When 'Pablo Honey' arrived to the world in 1994, many lesser witted people dubbed Creep a one hit wonder and Radiohead little more than a stop-fill gap between the early nineties Nirvana-led grunge revolution and the mid-nineties Brit-pop era. How wrong they were.
Their second album 'The ... Read review
This review already contains more than 120 words. As a Ciao member you could earn up to £5 with this review.
The Bends - Radiohead
After the massive success of Pablo Honey--or, more specifically, the single "Creep"--had ... more
made them a household name, most had written Radiohead off as one-hit wonders. That they could return with an album as awesome and monumental as The Bends, therefo...
The Bends - Radiohead
While Radiohead saw its stock rising in 1994, it wasn't until 1995's The Bends that it ... more
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
The Bends - Radiohead
After the massive success of Pablo Honey--or, more specifically, the single "Creep"--had ... more
made them a household name, most had written Radiohead off as one-hit wonders. That they could return with an album as awesome and monumental as The Bends, therefore, must have been particularly unexpected. Not that Pablo Honey is a bad album, but rather, when compared to the epic grandeur of The Bends, it's obvious that the five Oxford-based boys had matured immensely since the release of their debut. "High And Dry", "Just", "Street Spirit", "Fake Plastic Trees": nary a pop song among them, yet it's testament to their greatness that they all were hit singles. And really, it's easy to see why: Thom Yorke's falsetto crying over a wall of acoustic and electric guitars, as lyrics and music blend to create a masterpiece of melancholy beauty. The Bends is one of the most essential albums of the 1990s, and a spectacular indicator of further greatness to come. --Robert Burrow
The Bends - Radiohead
While Radiohead saw its stock rising in 1994, it wasn't until 1995'sThe Bendsthat it ... more
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
The Bends - Radiohead
After the massive success ofPablo Honey--or, more specifically, the single "Creep"--had ... more
made them a household name, most had written Radiohead off as one-hit wonders. That they could return with an album as awesome and monumental asThe Bends, therefore, must have been particularly unexpected. Not thatPablo Honeyis a bad album, but rather, when compared to the epic grandeur ofThe Bends, it's obvious that the five Oxford-based boys had matured immensely since the release of their debut. "High And Dry", "Just", "Street Spirit", "Fake Plastic Trees": nary a pop song among them, yet it's testament to their greatness that they all were hit singles. And really, it's easy to see why: Thom Yorke's falsetto crying over a wall of acoustic and electric guitars, as lyrics and music blend to create a masterpiece of melancholy beauty.The Bendsis one of the most essential albums of the 1990s, and a spectacular indicator of further greatness to come.--Robert Burrow
The Bends - Radiohead
After the massive success ofPablo Honey--or, more specifically, the single "Creep"--had ... more
made them a household name, most had written Radiohead off as one-hit wonders. That they could return with an album as awesome and monumental asThe Bends, therefore, must have been particularly unexpected. Not thatPablo Honeyis a bad album, but rather, when compared to the epic grandeur ofThe Bends, it's obvious that the five Oxford-based boys had matured immensely since the release of their debut. "High And Dry", "Just", "Street Spirit", "Fake Plastic Trees": nary a pop song among them, yet it's testament to their greatness that they all were hit singles. And really, it's easy to see why: Thom Yorke's falsetto crying over a wall of acoustic and electric guitars, as lyrics and music blend to create a masterpiece of melancholy beauty.The Bendsis one of the most essential albums of the 1990s, and a spectacular indicator of further greatness to come.--Robert Burrow
made them a household name, most had written Radiohead off as one-hit wonders. That they could return with an album as awesome and monumental asThe Bends, therefore, must have been particularly unexpected. Not thatPablo Honeyis a bad album, but rather, when compared to the epic grandeur ofThe Bends, it's obvious that the five Oxford-based boys had matured immensely since the release of their debut. "High And Dry", "Just", "Street Spirit", "Fake Plastic Trees": nary a pop song among them, yet it's testament to their greatness that theyall were hit singles. And really, it's easy to see why: Thom Yorke's falsetto crying over a wall of acoustic and electric guitars, as lyrics and music blend to create a masterpiece of melancholy beauty.The Bendsis one of the most essential albums of the 1990s, and a spectacular indicator of further greatness to come.--Robert Burrow
A review by carl.mcqueen on Bends, The - Radiohead September 26th, 2005
Author's product rating:
Originality
Groundbreaking
Lyrics
Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks
Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases
Outstanding
Value for Money
Excellent
Advantages:
An all - time great album
Disadvantages:
What disadvantages? !
