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Wednesday, March 31, 2004
The Bends, and miscellaneous reviews of all the albums.
Adrains Album Reveiws
How can an album that's basically straightforward melodic alternative rock - have become one of the most influential records of the nineties and beyond? The groups that have arrived in Radiohead's wake have largely taken this as inspiration rather than the more difficult ( and ambitious ) albums that followed. Well, perhaps that's your answer! This wasn't exactly Radioheads own breakthrough into the mainstream but it did build and consolidate what they'd already acheived. Five of the twelve tracks were released as singles here in the UK and each charted higher than the last until 'Street Spirit' finally broke the top ten and became a followup to 'Creep' in commercial terms. Funny in a way as its one of the least 'single' type of songs here. The album opens with 'Planet Telex'. It sounds full, the bass in particular sounds much improved from their debut recordings. Its not actually much of a song as such but does create an atmosphere thats continued in a sense with the title track. A simple, melodic rock song basically, nothing special although the guitar is good. 'High And Dry' is pleasant rather than anything earth shattering but does feature impressive singing from Thom. The first obvious indication Radiohead had improved as songwriters arrives with the sheer beauty of 'Fake Plastic Trees' which may very well tug at your heartstrings a little. 'Nice Dream' and 'Bullet Proof' share a similar feel to this and work equally as well.
Of the rockier songs 'My Iron Lung' is the least commercial and most furious sounding. Johnny Greenwoods guitar does all sorts of things and its a great track. 'Sulk' and 'Black Star' are both intelligent and memorable and the bass of Colin Greenwood continues to play a fuller part in the sound. This may be partly due to John Leckies astute production. We have 'Street Spirit' to close. The opening guitar figure sounds beautiful, the lyrics are staring to move in especially mysterious ways and Thom Yorke sounds better than ever. This one song more than any other here pointed the way forward for the group. It closes a pretty accomplished album thats just a little lacking in enough songs such as 'Street Spirit' to really be a true masterpiece. 8/10
amazon
After the massive success of Pablo Honey--or, more specifically, the single "Creep"--had made them a household name, most had written Radiohead off as one-hit wonders. That they could return with an album as awesome and monumental as The Bends, therefore, must have been particularly unexpected. Not that Pablo Honey is a bad album, but rather, when compared to the epic grandeur of The Bends, it's obvious that the five Oxford-based boys had matured immensely since the release of their debut. "High And Dry", "Just", "Street Spirit", "Fake Plastic Trees": nary a pop song among them, yet it's testament to their greatness that they all were hit singles. And really, it's easy to see why: Thom Yorke's falsetto crying over a wall of acoustic and electric guitars, as lyrics and music blend to create a masterpiece of melancholy beauty. The Bends is one of the most essential albums of the 1990s, and a spectacular indicator of further greatness to come. -
Barnes & Noble
Two years before breaking into America in a big way with the weighty OK COMPUTER, this British quintet forged a quiet triumph with this melancholy medley of melodrama. Propelled by front man Thom Yorke's disconsolate delivery (not to mention his decidedly doomy lyrics), the album zigzags through the listener's consciousness, leaving a lingering unease -- and a desire for more. Yorke is at his best when pondering his own inadequacies, which he does with uncommon honesty on tracks like "Bullet Proof" and "My Iron Lung." His bandmates -- particularly guitarists Jonny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien -- wrap Yorke's tales in deceptively complex melodies that split the difference between prog-rock grandiosity and gloom-pop ennui. A low-key gem.
All Music Guide
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.
CDNow
Three guitars, a driving rhythm section and keyboards, all fronted by a whiny English bloke on vocals. That's the Radiohead setup, and believe it or not, it works spectacularly well. Following up on its hit "Creep" from a few years ago, Radiohead's sophomore effort ups the ante, delivering renewed vigor in the form of a happiersounding guitar assault. Shimmering piano notes and echoing drums immediately pull you into the lead-off track "Planet Telex," as the guitars unleash a wall of fuzzenhanced bliss. Vocalist Thom Yorke's delivery is less deadpan and more passionate than before, giving the tracks a sense of smoldering urgency. The title track is a brilliant piece of raging guitar-driven pop, while "Fake Plastic Trees" opts for a subdued acoustic entrance, beginning with subtle nods to John Denver before cascading into an intense swirl of guitar, keyboards and drums. The band specializes in sonic juxtaposition, creating safe, lilting melodies awash in warmness, before drowining them in a wall of blistercrunch guitar and chaotic rhythmic interplay right before your ears. "You Do It To Me" is the group's guitar-infested magnum opus, releasing a barrage of wail, grind and blitz. The Bends, with its intoxicating metallic edginess, bits of slashing psychedelia and calming interludes of acoustic ambience, unveils the perfect power-pop aesthetic.
