The Bends

Some time in 1995, I walked into a music store and heard The Bends, Radiohead's second album, on the store's sound system. I purchased it immediately. The album was a huge breakthrough for Radiohead and it was, in this reviewer's opinion, along with the band's third album, OK Computer, one of the two best albums of the 1990s. As most of those considering this box set already know, the music on The Bends is nothing short of amazing. It is beautiful and rocking guitar (often acoustic) based music (unlike many later Radiohead efforts), with ethereal and thought provoking vocals, colorful textures, and tasteful guitar leads. Thom Yorke (vocals) and Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar) really shine. It is a great, great album. So what about this box set? Well, as with the other two recent re-releases of Radiohead's first three albums by the band's now former record company, it contains two audio CDs, one of the original album and one of ep tracks and/or B-sides and "live" tracks (here, from BBC Radio One), and one DVD containing videos and "live" tracks (here concert, studio and television footage). There are also less expensive sets just containing the two audio CDs. About the sound quality. There has been some griping that the album has not been remastered. Keeping in mind that the album was first made for CD, and not all remastering is an improvement, it seems to me that the sound on these CDs -- although I found this more obvious on the Pablo Honey and OK Computer discs -- sounds better than I recall the original discs sounding. The 2CD/1DVD box sets are manufactured in the EU -- most likely in the UK --and seem to be excellent pressings. I do not know if the same is the case with the 2CD sets, but given the delay in the release of the box sets, I suspect that the 2CD sets are likely domestic. As great as the first CD (containing The Bends album) is, it is remarkable how fine the second CD is. First, it contains all of the songs (other than the title track, which appears on the first CD) of the "My Iron Lung" ep, which was released in 1994, the year before the Bends was released (and following the Pablo Honey album). The second disc also contains B-sides from the singles released from The Bends album, and these include some of the band's finest B-sides, some really great tunes. Lastly, it includes four live songs from a 1994 BBC Radio One session. While Radiohead fans are likely to have many, or most, of the songs included on this second disc, it is nice to have them all together, and, for those who haven't acquired them already, at a much lower cost than purchasing all of the [import] singles. In response to the reviewer who complained that the same songs are available on-line for 99 cents each, but sorry, the sound quality here is superior to MP3 format. The third disc is a DVD containing the videos from the album (amazing how young the band members look), concert footage from a 1994 London show (the same show featured on the Pablo Honey DVD) and live footage taken in the studio and from British television. While the video could have been better (the footage does not run consecutively for one thing) it is great to see the band rock out on the tunes, and the sound and video quality is very good. I'm certain that most of this footage can be found on-line, so it is up to the individual as to whether to pony up the extra dough for the box set. Like I said, however, the box set is an import containing some nice pressings of the audio CDs. Lastly, about the record company cashing in, and that the band is not behind this. Yes, that may be true. But was the band behind the release of all those outrageously expensive import singles/B-sides, that should have been released, as they have been here, on a single CD? The nut of it is, the music is excellent (same of Radiohead's very best), and at the time of the writing of this review, Amazon is selling this thing at a steep discount from the release price (I'm waiting for a refund). Highly recommended.

10/10 Album The CD was great too!

I play it straight through every time and haven't heard it enough despite 30 or so years of listening.

Good pressing! Arrived in good shape as well

One of my favorite albums. This and OK Computer are Radiohead at their best in my opinion. Fake plastic trees and iron lung are amazing songs that give me chills to listen to. But the whole album is solid.

I just listen to each album and the range of this band is unbelievable. Its like if I ever wanted to turn somebody on to radiohead and I said I check out this song it would be doing them a disservice because that one song is just that one song and the others are completely different for the most part. I'm almost afraid to listen to Pablo honey. The only song ive heard from that album is thinking about you and I already know the other songs will most likely be completely different and then I start the month long cycle which I go through whenever I start listening to a radiohead album that's new to me 1. I like the stand out song on the album. 2. I find 2 or 3 more songs I think are okay. 3 those songs I think are okay become amazing. 4 I say why don't I just give these other songs a chance. 5. I'm sitting in my car saying how dare anybody compare this band to coldplay or anyone else for that matter. oh yeah its a full blown recurring cycle over and over again. my favorite album now just mite be ok computer. the lyrics in those songs are just mind blowing. especially when I found out the meaning of airbag. my mind got super blown.

The 2nd album from Radiohead, The Bends, was first released in 1995 to little chart success but has since been declared by many critics to be a millstone in 90s alt rock. The group was finding it difficult to escape the one hit wonder label after the success of “Creep” two years earlier. By the time OK Computer was released in 1997. they would be taken seriously as accomplished composers. Some say that The Bends isn’t as creative as OK Computer and that the band wears too much of their influences on their sleeves here such as U2 and R.E.M. but I say compared to their debut, this is an inspired leap forward. Yes, the raw guitar rock is still apparent on the title track as well as “Just” and “Black Star” but there are moments in these recordings where the guitar sounds are more creative and even bizarre, “My Iron Lung” is even more proof with an opening that could have been heard on their follow up album but the rest is still rooted in grungy territory. The charm of The Bends is the same as the evolution of any band, it is what came before and hints what is to come. There are soft numbers like “High And Dry”, though the lyrics are far from being mellow and “Fake Plastic Trees” is a ballad that sounds just as passionate as any U2 song and could have influenced fellow British up and comers Coldplay. Others have said that the success of Oasis at the time and too much comparisons caused The Bends to flop, even though both bands are arguably different. Whatever the case may be, time has been good to this rock classic. Lots of bands have praised it and while the bloody (no pun intended) applaud a certain group gets when critics say they have made their Bends or OK Computer can get a bit annoying and cliché, it hasn’t ruined either albums reputation nor do they suffer from over hype. The Bends is almost 20 years later, still a classic.

Album fenomenal, buen sonido. El cd llego muy bien empacado. Muchas gracias