Radiohead - The Bends
Critic Score
Based on 10 reviews
1995 Ratings: #90 / 508
User Score
1995 Rank: #22
Liked by 1,963 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
AllMusic

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.

100
Consequence of Sound

An album that speaks less of destiny and more about a restless energy to create and explore.

100
The Guardian
The grandeur may eventually pall, as it has with U2, but it's been years since big bumptious rock sounded this emotional.
90
NME

'The Bends' should set an "unfashionable" band in a completely different light and catapult them to megastardom. The other word for this album, by the way, is classic.

83
Entertainment Weekly

The stylistic leaps make for schizoid listening – brutal rave-ups contrast sharply with the acoustic languor of other tracks – but give these boys credit for not standing still.

80
Sputnikmusic

This was the last time that Radiohead were ever able to make an album without the weight of the expectation of millions weighing them down, and for that reason it's easily their most accessible, and, dare I say it, their most simply enjoyable album.

80
Q Magazine
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.
70
Rolling Stone

Radiohead's reach may fall short with The Bends, a sonically ambitious album that offers no easy hits.

70
The Sydney Morning Herald

Where their debut, Pablo Honey, seemed tentative, the sound of a band caught between their indie roots and desire for boarder acceptance, this is assured, immaculate, marrying the acquisitive pleasures of the pop single with a dark and raucous noise.

50
SPIN

This is one of those follow-up albums that I always hope will sound like ten imitations of the one or two great hits of the band’s not-so-great previous commercial-breakthrough LP, but instead just proves the band is afraid to be pigeonholed into the only style it’s very good at.

Aoaystheory
100

Look at the album cover. That's going to be you when you listen to this.

aaron
95

People who dont like this album need to eat their vegetables

ThePurpleIdiot
100

AUGHHH… I know, I know, it’s such a basic bitch move of me to adore Radiohead so much and overrate the band, but holy shit this album is spectacular! I don’t care if they didn’t fully find their true sound yet on this album, because this album is still a masterpiece for what it is, and I’m always gonna stand by that. Now, it isn’t better than some of their other works like “OK Computer” or “Kid A”, but still it is able to have its own ... read more

87

Favourite radiohead album cover

Nyuie
94

I'm def biased

87

This album is amazing. I always had a positive look on Radiohead, but I never really took the time to listen to their music, this album is so goddamn nostalgic for me, my mom loves Radiohead and She would put it on in the car whenever she could. Thom yorks beautiful voice is so good with the instrumentals, he has such emotion in his voice whenever he sings and it’s just so amazing. Some of these tracks are just so fucking nostalgic, Just, High and dry, (Nice Dream), jammin’ out as a ... read more

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Track List

1Planet Telex
4:19
91
2The Bends
4:06
88
3High and Dry
4:17
91
4Fake Plastic Trees
4:50
95
5Bones
3:09
81
6(Nice Dream)
3:53
88
7Just
3:54
92
8My Iron Lung
4:36
91
9Bullet Proof ... I Wish I Was
3:28
87
10Black Star
4:07
87
11Sulk
3:42
79
12Street Spirit (Fade Out)
4:13
95
Total Length: 48 minutes
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