256: THE BENDS | RADIOHEAD
There are few Radiohead consensuses. The best to worst order of their releases is a dividing topic. I've seen pretty serious arguments on this subject...I've been in some of those arguments. I've been a little buzzed during some of those arguments. I would say the only real agreement is that Pablo Honey is their worst album. I would take it a step further in saying it isn't really even that good of an album. Though it's not nearly as bad as The Goo Goo Dolls, Matchbox 20 and Blind Melon (shit-shows), it does kind of blend in with a lot of forgetful 90s releases.
Which brings me to The Bends. I would say in the history of recorded music there is not a greater quality jump between freshman and sophomore albums. There is literally a continent between PH and The Bends. The final four cuts on Bends might be the best sequence of the 90s.
The 25 years following The Bends has seen Radiohead releasing masterpiece after masterpiece with many year between them at times. To Radiohead I say, thank you for not settling or resting on your laurels and thank you for progressing so unbelievably well. I know, they'll never read this...a guy can pretend though, can't he?..
Stephen Thomas Erlewine @ AllMusic: Pablo Honey in no way was adequate preparation for its epic, sprawling follow-up, The Bends. Building from the sweeping, three-guitar attack that punctuated the best moments of Pablo Honey, Radiohead create a grand and forceful sound that nevertheless resonates with anguish and despair -- it's cerebral anthemic rock. Occasionally, the album displays its influences, whether it's U2, Pink Floyd, R.E.M., or the Pixies, but Radiohead turn clichés inside out, making each song sound bracingly fresh. Thom Yorke's tortured lyrics give the album a melancholy undercurrent, as does the surging, textured music. But what makes The Bends so remarkable is that it marries such ambitious, and often challenging, instrumental soundscapes to songs that are at their cores hauntingly melodic and accessible. It makes the record compelling upon first listen, but it reveals new details with each listen, and soon it becomes apparent that with The Bends, Radiohead have reinvented anthemic rock.
Wiki: The Bends is the second studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, originally released on 13 March 1995 by Parlophone. It was produced by John Leckie, and engineered by Nigel Godrich, who has produced all of Radiohead's subsequent studio albums. It was the first Radiohead album with cover art by Stanley Donwood, who, with singer Thom Yorke, has produced all of Radiohead's artwork since.
With The Bends, Radiohead moved away from the grunge-influenced style of their debut album Pablo Honey (1993), incorporating cryptic lyrics, greater use of keyboards, and more abrasive guitar tracks. It produced six charting singles: "My Iron Lung" (released as an EP in 1994), the double A-side "Planet Telex / High and Dry", "Fake Plastic Trees", "Just", Radiohead's first top-five UK single "Street Spirit (Fade Out)", and "The Bends".
The Bends reached number four on the UK Albums Chart. However, it failed to build on the success of their single "Creep" outside the United Kingdom, and peaked on the United States charts at number 88. It achieved triple platinum certifications in the UK and Canada and platinum in the United States and Europe. The Bends received greater acclaim than Pablo Honey, and frequently appears on best-of lists. It was voted number 2 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000). In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked it number 110 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It is credited for influencing a generation of post-Britpop acts, including Coldplay, Keane, James Blunt and Travis. Read more