Dot Music
Radiohead's debut album 'Pablo Honey' was something of a curate's egg - parts of it were superb, others tended to sound like indie filler. With 'Creep' still shackled firmly around their scrawny necks, the singles that preceded this second album suggested a radical change of direction.
The windswept 'Planet Telex' is the first sign that things are different now in Radiohead's world. A spacey, guitar-heavy epic with Thom Yorke sneering over the top - this most definitely ain't average indie anymore. The crashing opening to 'The Bends' proves that, with the monstrous guitars bursting out of the speakers.
The pairing of the ballads 'High And Dry' and 'Fake Plastic Trees' together allows the gentle songs to complement each other. Lyrically, they are polar opposites.
The former satirises a vain and facetious man ("Two jumps in a week/I bet you think that's pretty clever don't you boy") who ultimately is losing what matters ("The best thing that you had has gone away") as the slow, acoustic accompaniment gives way to a harder sound.
Meanwhile, the latter is an attack on consumer culture and the homogenisation of everyday life to the point where even the other character in the song is my "Fake plastic baby". Yorke's lyrical shift from the personal subjects of their debut to the more universal themes here gives the songs more weight, rather than sounding like teenage bedroom traumas.
'Bones' is another transcendental rocker, with Yorke on particularly spiteful form on the chorus. It's excellently contrasted by the lullaby beginning of 'Nice Dream', before that too mutates into a fiery ball of guitars.
'Just' is possessed of another worldweary outlook "You do it to yourself, you do" while 'My Iron Lung' tries to throw the albatross of 'Creep' off the band's shoulders in a mid-section maelstrom of guitars that sounds like Nirvana's 'Heart-Shaped Box'.
However, the real highlight of the second half of the album is 'Bulletproof'. Sounding like a lullaby set in space, its subtlety provides an ethereal volte-face away from the rock bombast. Closing track 'Street Spirit (Fade Out)' is an acoustic ballad, with some spellbinding guitar work laying the foundation for another examination of the pressures of success - "This machinery bearing down on me".
The dull 'Black Star' aside, this is a magnificent collection of songs that flow together as a seamless whole, with some much going on in the details. Pallid indie wannabes? Not any more. Welcome to the first record of the rest of Radiohead's life.
Q
Of all the recent indie-rock second-comings, from Suede to The Stone Roses, the second LP from this Oxford five-piece could prove to be the most significant. Shunned by a fickle music press after releasing their debut Pablo Honey album in February 1993, Radiohead quietly and determindly went about their business, touring non-stop in America and ultimately shifting a stunning one milllion albums worldwide. If the spotlight is bound to be more focused for this release, everything about The Bends is well up to scrutiny. It's a powerful, bruised, majestically desperate record of frighteningly good songs. Singer Thom Yorke's vocal mix of weary angst and strained bewilderment remains bewitching, while the charismatic, shuddering musical storm brewed up by his band is often intoxicating. They haul their emotions across a musical wrack which stretches from the scorched thunder of Just and Planet Telex to the deadly, gripping delicacy of Nice Dream and High And Dry. 4/5
Music Critic
It's amazing - how much a band can grow. Following up what some people thought was just a fluke, a flash in the pan - Radiohead released The Bends. And entered the history books.
Filled with soaring vocals, innovative guitar playing, and boatloads of emotion, The Bends has since been hailed as one of the greatest rock albums of all time. Less experimental than their latter albums, The Bends is easily the most accessible release from Radiohead to date. When it was released in 1995 alternative rock was all the rage - grunge had died and pop had yet to take over. The melodies and inspiration found therein were nowhere else to be heard on pop radio, and far beyond what anyone expected from this "one-hit wonder."
Songs such as "High and Dry" and "Fake Plastic Trees" soon captured the hearts music fans everywhere. People began to realize Radiohead was more than "Creep." Lyrics like "If I could be who you wanted all the time" sung in Yorke's sad yet dominant voice brought people to tears.
The Bends is a musical journey never matched by another band since. Radiohead have since moved on, packing up the guitar crunch for an aural landscape and electronic forays. Still, the album moves you and will continue to move generations.
It represented a certain moment in time. Certain albums capture that moment and hold on to it forever. When you listen to them they take you back. You feel what you felt, you dream what you dreamt.
And words can't describe it.
