Radiohead: An Introductory Odyssey

[Jenesis]

Other than the released singles, I've never listened to any of Radiohead's stuff. Like many others, I guess I was put off by their rep as being morose, indie dirge merchants. Realising I thought the same thing about The Smiths before giving them a chance and finding them amazing, I have decided to perform a similar experiment with the music of the 'head. I now have all their albums playlisted on my iPod and will be subjecting myself to them over the next short while. Let the enlightenment and/or torture commence expeditiously...

Today's introductory selection - "The Bends".



I thought I'd start with this one, from reviews it seems to be the most accessible. Starts with a bang with "Planet Telex" - the oscillating delay intro, solid drumbeat and arpy/tremmy keys had me hooked within the first few seconds. Whoops, will this be the quickest hater conversion ever? Probably not actually, because the following songs are a decidedly mixed bag. The single "High And Dry" is a great song I've always liked, but after that comes a few songs that struck me as decidedly meh. Sort of like that crappy college radio rock we were all slagging a while back in another thread (Live, Better Than Ezra, etc). Things kick back into gear with "Just", though that sails pretty close to Nirvana-lite territory. Plenty of cool goofery, riffage and nice little touches from Greenwood in this track though, and he busts out the Whammy pedal on the following song "My Iron Lung" to a vague out of tune effect. The album winds up in style with the soaring and anthemy "Sulk", and iconic-for-indie-kids "Street Spirit" which I had never heard before but recognised immediately from about three thousand YouTube pedal demos.

So a solid album, some bottling tracks but also some decidedly average ones with too much girly acoustic guitar and that drony stuff that I was fearing/expecting. That said, there was also plenty of good hard riffing and general band crankage that I wasn't expecting. Overall, I think I chose the right album to kick off my Radiohead journey. Yes I said "journey", don't you just hate that buzzword?

Rating - 8/10

[te_chris]

as someone whose (well one of) first cd's bought by himself was ok computer i'm keen to see how this one pans out

[Cdog]

I have to agree... the Bends has moments of brilliance but a couple of songs that are a bit meh... I still rate it as an all time great, certainly hooked me on Radiohead for a few years

[TmcB]

Planet Telex is awesome! But much like Kid A, I only listened to this first track of The Bends and thought the rest were a bit blah.
OK Computer is the pinnacle of Radiohead for me; the right mix between guitar weirdness and synths without getting to electro. And just brilliant song after song.

Hmm, off topic but how many of you have noticed just how often I use semi-colons

[thehenderson]

Pitchfork gives Kid A 'Album of the Decade', would be a good place to look

[badmotor]

For me, their last one "In Rainbows" is the best one. Utter brilliance - it always finds it's way back onto the stereo.

[TmcB]

Pitchfork gives Kid A 'Album of the Decade', would be a good place to look

That Pitchfork is staffed by a bunch of cork-sniffing indie-cred addicted wankers would also be a good thing to keep in mind

[Bg]

Meh, Radiohead have never written a bad song, they're all stellar

I'm doing the same thing with Audioslave I realised last night that I hadn't listened to anything much of theirs - a voyage beyond time and space....

[The Scarecrow]

The Bends is my favourite Radiohead album. Kind of evolves from the grungy sound of Pablo Honey, and is less experimental than latter albums.

Arguably, demonstrates the most variety of cool guitar work from the band too, when they still had guitars that sounded like guitars, or even guitars, period. I always laugh when I hear that Ed O'Brien played a couple of switches for most of Kid A onwards..

[thehenderson]

Pitchfork gives Kid A 'Album of the Decade', would be a good place to look

That Pitchfork is staffed by a bunch of cork-sniffing indie-cred addicted wankers would also be a good thing to keep in mind

I've actually never met anyone that works for pitchfork, although I know a few people who live in Chicago and apparently there are quite a lot of unpaid interns. Which means it's a lot of people from really wealthy families, which doesn't sound like a great way to review music. But I've met quite a few 'writers' who like Pitchfork, and all of them came off as pretty unfriendly. Maybe just coincidence, I dunno. But as a guy making music, I find most strongly opinionated 'music journalism' pretty awful, especially when it's web based and listening to the album yourself is just a click away

Just thought I'd put that out there though, usually albums that top big lists like that are worth listening even just to see what all the fuss is about

[thehenderson]

I always laugh when I hear that Ed O'Brien played a couple of switches for most of Kid A onwards..

The drummer did the rhythm programming on the records, is that right? That's kinda cool

I much prefer Radiohead's more electronic based stuff, Thom Yorke's solo album is by far my favourite

[rocklander]

I'd have started with pablo honey personally, cos .. well.. I started with pablo honey. great rocking album and the following (for me) diluted into self indulgence more with each release.
my iron lung EP was great, and the bends was pretty good.. I stopped after that.. a disturbing trend was appearing.

[The Scarecrow]

I'd have started with pablo honey personally, cos .. well.. I started with pablo honey. great rocking album and the following (for me) diluted into self indulgence more with each release.
my iron lung EP was great, and the bends was pretty good.. I stopped after that.. a disturbing trend was appearing.

I must admit, that my interest waned with each subsequent album after The Bends. There have been a few odd exceptions as far as songs go, such as "2+2=5" and more recently, "Jigsaw Falling Into Place", but overall, I am cold on their newer stuff. I suppose I was first grabbed by that big fat angry guitar sound of stuff like Ripcod, You, Anyone Can Play Guitar, Just and My Iron Lung.

[te_chris]

I used to be the biggest ok computer fan, but I actually think I like in rainbows and hail to the thief more recently. I think it's because on both those albums they got the balance between their two sides so damn right, like i love bends and kid a/amnesiac (2 albums made out of one recording session for those who didn't know) but there's just something so aesthetically perfect about the hail and in rainbows. Like at in rainbows they just chilled out abit after learning all the cool shit from their last albums and sat down and just made a great record, rather than a groundbreaking one.

[GrantB]

Yes, here's to Radioheads genius...I love all of their music and The Bends was an important album for me along with the likes of Ten, STP's Purple, Live Throwing Copper - all around the same time and all representative of a new generation of music.

For me, their last one "In Rainbows" is the best one. Utter brilliance - it always finds it's way back onto the stereo.

Although it's hard to give a favourite, I agree that In Rainbow's is utter brilliance. There are some sublime moments on the album. Plenty of tension too. In all it's a real journey and I think again places Radiohead at the leading edge of alt rock/pop/indie.