Radiohead: The Bends

The Bends

Best song: Street Spirit (Fade Out)

Worst song: Sulk

Overall grade: 5

‘The Bends’ is branded as Radiohead’s conventional guitar rock album, but it’s all relative, of course. It’s conventional when you compare it to ‘Amnesiac’, not so much when you compare it to, say, The Wanted. Already we can see the band (Radiohead, not The Wanted) getting fascinated by atmosphere and soundscapes, giving these a more prominent place than regular ‘rockers’.

I mean, the album opens with rushing wind noises. That’s hardly mainstream. The wind whirls by for a few seconds until the guitars come in and ‘Planet Telex’ begins, an obvious highlight. It’s got such a unique arrangement and is full of these weird otherworldly guitar swoops that I love. The following title track is good too – for the first couple of listens it can seem pretty generic, but there’s a lot of really interesting stuff going on in it, like…

‘High & Dry’ has got to be a classic. It’s barely there but it doesn’t go by unnoticed, it really doesn’t need anything more. It’s mostly just vocals and acoustic guitar, very pretty, very minimalistic. And speaking of vocals, when I listen to ‘Fake Plastic Trees’, I’m 99% sure that Thom Yorke can sing higher than me.

‘Bones’ has a much stronger rhythm section than these last two songs and presents a nice contrast because of it. It’s unfortunate that the contrast is between great Radiohead songs and pretty good Radiohead songs, but it breaks up three tracks that have a fairly similar feel, and the album is probably better for it. (Nice Dream) is really, really clever because for the most part it actually FEELS like a dream, as though it’s not actually there. And then there’s that squealy, feedback-y part in the middle where the dream turns into a nightmare. It all sounds like a bit of a cliché when I write it out like that, but it’s not generic at all.

The album trails off towards the end, with tracks eight to ten good but not particularly memorable, and ‘Sulk’ being the one serious flaw. It’s pretty boring and I get the feeling that the band don’t really believe in this song like they do all the others.

We’ve heard several worthwhile contenders over the past 44 minutes, but the winner of the best song title finally goes to ‘Street Spirit (Fade Out)’ – is it bad that I seem to always pick the final track as the best? Well, Radiohead are good at rounding off their albums. This song just feels like night time, equating the day’s end to the album’s end. I have absolutely no idea how to categorise this piece of music. There’s no ‘if you like x song/album/band, you might also like ‘Street Spirit’’, because it’s not like anything else. End of sentence.

This album is much simpler than their later ones, but there’s beauty in its simplicity. Compared to the next three albums, it’s also a lot more warm and inviting – this in itself doesn’t make it any better or worse, but it’s excellent for listening to when you feel depressed.