Rolling Stone
Luck and lyrics that capped the Zeitgeist's ass made Radiohead's "Creep" the summer radio hit of 1993. The song initially stiffed in the band's native England, where the pained introspection of its "I'm a creep/I'm a weirdo" refrain collided with the glib irony of the London Suede and other codifiers of pop taste. Even Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood hated the tune, and his sputtering guitar - a neural misfire signaling the final explosion of singer Thom E. Yorke's constipated synapses - was attempted murder. Nonetheless, "Creep," which buoyed the otherwise unspectacular debut Pablo Honey, bull's-eyed our national inferiority complex and left Radiohead and James the last great U.K. hopes for America's brass ring.
Radiohead's reach may fall short with The Bends, a sonically ambitious album that offers no easy hits. It's a guitar field day, blending acoustic strumming with twitches of fuzzy tremolo and eruptions of amplified paranoia. Only Catherine Wheel's riptide of swollen six strings approximates the crosscurrents of chittering noise that slither through these dozen numbers. And as with Catherine Wheel, Greenwood and co-guitarist Ed O'Brien's devout allegiance to pop steers them clear of the wall of bombast that Sonic Youth perfected and that countless bands have flogged into cliché.
Yet pop allure also trips up The Bends. Yorke is so enamored of singing honeyed melodies that he dilutes the sting of his acid tongue. In "High and Dry," whose title is spun into one of the album's best hooks, Yorke gently sashays through the lines "Drying up in conversation/You will be the one who cannot talk/All your insides fall to pieces/You just sit there wishing you could still make love." There's no hint in his presentation of the poison such abject isolation secretes. Elsewhere, oblique lyrics - an English inclination - erode the power of Yorke's decayed emotions, especially in a song like "Bones," whose big riffs and swaying bass otherwise bellow for airplay.
"Creep" whacked Americans because its message was unfiltered. That's what we've come to expect of our contemporary rock heroes, from Kurt and Courtney to Tori Amos. Which doesn't mean The Bends won't grab that brass ring. But it'll be a difficult stretch. (RS 708) 4/5
Nude as the News
Radiohead catapulted out of its early stages of successful normalcy to create a masterwork of a sophomore album that belongs in the upper echelon of anthemic rock. From the sound of wind blowing inside an amplifier that introduces the record, to the somber fingerpicking of its fade out, The Bends shines with imagination, innovation, and verve.
The pretentious "Planet Telex" opens the album in an uplifting fashion, followed by the majestic, severe title track, which juxtaposes modern imagery ("alone on an aeroplane / fall asleep against the window pane") alongside universal longing ("i wanna live, breathe / i wanna be part of the human race") in the context of a smashing rock hook.
Singles "High and Dry" and "Fake Plastic Trees" bring the album into its meaty middle, displaying Radiohead's sudden mastery of the pop song. Not made of otherworldly chords or wholly unfamiliar melodies, the tunes somehow capture what's good about everyone else's pop singles and present them through a maverick paradigm. Oddly, although both songs made inroads on U.S. rock radio, neither are particularly indicative of the album's true scope.
Indeed, the real heart of The Bends can be found in the two songs at its center: "Just," and "My Iron Lung." The latter provided a real turning point in Radiohead's sound and ambition when it was issued as the lead track of a seven-song EP prior to The Bends' release. Both tracks feature energetic rock hooks with reserved verses and biting choruses. But when they really step up, both travel into overwhelming vortexes of sound, where Ed O'Brien and Jonny Greenwood's careening guitar lines mesh with Thom Yorke's anguished wails to create a pointed epiphany. Deep inside these rockers lie some of the most invigorating moments of '90s music.
Luckily for the listener, the pair is buffered by the meditative ballads "(nice dream)" and "Bullet Proof...I Wish I Was." But The Bends doesn't fade away that easily. "Black Star" and "Sulk" lead the album down its slide with hues of experience and reminiscence blended with soaring hooks, involved guitar interplay, and some of Yorke's most inspiring vocals.
The melancholy endgame of The Bends is its topper. "Street Spirit (fade out)" is the coolest album closer to come along in a long while, with its somber minor-key fingerpicked progression supporting Yorke's exquisitely wistful moan. The song treads a perilous edge of melody before slipping off into a current of strings and floating into the slipstream. The record ends with Yorke intoning one last poignant statement: "IMMersE your soUL in LOVE.
emma
worcester
england
Radiohead is one of the best bands of the 1990s. They came along in 1993 with the album ??Pablo Honey?? and the hit single ??Creep??. ??Creep?? was a massive radio and MTV hit. But the rest of the album didn?t take off. The album was okay overall. But it was only a hint of where the band would go in the future. In 1995 Radiohead released The Bends. The album was a consistent, cohesive body of work that fared well with the critics. It wasn?t as much of a smash as ??Pablo Honey??. But it was a far better album that set the stage for further masterworks such as 1997?s ??OK Computer?? and 2001?s ??Amnesiac??.
