Nice Dream, Comes True (The Bends - Radiohead)

Member Name: Red Devil

Product:	The Bends - Radiohead
Date:	17/08/01 (297 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: it rocks, it soothes, its Radiohead

Disadvantages: over hyped by the general public who dismiss all other Radiohead albums

For many, Radiohead’s finest hour, for others just the start of the Radiohead phenomenon. Either way, most music fans agree that The Bends is one of the finest albums of its kind in the last ten years. Another thing that is certain is that it is music produced during the period where Radiohead could still be deemed to ‘rock’ and the electronic experiments of Kid A and Amnesiac were unimaginable.

The opening song on the album, Planet Telex, is fairly similar to the material that had been released on debut album, Pablo Honey. However, it is already apparent even from even the first few seconds that the music on The Bends has a far more rounded feel, with much deeper roots to the music than on its fairly orthodox and low-budget predecessor. On most albums a song of the quality of Planet Telex would have been one of the highlights. On The Bends however, it serves simply as a good introduction into an even better album. Although it was released, as a double A-Side with High And Dry, there is no doubt that unreleased songs such as The Bends, Nice Dream and Black Star are superior songs. However, the song is still good and, as I stated before, leads nicely into the second track The Bends. Recently reinstated as the set closer during gigs, The Bends is as fine a song as The Bends is an album (if you get me…). Opening with the memorable ‘where do we go from here, the words are coming out all weird, where are you now’, the song simply rocks. Many old Radiohead fans will feel disillusioned nowadays that Thom Yorke and company no longer make songs like this. Even though it doesn’t contain the power of My Iron Lung or Just, it is still pretty awesome and is still enough to blow away audiences at gigs – or, to quote the song, ‘blow the place sky-high’. And, like all good songs, it sticks in your head so that you will find yourself humming it and playing air guitar to it all the time… or is that just me? r>
The third track sees the tempo slowed with many peoples favourite from the album, High And Dry. Don’t get me wrong, I like this song and think it is good. However, I don’t think it is in the same league as Fake Plastic Trees as it seems a little out of touch with much of the album. Whereas Fake Plastic Trees has a good, rock ending, High And Dry does seem to dry up a bit. In saying that, Thom Yorke produces one of his best vocals on the track and if it were on a lesser album I would probably like it a lot more. Sandwiched between The Bends and Fake Plastic Trees overshadows it somewhat. Still, for the majority (myself included) it continues the feeling of the album well and could in no way be described as being a filler. The best live performance, actually probably the only live performance I’ve seen of this, was by some buskers in Newquay and it was brilliant so who knows how good it would be if Radiohead still played it live. For me, Fake Plastic Trees is probably second only to Street Spirit on The Bends. Without a doubt one of the finest Radiohead moments of all time, it’s beautiful and passionate. Like High And Dry, the vocals are superb, but whereas that seemed to just dwindle out, Fake Plastic Trees builds and builds until the fantastic ending. Yorke almost snarls ‘she looks like the real thing, she tastes like the real thing’ and then it does sound as though what he is saying is true when he states ‘I can’t help the feeling, I could blow through the ceiling’. Great song from a great album from a great band.

Bones, track five, is, along with Sulk, probably the least memorable song on the album. Like Planet Telex however, this is not because it is a poor quality song but rather that the rest of the album is so spectacular that it somewhat gets lost. Again like Planet Telex, it is fairly similar to much of the material on Pablo Honey but without the rawness. Bones was one of the songs premier
ed on the video Live At The Astoria and it grows into a much stronger song when played live. Following Bones comes Nice Dream and this is, without a doubt, a classic song. Lyrically superb and totally fitting the mood of the rest of the album, Nice Dream is like a slower Fake Plastic Trees and a lyrically, if not musically, superior Motion Picture Soundtrack from Kid A. Although it is a class song it still doesn’t reach the level of Fake Plastic Trees, Street Spirit or some of the songs on Ok Computer as it drifts away for a while in the middle – even though this gives a good chance to witness the bands ability with guitars.