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
When 'Pablo Honey' arrived to the world in 1994, many lesser witted people dubbed Creep a one hit wonder and Radiohead little more than a stop-fill gap between the early nineties Nirvana-led grunge revolution and the mid-nineties Brit-pop era. How wrong they were.
Their second album 'The Bends' designed and moulded the band into a superpower from which they never looked back. And the most serious question asked or topic discussed about this album in years gone by?? Not the lack of 'filler' tracks or 'radio-friendly' music, but whether 'The Bends' or 'OK Computer' is not only Radiohead's best album, but one of the best albums rock music has ever produced.
Opening track 'Planet Telex' helps us on our epic journey, and acts as an excellent compliment to the following three tracks, all of which are huge pieces of music.
Title track 'The Bends' is a huge favourite of mine with Thom Yorke's creaking, wandering voice 'I need to wash myself again, to hide all the dirt and pain'. Pablo Honey showed subtle complexities in the band's work, and this song alone shows how they developed these 'subtleties' into breakdowns and build-ups in music that are hard to achieve.
The following two tracks, 'High & Dry' and 'Fake Plastic Trees' are beautiful, heart-felt tracks. Anthems for a rainy day it could be said, or anthems for a sunny day some others may argue, with their hazy, laid back rhythms that hypnotizes the listener into a state of awe with regards to this music. Furthermore, these two songs showcase Yorke's epic talent with his eerie, echoing vocals that can within an instant break hearts, and as latter songs will confirm, then shatter window panes in anger.
'Bones' starts off, in my opinion, in a REM-esque style of music. However, Yorke comfortably manages to differ between Michael Stipe's style and his own, authenticating Radiohead's own style and showing that this is brilliant, original music that we are listening to.
'(Nice Dream)' produces a harmony of backing violins and vocals, until a stop-start, enraging solo from Jonny Greenwood breaks loose, for allbeit 30 or so seconds, until this juxtaposed style rounds off with the fading out of 'nice dream' being sang.
'Just' is just simply a great song, and an example of the anger-style of vocals that I mentioned a few paragraphs back with regards to Yorke's vocal styles. The build-up of quiet verses and loud choruses is very much a trademark of rock music. And all rounded off by another provoking guitar interlude by Greenwood. And one final word on this song - an excellent video accompanies it, as I'm sure many of you are aware - why was that man lying on the ground?! One of lifes genuine unanswerable questions!!
'My Iron Lung' may be seen by a few people as being slightly weak compared to a number of tracks on the album, which is fair enough, until an obscure, but certainly attention-grabbing interlude about two minutes into proceedings appears. It's an explosion of musical passion that catches the listener unaware, making for great alternative music.
'Bullet Proof...I Wish I Was' fades in and out, with progressing ease with each listen - music for the brain to relax to. 'Black Star' holds many of these similarities, apart from a more aggressive chorus, showing the bands encouragement to chop and change tempos and rhythms without consent from anyone else, which helps show the band's confidence and maturity, regardless of this being only their second album.
'Sulk', I must confess, is a track I have probably listen to the least. This is no disrespect to the song itself - it's a more than adequate track...but maybe it has something to do with the track that follows it...
'Street Spirit (Fade Out)' is the closing track, and is something that many bands will be afraid to do - have a huge single at the end of an album. This eerie, haunting, awesome piece of music is very much an anthem of the band, but then again, as I come to a conclusion, so are tracks like 'High & Dry', 'Fake Plastic Trees' and 'Just', to name just a few, and this is tribute and proof that Radiohead are genuinely one of the biggest bands on the planet. Their consistent skill at producing epic music is second to none. With this being merely their second album as well, and knowing what came after it...it's almost frightening to imagine the amount of talent in this band...
And what was it I said about people saying 'Creep' was a one-hit wonder?!?! I beg to differ somewhat...
And just for the record...you can pick this up on Amazon.co.uk for £9.99, or a mere £4.49 on Amazon Marketplace...so do yourself a favour, buy this record today!
Advantages: Some Fantastic Tracks, no weak ones at all. As close to a flawless album I think I have heard Disadvantages: None, unless you dont like Radiohead
As I mentioned in my op last week there really is only one album by Radiohead that seems to be constantly on my CD player. That album is of course the follow up to the 1994 release Pablo Honey, 1995’s The Bends. Often the subject of much debate between Radiohead fans but personally this is my favourite album to date. The follow up and it’s predecessor both push it close but overall I find The Bends to be the more complete album. The Oxfordshire ... ...world by storm since the mid 90’s. A lot of other bands show heavy influences of Radiohead’s sound but it was this album more than any other that will be found on lists of musical influences. The debate also rages about what exactly Thom Yorke is, a musical Genius or confused and mixed up but making decent music. On that fact I’m with the former, despite a patch where I really wasn’t a Radiohead fan I’ve now really got ...
