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| Artist: Radiohead
Label: Parlophone
Category: Music
List Price: £13.99
Buy New: £6.68
You Save: £7.31 (52%)
New (61) Used (18) from £2.99
Rating:  128 reviews
Sales Rank: 1007
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 29626
UPC: 724382962625
EAN: 0724382962625
ASIN: B000002TQV
Release Date: March 1, 1995
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
Where do we go from here, the words are coming out all weird... March 20, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
The Bends is a landmark album release in British music history. The presentation is grand without pomposity, powerful without being a cliché and more relevant today over a decade from its original release.
It was clear from the outset that the band was intent on leaving behind the Alt rock\grunge tinged debut Pablo honey, and this album provides the transition from their debut to the much heralded follow up `OK Computer'. Tracks such as High and Dry, Dark Star and the title track point towards their previous sound where as tracks like Sulk, Bullet Proof (I wish I was) and Fake Plastic trees nod toward the future.
There are some interesting stories surrounding the recording of this album too. Album opener Planet Telex was recorded after the band returned from a night out in a restaurant with a drunken Thom Yorke slumped on the floor with the microphone in front of him mumbling and slurring his lyrics. It is also reported that the vocal for `Fake plastic Trees' was recorded immediately after the band saw Jeff Buckley perform at a concert in London, and having completed the vocals, Thom Yorke broke down in tears, which is a staggering account of the influence of Jeff Buckley on him and the band. The song High and Dry was originally a song performed by Thom Yorke's pre Radiohead University band, but was resurrected when the drummer was testing his new bass drum during demo recordings. Needless to say, if you love this album, then Jeff Buckley's `Grace', is also an essential inclusion in your collection.
Swept up initially within the popularity of the `Brit Pop' movement as a familiar sight on record shops shelves (remember those?) nestled between Morning Glory, Different Class and Parklife, Radiohead's `The Bends' was assumed by many to be a part of this `movement' but in many ways was a perfect juxtapose to the sex pistols\Beatles influenced lads rock of Oasis and Ray Davies\Ian Dury inspired whit of Blur. Unlike other `Brit Pop' bands, Radiohead were not afraid to break their own mould with subsequent releases, in fact they set about this intentionally as Radiohead were reported as feeling little affinity to those bands that followed them that were 'influenced' by their style.
There are not many albums when one can say there is hardly a weak track on it, with only the track `Dark Star' sounding like something the Stone Roses lost down the back of the sofa. For many fans this remains their favourite Radiohead album and with some justification. Recorded before a strong self consciousness to be different crept in, the clean crisp production engineered by the legendary ex Abbey Road John Leckie ( who has worked with The Stone Roses, The Fall and Pink Floyd amongst others ) for the first time allowed Radiohead a degree of musical freedom in the studio. Many recent releases and bands could learn from this album. There can be attitude and volume on a record without false distortion of everything.
The Bends is without question one the most influential British albums of all time, and rarely has `The Bends' been subsequently equaled or bettered by anyone (even by the band themselves) so if that doesn't make this a modern classic, I don't know what does.
pre-robotics February 19, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Radiohead's best album so far, 'The Bends'. Released shortly before Thom Yorke and co. became robots. I'm not saying robot music isn't good because I quite like it sometimes, but I still prefer the openly heartbroken songs on this album to whining about how you don't like airports and subtle references to Tony Blair being the antichrist. Robots, unfortunately, aren't much concerned about girls and how wonderful they are while they break your heart. Of course, that's something which can turn one into a robot in the first place. Is this what happened to good old Thom? One can only speculate. Moby suffers from something similar. Seems such a shame!
In short this album is packed with gorgeous bittersweet songs set to some beautiful guitar melodies. So if I were you, I would stop worrying about robots and listen to it!
Among the best albums ever... November 29, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This review will be brief and to the point, since the majority of reviews on here have expressed my overall feelings towards this album.
`The Bends' is quite simply one of the best albums I've ever listened to and in my opinion it's complete in just about every way possible. It is without doubt one of the best albums of the 90's and of all time!
I would highly recommend buying this album regardless of you music tastes...
RadioHead's MASTERPIECE ALBUM - AND ONE OF THE BEST ROCK ALBUMS EVER! October 25, 2007
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
Over the past 3 generations, music industry executives (most with no or little musical education) have reduced the quality of popular music to the lowest common denominator. Vapid lyrics, forgettable tunes, total absence of original music composition and absolutely no innovation. The creativity well is so dry that remakes have become the norm, not the once-in-a-while. Yet, by controlling most of the radio air-play, music CDs still get sold by the millions.
