Jason Saenz <jsaenz@sagetelecom.net> (27.07.2004)

Thank's George for finally adding Radiohead to your reviews, these guy's are one of my favorite "modern" musicmakers and are one of the least appreciated nowadays, people would rather praise "the strokes" or some other commercial pretentious "bad-boy  druggy" band's that do nothing new at all. Now These guys know what they are doing, even though they started out a little bit on mainstream blvd. but hey they got their own style and they risked popularity by making very unpopular music and still remained popular. I think Radiohead is really good and are very misunderstood, I mean all the albums are great (maybe PABLO HONEY isn't great, but it still is good!) and different. I have a lot of hope in Radiohead, I just wish they would put out more albums more often. Good going George!

Jason Saenz <jsaenz@sagetelecom.net> (27.07.2004)

Well, this is the beginning, and not that good of a beginning but still solid. There's a lot of good songs on this one even though this is considered Radiohead's "worst" (wich I dont agree with, Radiohead are good enough musicians to avoid releasing a "worst" album), 'creep' is not the only song here, so everbody: Listen to the whole thing!!!! The radio stations don't play anything else so dont be fooled!!!. My favorite track's are "Blow out" and "Prove yourself" and the rest is all listenable, but this album is just the beginning of really good things to come. "Thinking about you" is a really lovely Thom Yorkish-type ballad, a little gloomy but lovely anyway. This is the type of album that just glues to you.

Anonymous (25.08.2004)

Boy, am I glad I totally missed out on Radiohead when they arrived! Never heard (of) 'Creep' when I bought this album. But what a beautiful song; I don't see your problem with it. Ok, there is the transition from 'quiet' to 'loud', but it's not as bloated as you often see and at least here it's effective. And I love the piano at the end. By the way, Yorke never sings "I wish I were so fuckin' special". It's "I wish I was special" and "You're so fucking special" (this may be nitpicking, but there is a difference). For the rest I overall agree with you (although I missed out on Nirvana too:-), so I can't comment on that part). 'Thinking about you' is one of my favourites and most of the other songs are fairly forgettable. It's worth that 10 I think: a 6 for the album and a 4 for the band.

David Dickson <ddickson@rice.edu> (14.06.2005)

So! The Bends. Why is it regarded as such a landmark by depressed people everywhere? Well, partly because 7 of the 12 songs on it are played VERY heavily by alternative radio now. Problem is, "Planet Telex," "Bones," "Nice Dream," and "Bulletproof" were not, and quite frankly, they didn't deserve to be. Come to think of it, neither did "Street Spirit" either. So turns out, I actually agree with your review here. Strange thing was, I never even heard of Radiohead until they released Kid A. Then again, in 1995 I was far more infatuated with Bizet and Strauss than Pearl Jam. Kinda shows you where my priorities lay. UP with the system!!

Thomas McKeown <aaywtm@nottingham.ac.uk> (18.06.2005)

For absolutely ages, I didn't like this album at all, and went around annoying people by claiming that Kid A had more hooks per song. I still actually think that's true, but now I quite like The Bends, though only about as much as you do. Also, it is very much a 90s period piece, as you say, much more so than OK Computer is. It's the album that spawned a hundred palid indie imitations, and I'm glad that the band moved on to pastures new.

Chilli Palmer <chilli.palmer@gmail.com> (08.12.2005)

You're being a point too harsh here. It's irrelevant how many depressed teen bozos dig this album (and it was fully appreciated at the time, not at all the 'invented greatness' album you make it out to be). The music stands on its own merit. Radiohead never claimed to be the voice of the nineties or any of the cliche kids you're talking about. They did, however, know how to construct a few great songs, and a lot of good ones. And although Yorke hadn't shown the full extent of his creativity here, they had at least one guy who sure knew how to party. Johnny Greenwood's guitar work is, from start to finish, pure class. Good old fashioned family entertainment, folks. The soaring and squawking on the title track. Darkness in '(Nice Dreams)'. The final gem, 'Street Spirit'. This album is not just another 90s 'alt-rock' product. Although Radiohead hadn't shaken the sounds of their era off yet, almost every track aspires to, and hits a deeper level than the usual. A handful of great songs, and no bad ones? That's a 12 in my book.