The Bends

Radiohead | Format: Audio CD

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)
  • #3 in Music > Alternative Rock > British Alternative > General
  • #7 in Music > Alternative Rock > British Alternative > Britpop

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.

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

By Levi Stofer

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.

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.

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good reissue that could have been better and more comprehensive March 31, 2009

By Alan Hutchins

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. Read more ›

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Undeniably Brilliant And Timeless January 29, 2005

By Busy Body

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.... 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. Read more ›