On ??Pablo Honey??, Radiohead had often been compared to U2. On ??The Bends?? they began to show the influence of The Beatles and Pink Floyd.
I first discovered ??The Bends?? after hearing ??OK Computer??. I bought ??OK Computer?? when it first came out and liked it a lot. In fact I gave it my vote as best album of 1997. In 1999 I purchased ??The Bends?? and it became another album that has rarely left my stereo.
??The Bends?? begins with ??Planet Telex??. The song has an ominous backing. Synths mix well with Johnny Greenwood?s guitar. Yorke sings the rather abstract lyrics that include ??You can push it/But it will not go/You can crush it/But it?s dry as a bone.??
The title track is next and it?s a hard guitar-driven rocker. The lyrics have a sort of out there vibe to them. ??Alone on an aero plane/Falling asleep beside the window pane/My blood will thicken/Baby?s got the bends/And we don?t have any real friends/I?m just lying in a bar with my drip feed on.??
??High And Dry?? is an excellent ballad. It is here where the Beatles influence shows; much like the Floyd influence did on the previous two tracks. Yorke sings ??You?d kill yourself for recognition/You?d kill yourself to never ever stop/You broke another mirror/You?re turning into something you are not/Don?t leave me high/Don?t leave me dry??. Yorke?s voice sounds beautiful on here and the guitar playing is excellent.
??Fake Plastic Trees?? is another great ballad. The lyrics have that sort of Pink Floyd like abstractness to them. ??Her green plastic watering can for her fake Chinese rubber plant??. Yorke again sings in an achingly brilliant tone.
??Bones?? is another rocker. Yorke delivers the lyrics in an angry tone. The lyrics are apparently written from the perspective of a quadriplegic (??Shoulders/wrist/knees and back/Ground to dust/Crawling on all fours??). A great song delivered in a very emotionally affecting way.
??(Nice Dreams)?? is another ballad. The lyrics express a feeling of vulnerability and the use of sleep as a method of escape from the problems of the real world. ??They Love me like I was a brother/They protect me from the world/Nice dreams??. The Floyd influence is apparent here both musically and lyrically.
??Just?? is an angry hard rocker. On here Yorke sings in an angry tone. The lyrics apparently detail a person who is always putting the blame for his/her problems on someone else. ??You do it to yourself/You do and that?s what really hurts??.
??My Iron Lung?? continues in the hard rocking vein of ??Just??. The lyrics are more abstract again. But they also seem particularly angry ??We?re too young to fall asleep/Too cynical to sleep/We are losing it/Can?t you tell??.
??Bullet Proof?? is a slower song that seems to be a sort of commentary on stardom.
?Street Spirit? closes the album. It?s slower and the lyrics are about some sort of control. The themes of the song point to the themes they would explore in depth on Ok Computer.
With ?The Bends? Radiohead delivered one of the classic albums of the 1990s. In fact I would go as far to say that it would be remembered as one of the classics of all time, along with ?Dark Side Of The Moon? and ?Sgt Pepper?. If you don?t own this album yet, head for the nearest record store and pick up a copy now.
Radiohead is one of the best bands of the 1990s. They came along in 1993 with the album ??Pablo Honey?? and the hit single ??Creep??. ??Creep?? was a massive radio and MTV hit. But the rest of the album didn?t take off. The album was okay overall. But it was only a hint of where the band would go in the future. In 1995 Radiohead released The Bends. The album was a consistent, cohesive body of work that fared well with the critics. It wasn?t as much of a smash as ??Pablo Honey??. But it was a far better album that set the stage for further masterworks such as 1997?s ??OK Computer?? and 2001?s ??Amnesiac??.
On ??Pablo Honey??, Radiohead had often been compared to U2. On ??The Bends?? they began to show the influence of The Beatles and Pink Floyd.
I first discovered ??The Bends?? after hearing ??OK Computer??. I bought ??OK Computer?? when it first came out and liked it a lot. In fact I gave it my vote as best album of 1997. In 1999 I purchased ??The Bends?? and it became another album that has rarely left my stereo.
??The Bends?? begins with ??Planet Telex??. The song has an ominous backing. Synths mix well with Johnny Greenwood?s guitar. Yorke sings the rather abstract lyrics that include ??You can push it/But it will not go/You can crush it/But it?s dry as a bone.??
