserved an edge of unpredictability. Even singles like the title track didn't give in to the kind of swooning guitar clichés usually embraced by commercial radio. If the CD proved anything, it was that Radiohead could find solid ground between pop experimentation and the tradition of born-in-the-bone, balls-out rock. --Nick Heil

Product Description

While Radiohead saw its stock rising in 1994, it wasn't until 1995's The Bends that it really became a blue chip band. And for good reason. The quintet honed its talent for bombastic Brit Rock, yet still preserved an edge of unpredictability. Even singles like the title track didn't give in to the kind of swooning guitar clich‚s usually embraced by commercial radio. If the CD proved anything, it was that Radiohead could find solid ground between pop experimentation and the tradition of born-in-the-bone, balls-out rock.

Customer Reviews

All in all, The Bends is Radiohead's 2nd best album behind Ok Computer. Luscious Luke  |  106 reviewers made a similar statement
One of the best albums ever made. bluScreened  |  94 reviewers made a similar statement
I like it because every song is good. Lambert Liwanag  |  68 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.
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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.
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28 of 31 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.
... Read more ›
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27 of 30 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Undeniably Brilliant And Timeless January 29, 2005
Format:Audio CD
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.
... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars The Bends will bend your mind
After pablo honeys light success the song creep(which was included in pablo honey) became more popular than the album it originated from. Read more
Published 15 days ago by Morgan
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 1 month 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 1 month 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 2 months 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 2 months 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 2 months 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 2 months 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 3 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 3 months ago by Naomi Steva
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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
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