The next two songs are the best examples of Radiohead being an old-fashioned rock band. Just and My Iron Lung are two superb songs. If you have only heard recent Radiohead songs then you might believe the idea of jumping around and going mental to them is a bit strange. You may also insist that Radiohead are depressing. Well there is nothing depressing about Just or My Iron Lung musically. Lyrically it isn’t exactly happy but it is clever meaningful words put to brilliant music. Hopefully everyone has seen the video for Just as that is one of the best music videos I have seen, and the ending to both the song and video are particularly outstanding. My Iron Lung is quite interesting as the music was taken straight from their live performance at the Astoria with the vocals dubbed on over the top. The song never used to be a great favourite of mine but having seen it played live a few times recently it is now one of the highlights of the album for me. Whereas before I deemed it to be a bit ordinary, after hearing it live I now respect the monster that My Iron Lung is. If anyone is interested in some of Radiohead’s none-album work then they should buy the My Iron Lung EP which has some excellent songs – particularly You Never Wash Up After Yourself. The song itself contains one of the best Thom Yorke lines to d
ate ‘suck, suck your teenage thumb, toilet trained and dumb’ – brilliant.

After the heavy interlude of Just and My Iron Lung comes Bulletproof…I Wish I Was which reduces the noise level to one lower than even Nice Dream had set. This song is one of the highlights for me now, even though it took a while to grow on me. When played live it is usually just Thom Yorke with his acoustic, on the album there is more depth with producer of the song, John Leckie, providing an excellent backdrop to the song. If you believe Radiohead are depressing and that music can depress you, then this track will. Listen to it when you are feeling down and you will cry. But hey, what’s wrong with crying. Bulletproof… is an excellent song and wouldn’t have been out of place on any of the Radiohead albums. When compiling my ‘best of’ compilation this beat The Bends and My Iron Lung to a place – it is a quality tune. WOW! I’m listening to this song at the moment and it usually f**ks up as it is scratched, but for some reason it has worked fine. And then sun is out. Woohoo, God loves me. Ah but then does God exist? Hmmm different opinion I think. Following Bulletproof… comes Black Star, a personal favourite, and the first song to be produced solely by Nigel Godrich (producer on Ok Computer, Kid A and Amnesiac). The start is so forlorn and vulnerable that is seems as though the album is slowly running down, yet the chorus is rousing like many of the earlier songs (check Planet Telex and The Bends) and this is why so much this album is above the average indie offering. It also features another of the highlight lyrics from the album – ‘I keep falling over, I keep passing out, when I see a face like you’. Simple yet brilliant.

The introduction of penultimate track Sulk sounds familiar to many of the songs from The Bends successor, Ok Computer. It is only when listening to the song, similarly
to Bones, that you remember it is actually a really good song and that it is simply overshadowed by other songs (sandwiched between Black Star and Street Spirit it is easy to see how this is possible). It again goes to show why The Bends is such a good album – it is probably the only Radiohead album that doesn’t have a weak or below par song. It isn’t my favourite Radiohead album (that honour goes to Ok Computer) but none of the other albums can boast that. Pablo Honey had one or two weaker moments, Ok Computer had one or two not so good moments, and the same for Kid A and Amnesiac. Sulk, like Bones, doesn’t drop the pace at all and leaves the listener wondering how on Earth Radiohead will manage to provide a fitting climax.

Street Spirit, like Paranoid Android, is a modern classic. The guitar riff is amazingly simple yet still stupefying – there cannot be many sounds as touching as the whole of Street Spirit. Lyrically it is absolutely stunning with the line ‘cracked eggs, dead birds, scream as they fight for life, I can feel death, can see its beady eyes’ standing out in particular. Street Spirit also showed how far Radiohead had come in such a small amount of time. It makes the whole of Pablo Honey sound like Westlife in terms of musical splendour and, although downbeat, leaves the album on the highest note possible. It was the end of The Bends but, in hindsight, just the beginning of the sort of music that would eventually lead to Ok Computer.

A classic album, The Bends will for many always be Radiohead’s finest album. For me it was the start of something much bigger than a single album. It paved the way for Ok Computer and its influence is still far reaching – every new band in the indie scene of recent years have a huge debt to pay to this album (ie. Coldplay, Travis, JJ72 and Muse on their first album). All have used elements of The Bends, but none have bettered it yet and they probably
never will.