The title track is next and it?s a hard guitar-driven rocker. The lyrics have a sort of out there vibe to them. ??Alone on an aero plane/Falling asleep beside the window pane/My blood will thicken/Baby?s got the bends/And we don?t have any real friends/I?m just lying in a bar with my drip feed on.??
??High And Dry?? is an excellent ballad. It is here where the Beatles influence shows; much like the Floyd influence did on the previous two tracks. Yorke sings ??You?d kill yourself for recognition/You?d kill yourself to never ever stop/You broke another mirror/You?re turning into something you are not/Don?t leave me high/Don?t leave me dry??. Yorke?s voice sounds beautiful on here and the guitar playing is excellent.
??Fake Plastic Trees?? is another great ballad. The lyrics have that sort of Pink Floyd like abstractness to them. ??Her green plastic watering can for her fake Chinese rubber plant??. Yorke again sings in an achingly brilliant tone.
??Bones?? is another rocker. Yorke delivers the lyrics in an angry tone. The lyrics are apparently written from the perspective of a quadriplegic (??Shoulders/wrist/knees and back/Ground to dust/Crawling on all fours??). A great song delivered in a very emotionally affecting way.
??(Nice Dreams)?? is another ballad. The lyrics express a feeling of vulnerability and the use of sleep as a method of escape from the problems of the real world. ??They Love me like I was a brother/They protect me from the world/Nice dreams??. The Floyd influence is apparent here both musically and lyrically.
??Just?? is an angry hard rocker. On here Yorke sings in an angry tone. The lyrics apparently detail a person who is always putting the blame for his/her problems on someone else. ??You do it to yourself/You do and that?s what really hurts??.
??My Iron Lung?? continues in the hard rocking vein of ??Just??. The lyrics are more abstract again. But they also seem particularly angry ??We?re too young to fall asleep/Too cynical to sleep/We are losing it/Can?t you tell??.
??Bullet Proof?? is a slower song that seems to be a sort of commentary on stardom.
?Street Spirit? closes the album. It?s slower and the lyrics are about some sort of control. The themes of the song point to the themes they would explore in depth on Ok Computer.
With ?The Bends? Radiohead delivered one of the classic albums of the 1990s. In fact I would go as far to say that it would be remembered as one of the classics of all time, along with ?Dark Side Of The Moon? and ?Sgt Pepper?. If you don?t own this album yet, head for the nearest record store and pick up a copy now.
?toilet trained and dumb,
When the power runs out,
We?ll just hum?
- My Iron Lung.
Thus began the Radiohead story. Certainly what kicked-off as a seemingly mediocre and immature yet penultimate debut with Pablo Honey (remember ?Creep??), Radiohead was no one-hit wonder as was anticipated. Their sophomore record ?The Bends? in 1995 established the truly ?Radiohead? genre in alt rock --- addition to media hailing it as ?intelligent music?. Originality is the basis of fact in the record. Beauty is the apex. The futuristic and torturing lyrics carve a haunting and limitless imagery bringing to life war sequences and the ?attitudes? of inanimate things. Thom?s voice is fragile and powerful, a soothing cocktail of clear pitches dissolved in his saliva.
?The bends? was recognized as their prototypical sound (with newer bands like Travis, Coldplay being inspired by them) with heavy layered epics like Just and the title song to vacant soundscapes of Fake Plastic Trees, miles and miles away from down-the-toilet indie and boisterous pop.
?The Bends? their first single from this album, starts with a suspenseful slight murmur for about 8 seconds?I?m still trying to figure out what it is! The song as a whole is an enthusiastic upsurge of Thom?s blatant emotions among the heavily layered tri-guitar attack of Thom, Jon and Ed, a euphemistically expressed angst of a runaway prisoner (they brought in the CIA/the tanks and whole marines to blow me away/ to blow me sky high). I simply love it. Cut in the similar vein as ?Just? and ?Black Star? with the former being a hard ?pastiche? rocker with sandwiched electronic beats and the latter being a painful ballad with genteel climax and a sublime burning conclusion with lyrics complaining of the trysts with destiny.
?Planet Telex? is the radiant opener beginning with a whiff of electronic wind and followed by and acoustic intro of radiating vibes created by the synth. Not much in length but quite promising and impressive.
?High and Dry? is an overall favourite. It is beautiful with mellow, calm lyrics with a chorus that?ll remained glued to the memory. Thom?s juicy vocals skyrocket again to discourage the life of wannabes and fame- seekers who can sell their soul well for it. Maintains a steady pace with a dim saccharine-like feel, but has a dry and cold end.