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Outstanding music, brilliant, read on Disadvantages: none silly.
The Bends is Radiohead's second album coming after Pablo Honey and before OK Computer. Although it often seems that as far as Radiohead are concerned, and Thom Yorke in particular, this is their first true album. This is where Radiohead truly become Radiohead for the first time, when they find and develop their own unique direction. As albums go, this album goes like thunder-fire. The developing style of the band is captured in pure glory. There ... ...the music to talk.
~~The Music~~
1- Planet Telex
The album begins with a rather electronic sounding wind blowing. There is a heavy drum and keyboard sound achieved and then an exceptionally muddy bass line kicks in and the song is underway. It has a nice juddery and shaky feeling throughout and there is an excellent piece of guitar work in there. Great song, and Thom's vocals are really excellent they have a strained tenderness about them. The ...
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Sublime Music Disadvantages: Screams out to be listened to.
The first mega-successful album by Radiohead is the best for me. It will remain one of the best and most influential albums of the Nineties and rightly so. But one warning. You cannot take this album at face value! If you listen to it once and don’t like it, then do not write it off – you’ll miss out! After buying Pablo Honey, and loving it, at first this album didn’t live up to expectations. There were none of the lively ... ...song with a bit of life seemed to be ‘Just’, and that was the only one with understandable lyrics. After listening to the album once, I put it back on the shelf and cursed myself for wasting £13 on such a depressing album. But, about a month later, after persuasion from friends, I put the CD back in my player, and gave it another try! I’m glad I did! I don’t know whether it was the mood I was in, or whether my expectations ...
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
[This is part II of my '90s Nostalgia series.]
I read somewhere that 'The Bends,' Radiohead's second album, released in 1995, has sold fewer copies than their debut album, 'Pablo Honey.' I find this hard to believe since 'The Bends' is clearly is more innovative and of much higher quality. However, it makes sense from a marketing standpoint. While their first album had the hugely popular single 'Creep,' no songs from 'The Bends' were able to achieve ... ...more sophisticated and varied album than 'Pablo Honey.' I can listen to it over and over again and it gets better every time. This album covers many of the same themes as 'OK Computer' (Radiohead's critically acclaimed 1997 release) such as corporate greed, angst in the modern world, technology, etc, but 'The Bends' is much more pleasant to listen to and less whiny. For the younger rock music fans out there, you may have only heard of Radiohead in ...
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
The Bends. As well as being a bloody awful thing that happens if you come up too fast from a dive, it is also one of the most genre-creating, important albums of the 90s. Along with Oasis' (Whats the Story?) album and Nevermind by Nirvana, this is going to be on the 90's most important albums lists, not Robbie Williams and Destiny's Child!! 1995's most important rock album. One of this century's most important rock albums!
The Bends is Radiohead's ... ...the just as great Kid A / Amnesiac pair. Before The Bends was the heavily rocky Pablo Honey. There has also been a sneaky few releases, like My Iron Lung EP, and some wierd Japanese titles which I intend to hunt down sometime...
Radiohead and Co. decided on including 12 fine tracks on this album. They are all superb, fantastic and brilliant rock anthems. The album got the band nominated for a Brit award a few years ago, 1996 I think? And, even though ...
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: This is simply a beautiful album with no weak links Disadvantages: You will buy other CC albums and be left a little dissapointed
...August and everything After sits comfortably in my top five favourite albums of all time. For your own interest and to show the quality of this superb album, my list reads:
1) OK Computer, Radiohead
2) Counting Crows: August and everything After
3) The bends, Radiohead
4) Manic Street Preachers: The holy bible
5) Defnitely Maybe: Oasis
This album is immense and actually the only album other than OK computer which I don't skip a song. So why is it so good? Well its perfect in everyway. They always say the key to a good album is a good entrance, if thats true, Round Here (Song 1) fulfills every criteria
This song is faultless, the moody introduction of the Hammond organ sets a stunning resonance to which an uncomplicated but beautiful guitar line comes in, your left hanging for a few seconds until the distinctive Adam Duritz...
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
...David Gray's first album 'White Ladder' was advertised on TV prior to release and the advert built it up in the same way Radioheads 'The Bends ' was touted as the best album ever. I first heard the album at a freinds and was taken by the strength of Gray's vocals in what is a melodic and soulful range of tracks. His distinctive style is like no other that I have heard and coming from a Metal/Thrash background, I was surprised that I liked this album so much. I would reccommend that everybody should listen to this this album and not just rate on the one song that has entered the charts....
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: quality music Disadvantages: a little deppressing
...After gaining world wide recognition through `the bends` radiohead attempted to relive that fame via `ok computer`. Another successful album is here with 12 tracks and some great hits. The first track `airbag` immedialty will grip the listener and has a strong relation to the previous album. The second track is the famous `paranoid android` and is a very complex song contains heavy and mellow themes. Its 7/4 time gives the song that progressive feel and has a great video if you get the chance to see it. This album has song after song of quality. `Exit music` is a very dreary but great song and could easily be one of the best tracks on the album. Track 6-`karma police` is one of the best written by the band and has a stunning chorus. There are many other great songs on this album including the sweet `no suprises`. The only bad side to...
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Album Notes: Radiohead: Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano); Ed O'Brien (vocals, guitar); Jon Greenwood (guitar, recorder, piano, organ, synthesizer); Colin Greenwood (bass); Phil Selway (drums). Additional personnel: John Matthias (violin, viola); Caroline Lavelle (cello). Producers: John Leckie, Radiohead, Jim Warren, Nigel Godrich. Engineers include: John Leckie, Nigel Godrich, Chris Brown. Recorded at Rak, The Manor and Abbey Road, London, England. On only their second outing Oxford's Radiohead fulfilled their huge potential, fashioning an album whose relentlessly downbeat tone was offset by an ability to formulate consistently winning melodies. The title track and "Just" throw some customary rock poses, but for the most part the band displayed a far more expansive approach. Thom Yorke emerged from the woodwork with a new-found vocal confidence, revealing a striking falsetto on two of the album's strongest tracks, "Fake Plastic Trees" and "High & Dry." The last three songs build inexorably to the stunning emotional climax of "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" with a control and poise that showcased the band's new maturity.
Album Reviews: Q (6/00, p.75) - Ranked #35 in Q's "100 Greatest British Albums" Q (10/01, p.106) - Ranked #4 in Q's "Best 50 Albums of Q's Lifetime" Rolling Stone (5/13/99, pp.58-59) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's." Q (12/99, p.84) - Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums Of The 1990s." NME (8/12/00, p.29) - Ranked #30 in The NME "Top 30 Heartbreak Albums" - "...Suburban bleakness....More personal than OK COMPUTER and all the more chilling for it." Q (2/96, p.63) - Included in Q's 50 Best Albums of 1995 - "...THE BENDS' lasting mightiness is confirmed--as is the scary impression that they'll only get better..." Melody Maker (12/23-30/95, pp.66-67) - Ranked #6 on Melody Maker's list of 1995's `Albums Of The Year' - "Rock as self-evisceration....consistently, savagely brilliant..." NME (12/23-30/95, pp.22-23) - Ranked #4 in NME's `Top 50 Albums Of The Year' for 1995. Rolling Stone (5/18/95, p.88) - 3.5 Stars - Very Good - "...THE BENDS [is] a sonically ambitious album that offers no easy hits. It's a guitar field day, blending acoustic strumming with twitches of fuzzy tremolo and eruptions of amplified paranoia..." Entertainment Weekly (4/7/95, p.92) - "...Sometimes folky, sometimes rocky, the sophomore album from this English band offers a smorgasbord of guitar flavors, most of them tasty, The stylistic leaps make for schizoid listening....but give these boys credit for not standing still..." - Rating: B+ Alternative Press (4/95, p.71) - "...THE BENDS' greatest asset is its approximation of London Suede, all the parody and none of the pomp....THE BENDS proves that Radiohead didn't shoot their bolt with `Creep.' That there's a lot more stirring down there than their recent past might admit..."
Titles on disc 1
1.: Planet Telex
2.: Bends
3.: High And Dry
4.: Fake Plastic Trees
5.: Bones
6.: Nice Dream
7.: Just
8.: My Iron Lung
9.: Bullet Proof...I Wish I Was
10.: Black Star
11.: Sulk
12.: Street Spirit (Fade Out)
Ciao
Listed on Ciao since : 11/07/2000
Compare Bends, The - Radiohead to other similar Rock & Pop
![The Bends [CASSETTE] - Radiohead](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/75067926.jpg)
This product has not yet been reviewed. 
30.01.2009
29.08.2000
