It seems like on every list of great albums of the last twenty-five years, Radiohead's "OK Computer" gets the nod. Somehow, "The Bends" gets lost in the shuffle. I know you're supposed to rave about "OK Computer" if you want to seem cool and hip, and it is a good album, but it's not the best introduction to the band.
In my humble opinion, "The Bends" is Radiohead's most accessible album. Dare I go against the conventional wisdom and say it surpasses the Grammy-winning "OK Coputer?" Dare I say it is their BEST album? I double-dog-dare it!
The album is a richly textured collage of swirling guitars and multi-layered instrumentation that tips it's hat to the seventies' progressive bands with a modern twist.
This album is a classic, with Yorke's lyrics at their most comprehensible and his singing at it's most passionate. Songs like "Fake Plastic Trees" and "High & Dry" soar to heights that would make U2 a little dizzy. Greenwood makes excellent use of spacy guitar and keyboard effects to add mood.
All in all, this is a great rock album that makes an excellent first listen to Radiohead for the new listener. For die hards who spent $80 on the "In Rainbows" discbox (I did), listen to this one again for old times sake!
FAKE PLASTIC TREES
HIGH & DRY
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I would tend to agree with you. OK Computer is definitely a cool work, but I think The Bends is of a more populist bent. I guess I would probably need to listen to them a few times side by side to come to my final conclusion. Either way they are both pretty fine albums.
ReplyDeleteLee
Tossing It Out
Lee-
ReplyDeleteI never really "got" OK Computer...certainly not the best album of the last quarter century (in my book).
Radiohead were on Stephen Colbert tonight plugging their recent album...
Larry
>>...It seems like on every list of great albums of the last twenty-five years, Radiohead's "OK Computer" gets the nod.
ReplyDeleteWell, it sure as hell makes MY list!!! (And due in no small part to the Tiny Tim influence that can be heard throughout.)
>>...Songs like "Fake Plastic Trees" and "High & Dry" soar to heights that would make U2 a little dizzy.
Well, come on, let's be honest: two sips of Bud Light would make U2 a little dizzy.
In my opinion, one ought NEVER mention U2 unless it's with a negative connotation. Shoot, if I wrote as boringly as U2 played, my blog would have only 1 reader instead of 3!
~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'
POSTSCRIPT: I'm looking forward to seeing you featured on Lee's blog tomorrow. Although I can't for the life of me imagine what you will say that you didn't say the first time. Well, 8 hours will tell...
OK, I returned here and decided to listen to "Fake Plastic Trees". So I hit the play button. And...
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how long I was asleep, but when I came to, the song was over and I realized that the U2 reference in this review was very appropriate.
"Fake Plastic Trees" does indeed employ that U2 approach to music-making: We'll start nowhere and we'll end nowhere, but in the middle part we'll kind of moan 'n' whine a little louder to give the IMPRESSION that there's some tension and a destination in mind.
I think if these blokes were true artists they would have come up with a better title too. Maybe something a little less redundant, like perhaps "REAL Plastic Trees". Now we're talkin'!
I'm afraid to listen to the other song as I might NEVER wake up, and then my "Pain Management" story would really be viewed as a genuine suicide note.
~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'
POSTSCRIPT: Am I allowed to make comments like these? Or is this a "Zero-Tolerance-For-Negativity Happy Zone"?
[:o)}
Stephen-
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Radiohead changed the music industry with their last release and 30 million albums sold probably means that a few people out there disagree with your evaluation of their music.
But I'll post all comments.
If the A&R people at Capitol are reading your comment, they're probably standing up and cheering.
LC
Stephen-
ReplyDeleteIn case you don't know the story, Radiohead decided not to resign with Capitol and released their 2008 CD independently.
While they sold fewer copies, they made something like three times as much.
And they let people download it for whatever they felt like paying.
I wouldn't have expected you to like it-I don't think you can start from being a U2 hater and embrace Radiohead-pretty ambient and I have to be in the right mood.
But you gotta admire their success.
They were just on Colbert-pretty amusing.
LC
>>...The fact that Radiohead changed the music industry with their last release and 30 million albums sold probably means that a few people out there disagree with your evaluation of their music.
ReplyDelete50,000,000 Madonna Fans Can't Be Wrong!
Well, I wouldn't be me if I ever found myself siding with the majority on anything.
"Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform."
~ MARK TWAIN
It's good that you clarified the "Capitol Records" comment, because, as you suspected, I was entirely clueless to what you were referencing.
But I'm not convinced that charging ANYTHING for something worthless is a commendable act.
;o)
As for being a "U2 hater"? Much too tame a word. In all seriousness (SERIOUSLY!) I am not the least bit convinced that U2 were in any sense more accomplished musicians than were the members of The Troggs.
The success of the one-dimensional (and thus over-optimistically named) U2 will baffle me until my day of rest.
~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'
DR. DISCDUDE ~
ReplyDeleteD’ya like THIS?
Better’n The Doors version, huh?
~ D-FensDogg
‘Loyal American Underground’
>50,000,000 Madonna Fans Can't Be >Wrong!
ReplyDelete...at a minimum, 50,000,000 Madonna fans with baseball bats can't be wrong....
I certainly would not suggest you bow to the majority for the sake of bowing to the majority-only politicians are expected to do that.
I do write this blog to try to appeal to a wider audience than you (although they're not leaving comments), and I am also trying to encourage artists to send me their work for review.
Except for the recent Todd review, I try not to post negative ones, in the hopes that more people will come around and comment and more artists will want to see their work highlighted here.
But you gotta make up your mind, dude-are Radiohead's influences Tiny Tim or The Doors?
LC
I hate it when people start dissing on The Troggs. "I Can't Control Myself" when that happens and it turns me into a "Wild Thing". Be nice to "The Troggs". They did some decent rock and roll.
ReplyDeleteLee
Tossing It Out
Lee, you know Stephen T.
ReplyDeleteIf it weren't recorded by Tiny Tim, fugheddaboudit!
Larry