Sorry, can?t describe ?Fake Plastic Trees? . I?m too inarticulate to explain that because it?s my favourite. Its slow, depressing treading to the climax is sensuous later uplifting itself to utter despair. I love these lines ?She looks like the real thing, she tastes like the real thing , my fake plastic love? --- I haven?t read anything more lovelier than this.
?Bulletproof ? I wish I was? is the mellowest of all tracks with a lightly strummed guitar and retarded pace though it holds not much of importance though it would have served well as a B-side.
?Street Spirit (fade out)? is a slow, painful, vortex of deep emotion and spiraling instrumentation?a substance that won?t fade out. You could break out on this, consider the lyrics ?cracked birds, dead eggs/scream as they fight for life/ I can feel death can see through its beady eyes.? It has one steady pace, which is unlike the other tracks.
?My Iron Lung? one of Radiohead?s popular pieces is a silent killer. Its frightfully torturing lyrics did grate on me at first but know I like it. It is beautiful and commands the real world as it is. With a clear distinctive of Radiohead?s scornful bite, it is the only one of its kinds.
Perhaps the least memorable tracks are ?(Nice Dream)?, ?Sulk? and ?Bones?. ?Nice Dream? is the stuff goodnight kisses are made of as it gives placid satisfaction.
?Sulk? has a sulked bite. Is it complaining about associate contemporaries? Could be. Though it is a bit empty, it?s a magnificent display of Thom?s vocals and sulked lyrics (Sometimes you sulk, sometimes you burn, God rest your soul, when loving comes). ?Bones? is dry and poetically expressed and hard to define. Another recommended B-side by me.
That?s it. Those were the twelve tracks. Sometimes it really surprises me why boy-bands sell more and I?ll tell you the reason for one-such depression many millions suffer from (who else, fans of-course) --- it?s their FANCIFUL LOVE LYRICS. God, rest their soul when the loving comes. (=that?s from Sulk).
Radiohead is relatively unknown in India as sales are mostly of modern pop and classic rock (consider the number of music reviews written in M and you?ll find the same lists of Ten Best Songs everywhere in MS). Their new album ?Hail to the Thief? was released this June. Lucky I was indeed; I got a Radiohead T-shit free from Planet M with the purchase (I was surprised), wondering any fans out here though?
Radiohead are:
Thom Yorke - vocal/piano/guitar
Jon Greenwood - lead guitar/synthesizer/organ/piano/recorder
Colin Greenwood - bass
Ed O?Brien - guitar
Phil Selway - drums
Till then ?
Immerse your soul in love.
The space cadet contingent on Mars [ed. Smile for the camera!] must be praying for the safe return of interplanetary heroes Radiohead, who have been gone now for about four years (what that is in Martian time I haven't the faintest). The infiltration process has gone very well, though: you would swear that Radiohead are both British and human. However, the astonishingly lyrical music they have created is definitely not of the Earth.
OK Computer speaks volumes about Radiohead's stay here. Homesick and fighting bouts of paranoia, they temper their anguish with beautiful melodies and jarring turbulence. On "Airbag," when the one who calls himself Thom Yorke states, "I am born again," you get the feeling that he might not like what he has become, and when he sings "God love his children, yeah," you can sense his sarcasm. "Subterranean Homesick Alien" is a slow, flowing sonic support group for other homesick extraterrestrials, with echoed guitar notes that hang like ornaments. "Paranoid Android" has gossamer wings, but will turn like a mongoose and rip your flesh; the guitar riff in the transition and the chanted pre-ending are proof positive that Radiohead are working with the four elements, and not just the three primary colours. "Exit Music" is a breathy piece, with lyrics of forbidden love, threats borne of passion and yet another stellar melody. "Karma Police" speaks of girls with "Hitler hairdos" and relays more threats through the song's lumbering rhythm lines. And "Lucky" is simply fucking lovely.
These aliens known as 'Radiohead' have concocted a masterpiece of intense restraint. Pray they remain on Earth.
Review by LarryG
3 stars out of 4
It's certainly not a stretch to call Radiohead the Pink Floyd of our time which I guess makes OK Computer our Dark Side of the Moon. OK Computer is an ambitious, atmospheric record. Generally slow and moody, OK Computer often reaches a kind of trippy transcendence. Paranoid Android slowly unfolds and keeps your attention over more than six minutes. The dreamy epic rises and falls in intensity starting with Yorke quietly asking, The band tries a number of things but the record is unified by Thom Yorke's yearning vocals. Yorke seems to feel his songs so deeply, it can break your heart. Over sadly chiming keyboards on No Surprises, he sings of having "a heart that's full up like a landfill" and being so bruised and tired that he wants a boring, quiet life. Radiohead show they can rock on Electioneering, with Yorke playing a cynical politician who "will stop at nothing" to get elected. It's tempting to wish Yorke could loosen up a little but his intensity is largely what makes Radiohead interesting. The band does show a sense of humor on the bizarre Fitter Happier which has a computer voice reading to himself a list of goals which can help him self actualize.
Review by Nick
3½ stars out of 4
Just one listen to this masterpiece and you will instantly recognise what a leap forward it is from The Bends it is. Where The Bends was derivative and bombastic this is a infintely detailed and breathtakingly vast in its myriad textures. It is a monumental testament to the talents of one of the best bands of the 90's.Dont get me wrong, The Bends is a very, very good album but it just doesn't strike out for its own territory like this does. OK Computer is an incomparable achievment in modern music. It is a torturous listen at times and sometimes leaves you feeling a certain chill in the heart of your very existence but this is just another level at which the album works. It instills a sense of emptiness in you which reverberates the very concept of the album; that of the overbearing dependence of society in technology and computers in turn reducing human contact and communication into automatic and heartless functions.
Review by The Musician
4 stars out of 4
Pros: Guitar work, vocals, subject matter, "Lucky", "Paranoid Android", all music
Cons: May be too depressing
Recommended: Yes
Bottom Line: A must buy. A great band's finest effort, which is probably the best album of the last thirty years, maybe, and I say MAYBE, of all time.
Great Music to Play While: Going to Sleep
Everyone has an opinion on this album. Because of OK Computer's critical and commercial success, many heads turned to see if it really was the 'best album of the nineties', 'the best music since you-know-who (the Beatles)', and if Radiohead really 'was going to save rock 'n roll'. Some people became diehard enthusiasts of the album (self included), some believed the album was overhyped and over praised, and some people were just indifferent. Everyone has a different standpoint though, and mine is that this is my favourite album of all time. Not what I think is the best of all time, but the album which I hold closest to my heart and soul. This is because I was able to really identify with it, and it was my first taste of really, really good music (previous buys were Weird Al Yankovic and Ace Of Base. Ugh). The fact that I even bought it in the first place still remains a mystery to me, because when I saw the album on the shelves of a music store, I was intrigued even though I hadn't even heard any of the songs on it, except thirty seconds of "Paranoid Android" which I heard on commercials, and I had never even previously heard of the British quintet named Radiohead. With all that in mind, I still ended up buying it even though I didn't know why.
The ironic thing about this album, which I live and die by today, is that I hated it to begin with. Save the fantastic "Paranoid Android" and the catchy "Airbag", I didn't appreciate the album at all. I wasn't interested in the slower tracks, because I was , when I purchased it, expecting an album full of "Paranoid Android"s. Despite this I kept on listening to the album, and it started to grow on me. And it grew. And grew.
There was a streak of about a couple of months where almost every night I would go to sleep listening to the album on my discman. When I was tired of hearing one song, I'd just go to another and they all equally impressed me once I learned to see the album for what it was worth: a beautiful collection of songs based on alienation of society and personal woes. It is a very personal album, and the lyrics are mysterious and can be applied to many ideas and concepts which are being debated as I write on Radiohead fan club sites. It is an album so good it's almost ridiculous. It has such a strong overall impression that for about a year I was obsessed with Radiohead along with countless other fans. It is depressing, but it is also delicate and lovely. Peaceful, yet chaotic. It's hard to even describe, because it offers something different for everyone. It is a journey through the mountains and valleys of the human soul, that leaves you stunned in the end. I've owned my copy since 1997, and it still amazes me today.
The album begins with Johnny Greenwood's electric guitar on the song "Airbag", which was written by lead singer Thom Yorke regarding his fear of cars and driving. It is one of the more rockin' tracks on the album, and contains great drums from Phil Selway and lead guitar from Johnny Greenwood. This is followed by the successful single "Paranoid Android", my favourite song on an album full of classics. It has been described as a "Bohemian Rhapsody" (by Queen) for the nineties, which is an accurate description of the six minute piece of music with an unusual structure. It is a few different movements in one song, but they blend together magnificently to make for a mind-blowing piece of music. It contains a three guitar attack from Thom Yorke's acoustic, Ed O'Brien rhythm, and Johnny Greenwood's brilliant lead guitar. Johnny's is one of the best guitar solos of all-time, and it is something that I have many times tried to imitate on my own guitar unsuccessfully. The explosive loud part is followed by a quieter acoustic section where Thom Yorke wails "Rain down, rain down, come on rain down on me". It's would be pretty depressing if it wasn't surrounded by such eccentric guitar playing. It's my favourite song on the album, but it's in tight competition with some others.
