Bends the Limits (The Bends - Radiohead)

Member Name: Poonabester

Product:	The Bends - Radiohead
Date:	22/08/01 (159 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Revolutionary, Genious

Disadvantages: Hard to Follow (But my god, they did it!)

This was a right kick up the jacksy for the Brittish music business. A well needed one too.

In my opinion, Radiohead are the most innovative and original band to come out of England in the 1990s, and with this album, some say they were just getting started. Some say they were at their peak- it depends how you interpret their next album, Ok Computer, and then Kid A. Personally I like to think this was them at one of their peaks, the next one, Ok Computer, being a very different style of peak. The Bends being the less sophisticated, more rugged peak, just slightly lower than the subsequent peak of Ok Computer.

Where once Radiohead songs sneaked in through a back entrance, nearly all of 'The Bends' kicks down the front door, gets off with the nicest girl in the room, leaps onto a table top and declares with a mighty roar: "I am something very special indeed." Pablo Honey, their first album, could have been said to be a bit sketchy and certainly not as mainstream as The Bends, but this really kicked down the door for Radiohead into the Brittish public.

I think the front-man, Thom Yorke, injects so much into this band, and more into this album than probably any of the others. His vocal capacities are stretched to extremes and sound at times very pressured, but at the same time, wonderfully melodic. But also as a guitarist, its wonderful to listen to how Jonny Greenwood frequently turns the very concept of The Great Guitar Riff upside down and inside out.

On 'The Bends' There are generally either rocked out, partially indie, partially punk, partially metal (but wholly Radiohead) songs, or there are songs that utilise the soft regions of Yorke's vocal landscape, with accompanying acoustic guitars and various soft sounding instruments.

The first song, Planet Telex, is one of the former. Screeching guitars from the superstar on the old Telecaster, Jonny Greenwood make this song uniquely Radiohead. Th
ere are guitar sounds on this album that you would never recogniise were guitar sounds. The title track (The Bends) is an all-out rock ballad, with Yorke ranging from belting out the vocals, to squeezing them out in an angst-ridden bridge.

Then they retreat to the opposite extreme, with the user friendly 'High and Dry' which could almost be a 'Beautiful South' track, but once again, Yorke's vocals give it some edge. It really is a wonderfully written song.

As is 'Fake Plastic Trees'. It's so gentle and melodic, you wonder how the same band could be belting out 'Just' on the same CD. 'Just' is one of their greatest loved tracks. Extremely punk, and if you've seen the video, you'll see the remarkable resemblence (Only visually, luckily) between Thom Yorke and Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols. They then go back to the gentler side of the spectrum for the again amazing track, Black Star, which 'kicks-off' somewhat for the chorus.

The final track is certainly an epic. 'Street Spirit (Fade Out)' it is called. Once you've heard it, it tends to stay with you. You get people saying how depressing Radiohead can be at times, and i can sort of understand them if you hear this song. It is haunting, with the ghost like vocals over the bony, repetitive guitar sequence, but it's really a superb song. Harmonies are used perfectly throughout the album, and this song is no exception. It's so bare and immediate, it would be impossible for a group to perform, let alone write a song like this if they were not something special, and that is indeed what Radiohead are.

Summary: