| Product: |
The Bends - Radiohead |
| Date: |
12.04.02 (185 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: diversity, excellence
Disadvantages: needs more songs???????
4th of April 1995 brought something really special into the world of music.
The second album release from the Oxford boys, Radiohead, blew the music scene away and paved the way for their phenominal success that followed.
The Bends offers the guitar lover a field day of excitement that goes from devestating riffs in "planet telex" to subtle accoustics in "fake plastic trees".
The album opens with the aforementioned "planet telex". With the wooshing wind effect at the start promising to take you on a musical journey, the fuzzy guitars, hard drumming and powerful singing brings you the sounds that could be likened to "Pablo Honey".
On to the title song, and as the background sounds lead us into another powerful guitar opening. The tempo momentarily lulls as Thom sets the scene but it is not long before the rock starts again. Suddenly a moment of genius as the drums back Thom singing "I'm just lying in a bar with my drip feed on talking to my girlfriend waiting for something to happen." Then the song takes off again. Wonderful ending in accoustic brings us to "High and dry".
Brought in by rhythmic drumming and accoustic guitar, this was one of the most popular singles from the album. The thought provoking lyrics can be no better shown with the line, "All your insides fall to peices. You just sit there wishing you could still make love." Thom's voice is shown to its poignant best in this song and the next.
"Fake plastic trees" again opens to accoustic sounds. Again another popular release this song does not explode but rather builds up to a mix of guitars, keyboards and drums, with the hint of orchestral backing. A song that always holds a melancholy feel, but not depressing. The song ends in the manner it started, quiet and unassuming before the keyboards and gentle drums lead us to "Bones".
In a reversal
this song opens with distorted guitars, that stay throughout. Crunching riffs and Thom's vocals make the song and this is what I would call, if there is such a thing, a stereotypical Radiohead song. Excellent use of heavy guitars and harmonising vocals.
"(Nice dream)" brings back the accoustic touch, and the vocals come back to softly sung feelings. Again the orchestral backing adds to the quality. The backing vocals show that the singing quality is not limited to Thom. In the middle of the song a build up to heaviness before returning to accoustic makes the song refreshing.
"Just" takes us back to Jonny and Ed's crashing guitars while momentarily returning to civilised soft verses, before returning to the power of the chorus. Classic guitar solo's in the middle and near the end that reminds us of the bands roots. Fantastic mix of sounds before an abrupt end.
"My iron lung", like "Just" is another single and brilliant song that again builds up to the mayhem in the middle, of keybords, guitars and drums before returning to the steady verse only to return later. Pure class.
"Bullet proof...I wish I was." goes back to synthasised sound which blends into the accoustics. Slow and powerful, a song that shows just what Radiohead are capable of.
"Black Star" fades in with strong rock, before settling to nice melody but the strength returns in the chorus. Not necessarily the best song in my opinion but certainly not a bad song.
"Sulk" is possibly my favourite song on the album, with clean cut guitars, cymbals and bass rising to a powerful display by Thom in the chorus. The distortion used on the guitar makes an interesting context in the song but it is not overused and just seems to be a natural part of the song.
The last song on the album, another single "Street spirit(fade out)" uses classic guitars to open and to
me this song would not go amis on "Ok Computer". I think this gives us a taste of what we will be getting with their next album. Fantastic song and a perfect ending to an excellent album with its gentle mood, it shows us that the band are able to move away from just rock and expand, which obviously is shown in more detail in "Ok Computer".
This album has to be considered as one of the best of the nineties and indeed it was highly rated by several of the top music magazines, including NME who ranked it as their number 4 in the top 50 albums of 1995, and Rolling stone who included it in their "essential recordings of the 90's".
An album with a listener friendly content whilst not fully removed from the power guitars of the previous album, this has to be one of the best albums ever produced for diversity of contents and for showing the full range of Radiohead.
The album goes to prove that a guitar based indie band can produce music that can be variable(unlike the highly predicatable Oasis) and catapulted Radiohead into the CD collections of many Rock fans.
Forever in my top 20 albums of all time it is a timeless classic, and is easily to listen to.
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Last comment:
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repairmanjack - 09.09.02 Nice review... of a CD I've had less than a week. I just can't get over how good this is... Fake Plastic Trees sends shivers down my spine. I'm hoping Radiohead go back to this kind of sound... I've kind of lost them a little after their last couple of releases.
Thanks . J. |
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