Next is "Subterranean Homesick Alien", a spacey venture that is euphoric and dream-like in it's delivery. Thom sings some beautiful lyrics in this song, who's voice is accompanied by some very lovely music. This is followed by the music that can be heard at the end of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet movie, and is appropriately titled "Exit Music (For A Film)". It starts off with just Thom and an acoustic guitar, and is utterly ravishing. Some great keyboard work is featured here (probably by the multi-talented Johnny Greenwood), but it really steps up when Phil Selway's drums come in. Great drumming, and it adds to the alluring climax of the song. This is immediately followed by "Let Down", an emotionally stunning track featuring such effective lyrics as "Transport. Motorways and tramlines. Starting and then stopping. Taking off and landing. The emptiest of feelings. Sentimental drivel. Clinging on to bottles. When it comes it's soso. Disappointing". It sounds discombobulating, but the unjointed lyrics combine for a powerful impression. It's another track with lyrics suggesting that Yorke is fed up with society and doesn't know where to turn. It features perfect backup vocals from Ed O'Brien, and solid drumming by Selway.
The second single of the disc is "Karma Police", which has delicious piano played by Yorke, as well as effective bass and vocals. It really unwinds in the end with synthesizers which is an unexpected yet effective end to the first half of the disc. The second half begins with a spoken word piece called "Fitter Happier" that is spoken by a computer. How fitting. It is more of the same alienated and frustrated lyrics, which works well for the album but is easily avoidable. Next is the rockin' "Electioneering", which is a great electric guitar piece complete with a cowbell. Lyrics are "I will stop, I will stop at nothing, say the right things, when electioneering, when I go forwards, you go backwards, and somewhere we will meet, riot shields, voodoo economics, it's just business, cattle prods and the I.M.F.". It's frustration all right, but this time directed towards the governments of the eight richest countries in the world, in which Thom has always been a public spokesperson on third world debt. Oh, yeah, the song has great guitars, bass by Colin Greenwood, and drumming too.
Next is "Climbing Up The Walls", which is, quite frankly, scary. It has a very grim impression, with spacey guitar, Thom's distorted vocals, beautiful strings, and spooky sound effects in the background. The only thing that really holds this track together is Selway's drumming. It also features a great horn solo. This is followed by "No Surprises", which always reminds me of an ice cream truck music. This is because it's features a glockinspiel melody played by Johnny Greenwood, as well as gorgeous guitar from O'Brien. Yorke's disenchanting lyrics are a strange yet comfortable fit to this adorable third single.
Next is "Lucky". It is, simply put, brilliant. It was a song written and released before any other songs on the album were completed, because it was included on a war victims benefit album. It was an immediate indication that OK Computer was going to be something special, and it is one of the finest tracks on the album. Actually, on a semi-recent survey of a couple hundred Radiohead fans, this track was chosen to be the overall favourite on the album, but not by much. It is a minor key electric guitar ballad impeccably played by O'Brien. This track features some mindblowing vocals from Yorke and a great mini-solo from Johnny Greenwood. It is a very moving piece of music. It is followed by the album closer, "The Tourist", which is the only song on the album written by Johnny Greenwood. It has lots of space within it, and contains fabulous vocals and guitar work. It crescendos masterfully with impressive guitars and keyboards until it lets you down easy with some quiet drums followed by a single note played by a glockinspiel to end the album.
Stunning and breathtaking in it's beauty, OK Computer is a masterpiece of masterpieces. It has fantastic song writing combined with expert group musicianship as well as a fine display of experimentation. It is emotional and personal, and also powerful and rockin'. This music is just so meaningful that it probably, given time, can win anyone over. It took me a couple of weeks, and I hated it at first. Now I'm a diehard Radiohead fan, and this album started it all. It is complex and experimental, but it never loses focus at any point. I can't even adequately describe this album, it really is one of those things that you'll have to learn about on your own. All I can really do is advise you that if you purchase this album, only then will you really be able to appreciate this masterpiece for what it is.
Best of all time? It just might be.
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Here's what others reviewers have to say:
"...OK COMPUTER - a stunning art-rock tour de force - will have you reeling back to their debut, PABLO HONEY, for insight into the group's dramatic evolution..." 4 Stars (out of 5) Rolling Stone 7/10-24/97, pp. 117-118
"...Unlike their majestic models U2, Radiohead take on techno without switching instruments or employing trendy producers....As with post-rockers Tortoise, Laika, and Seefeel, Radiohead have a fuzzbox or two and obviously know how to use 'em..." 8 (out of 10) Spin 8/97, pp.112-113
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