Bends, The - Radiohead

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 ...
...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, ...

carl.mcqueen 26.09.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Bends, The - 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 ...

Andy.mack 15.11.2003 (05.04.2004) · Read full review
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Review of Bends, The - Radiohead

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 ...

pink 27.08.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Bends, The - Radiohead

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 ...

bethybaby 01.08.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Bends, The - Radiohead

[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 ...

OKkaraoke 16.11.2002 · Read full review
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Review of Bends, The - Radiohead

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 ...

bigbtommy 30.09.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Bends, The - Radiohead

In the period from the mid sixties to the late seventies rock music became plagued with lots of pretentious tosh trying to convince people that they were IMPORTANT and had something MEANINGFUL to say. This came to a head with bands like Yes , Emerson Lake & Palmer and to some extent Pink Floyd (Roger Waters anyone?). Lyrics were often impenetrable and banal, and the music often became so complicated it was almost impossible to play (in the case of ...
...to play). Anyway 1977 turned up, punk crawled out from under several stones and blew a lot of it away, but you know, stuff like that never goes away, and today we have Radiohead. Prior to Kid A , Thom Yorke was quoted as saying the band were ditching melody as an outdated concept or something. I'm all for experimentation, but maybe it's something to do with them coming from Oxford.... This digression is just to put across my point that Radiohead ...

mikeydred 28.08.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Bends, The - Radiohead

The Bends, by Radiohead. One of the greatest albums of all time? Probably… it certainly is in my books. If you have not experienced Radiohead before, you are missing out. You might not think that they are the greatest band of all time, but I have only met a hand-full who like rock-ish type music who don’t like Radiohead- but even although they don’t, they can certainly see where the attraction comes from. This album was Radiohead’s ...
...I am actually finding this op really hard to write since although I love this album I can’t quite figure out what in particular makes it great. The songs are mind-blowing and they all link together perfectly even although there is a distinct change in style, which means the album flows extremely well- so well in fact that I have often fallen asleep to it at night even although it does get very loud in parts. I would say that “Just” ...

Ants 31.08.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Bends, The - Radiohead

...landmark in musical history. The Bends, without any doubt in my mind, is the greatest album ever made. Radiohead began in Oxford around ten years ago. Since then they have fast become one of the biggest bands on the alternative music scene, largely because of Thom Yorke's unusual vocal talent and style of music. After listening to Pablo Honey, their debut album, I fast became a big Radiohead fan. However, this album is even better. The order of ...
...What I will say is don't just go on first impressions. The first time I listened to The Bends I thought it was a letdown. However, it was only after I had got to know the album well that I realized what a classic it actually is. The great thing about this album is that every track is different, yet there are no songs that seem like they have been put there just to fill the gaps, as there are on so many other albums that I won't mention. Thom Yorke's ...

krabople 17.09.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Bends, The - Radiohead

...writing the tracks for The Bends, was at the forefront of their minds. After the success of Pablo Honey, the band had a gruelling touring schedule and used this to try and write new tracks for the upcoming album but found this just wasn't working for them. When they finished the tour, they hit the studio however had major problems with trying to emulate the feel and sound of 'Creep' because they in fact didn't like it all that much but wanted to ...
...that they liked so that the fans wouldn't (as they feel) misinterpret them in the same way as they had with said song. So, they hit the road again but this time went round Australasia and with a much less gruelling schedule, they concentrated on performing newer tracks to the audiences and this proved so successful that when they got back to the UK, they went back to the studio and had the album was done and dusted in about two weeks. The main ...

drewboy 12.06.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Bends, The - Radiohead

After immersing myself in Kid A and Amnesiac for months I got this out and rediscovered the joys of listening to simpler, more accessible, almost singalong, good old fashioned adult rock. This for me is the best album they have so far produced. Add to the fact that they dedicated it to Bill Hicks just raises them in my eyes by another notch. This was actually the first Radiohead album I had bought, enticed in by the ethereal sounds of Street Spirit ...
...!! From the opening reverb and guitars on Planet Telex to the opening words, “you can force it but it will not come” sums up the style of writing and delivery of song in this album and later that will soon take over his entire voice in Kid A etc. In this particular song Thom sings with a gusto and only a hint of an edge leaving it balanced and complementing the song rather than trying to take it over by forcing our attention onto it. ...

ultras67 14.09.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Bends, The - Radiohead

The second Radiohead album marked a massive leap forward from the sub-grunge sound of their debut ‘Pablo Honey’. It arrived in the year of Britpop, 1995, but unlike most albums from that period, it has stood the test of time and is generally regarded as a classic. But what makes ‘The Bends’ so good? Its qualities are in many ways indefinable, but judged in retrospect; it still has that special something, five years since I ...
...CD in July 1995, so I was only starting to build up my CD collection when I purchased ‘Pablo Honey’ in November of that year, it was just after Christmas that I invested in ‘The Bends’ and even on its first play, I knew that this album was unique and strangely wonderful. The single ‘Fake Plastic Trees’, an acoustic anthem that turns into a raging epic had been that first CD I ever bought, so there is a large element ...

kfingleton 23.01.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Bends, The - Radiohead

Ahh another old favorite ...Radiohead 'The Bends' I been digging through my music lately, giving some old faves some play-time on my music machine. 'The Bends' is in my opinion the best of Radioheads efforts for the simple reason ALL the songs are good, it's the kind of album I'll put on and listen to it all without having to skip past any crap songs because I like them all, which is rare. I will say this though it's quite strange when you go digging ...
...soundtrack from your life. Or is that just me? 'The Bends' came out in '95 and is / was the follow up to the 1994 album 'Pablo Honey'.And is still my fave of them all because don't get me wrong the others are good and have some brilliant songs on. But as albums go, this album really *goes* , the style and spirt of Radiohead is captured in this one album and there's not one dull moment. None of the albums seem to me as playable and complete as 'The ...

The-ex-Raven 16.03.2004 · Read full review
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Review of Bends, The - Radiohead

I don’t own this album but am currently borrowing it from a friend, and I really need to tell people how damn good it is! But no-doubt if you are anywhere near being sane then you will already know for yourself. The Album has a very mellow theme but with a few faster songs as well. <01>Planet Telex - “You can crush it but it’s always there”: Begins with a sound effect that sounds like something from Buck Rogers or Battle ...
...keyboard and guitar. One of my favourite songs on the album. <02>The Bends - “I wish it was the sixties I wish I could be happy”: Starts with what sounds like commentary from a boxing match or something like that playing very quietly before the guitar starts. <03>High And Dry - “You’d kill yourself for recognition kill yourself to never ever stop”: Very pleasant sounding acoustic guitar playing that reminds me of ...

The_Anti-Santa 12.05.2001 (13.05.2001) · Read full review
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Review of Bends, The - Radiohead

This is a astonishing album that literally takes your breath away with its consistant magnificence. The raw power and energy of Pablo Honey, the forerunner to this album, was superb in itself, but hinted nothing to what was to come on this heartbreaking masterpiece. The mixture of Thom Yorke's brutally pained vocals and the torturous beauty of the guitars make for a majestic album. Every track is outstanding, but personal favourites include the mighty ...

Beowulf 21.07.2000 · Read full review
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Review of Bends, The - Radiohead