Radiohead "The Bends" (1995) - got it
The heady days, before many Radiohead fans became insufferable snobs who
crapped over the bands they perceived Radiohead to have influenced. When Radiohead themselves were just "that band who sang Creep" with
everyone waiting to see if they could follow up their 'hit'.
While the bleeps and bloops of "Kid A" are often pointed out as the
big change in direction for Radiohead, arguably their first few albums
all displayed fairly major stylistic shifts. "The Bends" saw the band
move away from their straight-ahead alt-rock to a more densely nuanced,
melodically sophisticated sound, but still with more of a rock-guitar
sound than follow-up "OK Computer" would have.
The band worked more collaboratively on songrwiting and arranging,
instead of creating a wall of guitars, they played with arrangements
that put together different parts for each of the three guitarists that
worked together. In some places the sound was still dense, like on
single "Just"
a bit of a favourite of mine, and something of a good middle point
between their rock sound and their intelligent melodic directions.
Elsewhere, they stripped things back on songs like the acoustic,
atmospheric "Bullet Proof... I wish I was" and album-closer "Street Spirit (Fade Out)".... damn, actually Radiohead always have the best album-closer tracks.
Most of the tracks start small and build their arrangements, as can be
heard in songs like "Fake Plastic Trees", "My Iron Lung" and "Nice
Dream".
An argument could be made for this being the album where Radiohead
really found their sound, with that more melodically sophisticated vein
being mined; but you could also argue that Radiohead are another of
those good bands who never quite fix on their sound and are constantly
trying to forge new ground.
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