Radiohead

With The Bends, the Brit rockers were no longer condemned to one-hit wonder status. Setting withered, angst-riddled lyrics to soaring melodies, singles "High and Dry," "Fake Plastic Trees" and "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" would go on to be alt radio staples. The fact that they're probably the most downtrodden songs on this album, also gave Radiohead the label as one of the world's most depressing bands. Here, they teeter on the line between the grunge inspiration of their debut and the expansive, nimble and technical musicianship of what would come in their future.

Fans of Radiohead's 1993 single "Creep" basically divided into two camps: those who loved
it as a dynamic slice of self-loathing rock & roll, and those who just enjoyed the
skrakunk-skrakunk guitar distortion before every chorus. On their later albums, Radiohead
would throw their lot in with the skrakunk-skrakunk crowd, pushing the boundaries of
sonic experimentation. But for one record, they demonstrated how good they c... More >

Admired by Britcrits, who can't tell whether they're "pop" or "rock," and their record company, which pushed (and shoved) this follow-up until it went gold Stateside, they try to prove "Creep" wasn't a one-shot by pretending that it wasn't a joke. Not that there's anything deeply phony about Thom Yorke's angst--it's just a social given, a mindset that comes as naturally to a '90s guy as the skilled guitar noises that frame it. Thus the words achieve precisely the same pitch of aesthetic necessity as the music, which is none at all. (Grade - C)