The patient is supposed to be dead, his electroencephalogram flat-lined, when unpredictable spikes such as this one occur. THE BENDS is one of the rare exceptions of a great group putting out a MONUMENTAL album.
If I had a nickel every time I heard that OK COMPUTER is a better album...I have them both and let me tell you: whereas I do take out and listen to OK COMPUTER once in a while, THE BENDS never comes out of the 18CD-charger of my car.
This Album has a beginning, a middle and a finish. No, I cannot distinguish any of the pieces above the rest - they are all gems and part of a ever-shifting musical picture. The level of this Album's artistry is simply unsurpassed - even by RADIOHEAD themselves.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Radiohead's MTV styled masterpiece October 17, 2007
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
I have something to admit: I've been living under a rock. It's been a nice cozy little rock, with lots of shade and that sort of thing, but I thought I'd go out and see what was happening in the world. You can miss a lot living under a rock, including culture. I've only found out about Radiohead, and I mean really found out about them, this year. Not only that, I've only been really listening to them since October. You may ask how I've gone so long without hearing about Radiohead. That's a really good question. Of course I knew their song "Creep," but after that I wrote them off as a one-hit wonder, and it was a hit I didn't really much care for (I'm still not a big fan of that track). Well, along came my discovery of OK COMPUTER, and I decided I had to get it. And of course, THE BENDS as well. Both are outstanding albums.
These two albums are Radiohead's most popular albums, and generally there are two factions of the Radiohead camp, each thinking their prospective album is better than the other. Personally, I think OK COMPUTER is a better album overall, but track-for-track I'd take THE BENDS. Listening to THE BENDS is very similar to listening to a Beatles record: if you didn't know any better you would almost swear this is a greatest hits record or something. Each track is very noteworthy and Radiohead does not falter at all. Speaking of tracks, there are notable non-album tracks which would only have enhanced this album. The six tracks on MY IRON LUNG ep (not counting the title cut and the acoustic version of "Creep") would have been fantastic on here, and as I understand it are actually outtakes from this album. Each of the six tracks are as good as anything found on here. Also, there are some good tracks which I have obtained though I don't know if they are commercially released or not (some are B-Sides). These are: "Yes, It Is," "Killer Cars," "Molasses," "Man of War,"and "How Can You Be sure."
All these stunning tracks coming from the band who, only two years before, released the unremarkable PABLO HONEY, makes this achievement all the more noteworthy. This record plays like a band who has gotten a handle on where they want to go with their music and really pursuing that whereas with the 1993 release it seemed more they were getting used to even being musicians in the first place.
Another noteworthy thing to mention is this is Radiohead for the MTV generation. This is them making high-quality guitar rock that is both accessible and artistically satisfying, which, unfortunately, has become increasingly rarer in the 1990s and the start of the new decade. It is both very accessible to the mass audience and also pleasing to the critics, and is an across-the-board success, which, quite frankly, OK COMPUTER is not. This is Radiohead doing radio-friendly rock, delivering one spectacular album which is one of the best of its kind before going on a very varied musical journey leaving this far beyond and getting much more experimental in nature.
Of their (so far) three more "high-brow" musical efforts (OK C, KID A, AMNESIAC), OK COMPUTER is both the most popular and the best critically received. For personal taste, I prefer OK COMPUTER to this release, but both are incredible albums. However, they're totally different albums, and OK COMPUTER marks the more conceptual and experimental path they are currently still on. The effect of the overall album is more impressive and long lasting on OK C than it is on THE BENDS. THE BENDS sounds like a study in radio-friendly rock, a compilation of all of rock's greatest moments whose only underlying connection is the tracks have a mass appeal and were big hits. Each track of THE BENDS sounds like it could have been a number one hit. On OK COMPUTER, that is not true. While all the songs shimmer with brilliance and remarkable beauty, OK COMPUTER better stands as an overall album than just track for track. Much of OK's impact comes from the conceptual and album-driven cohesion which binds it altogether into a unified whole, and while each song is both fascinating and remarkable the overall impact is what really makes OK such a fantastic album.
But that would be a full two years away, and Radiohead was more concerned with making really good pop music. It's almost as if Radiohead knew their direction and knew they had to get this out before they could go onto the more artier side of their music, and to their credit this comes across not only as radio-friendly rock but an unqualified masterpiece which modern pop should be judge against.
Originally issued on Amazon.com on December 28, 2001
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