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OK Computer	Amnesiac	Kid A
Pablo Honey	Hail To The Thief	I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings

The album starts with PLANET TELEX, then goes onto THE BENDS which I particularly like, followed by HIGH & DRY and FAKE PLASTIC TREES which are two of my favourites on the album, because they both have great guitarring, clever lyrics and an amazing chorus. BONES is next, followed by NICE DREAM, and JUST is after that, one of the best on the album, followed by MY IRON LUNG which is also one of my favourites. BULLET PROOF... I WISH I WAS is next, also brilliant, BLACK STAR is another one of my favourites and the final two are SULK and STREET SPIRIT [FADE OUT]. For most albums I would rate each song out of 10, but there is no need in this case because they are all 10/10. This album consists only of great songs, with the best being HIGH AND DRY, JUST, and my personal favourite, FAKE PLASTIC TREES.

Trust me, and buy Radiohead's 'The Bends', because I guarantee you will like it. Everyone else I know who listened to it ended up buying it, that's how good it is. The average customer rating is 5 stars, and only 11 out of 330 reviewed this less than four stars. Some albums have 'it', that very rare something that very few albums have, where it spends weeks in your CD player, it is the only one you listen to, and 'The Bends' is one of them, it has 'it'.


Radiohead's Best Album   March 21, 2002
 26 out of 29 found this review helpful

Since the Bends turned Radiohead into one of the world's preeminent rock bands, the band has moved away from the more traditional song structures featured on The Bends in favor of new ways to express their themes of alienation, isolation, and seething rage.

But the Bends is still Radiohead's best work, and for obvious reasons. Epic in scope without being self-indulgent, The Bends takes the distorted guitars of grunge and adds a sense of melodrama and good old rock-n-roll majesty that, at that time, had been missing from popular music for almost two decades. In blending the two together, along with adding their own distinctly British personality, Radiohead makes The Bends a landmark recording that still feels fresh today seven years after its initial release.

The record has that wonderful touch of arrogance that transforms the band from one-hit brooders (as on "Creep") to bonafide rock gods. The guitars on the opening "Planet Telex" thunder in, heralding the band's arrival to the rock stratosphere, and the album just goes and goes from there. Every song works, be it balls out rock songs ("Bones"), or quieter, ghostly pieces ("Street Spirit," "Fake Plastic Trees"). All of it is tied together by lead singer Thom Yorke's voice. Credit Yorke with somehow making a voice that should, by all accounts, be incredibly irritating resonate and echo in the mind of the listener. It's alternately haunting, raging, and powerful; even making the transition from gentle lullabying to Billy Idol-quality snarling in the course of a single song ("Nice Dream"). It's a wonderful performance, and the band underneath matches him note for note.

Radiohead has released records more complex (OK Computer), more challenging (Kid A), and more ambiguous (Amnesiac) than The Bends. But they've never made a better record. And, in a way, that's a good thing. Free from the burden of having to create their rock masterpiece (which this is), they've branched out in new directions to see how far they can push the outer limits of both their music and their collective psyche. It is that later work that makes Radiohead one of the world's most important bands, but it is The Bends that makes them [behind] kicking rock stars. And everybody loves the latter.


Beautiful And Haunting   June 4, 2000
 22 out of 23 found this review helpful

I've never understood all the hype over OK COMPUTER and the lack of recognition THE BENDS received. Both albums are excellent, but THE BENDS is more melodic and showcases the beauty in Thom Yorke's vocals better than Radiohead's two other major releases. Nothing here is as plodding as "Creep" from PABLO HONEY and there's as much depth overall musically and lyrically as on OK COMPUTER's best moments. Perhaps the best song Radiohead has recorded yet is "High And Dry," which has to be one of the most underappreciated rock ballads of the 90's. Nearly every song on THE BENDS is notable, but my other favorites are the odd "The Bends," the hard rocking "Bones," the sad love song "Black Star," and the touching "Street Spirit (Fade Out)," which has both a beautiful and dark tone similar to "High And Dry." Some may find the concept and experimental nature of OK COMPUTER more appealing, but I prefer simply the good songs found here.