Radiohead

I will be the first to admit that I don’t know nearly enough about Radiohead.  I have heard all of their albums except for their recent one, The King of Limbs, which isn’t even available on CD yet (but is digitally).  But I’m lacking when it comes to knowing their records, meaning knowing the names of the songs, understanding their background, etc.  At the pace I’m going with my album reviews blog, I will get to know.  I have been aware of Radiohead since “Creep” was a single all those years ago.  I can’t remember the first time I heard the song, but I’m pretty sure I liked it right away; I was an awkward teen that embraced the grunge message at the time and loved the hard churning guitars and loud vocals.  Radiohead embodied that with “Creep”.

But they changed the game with The Bends, which is why I am writing in the first place.  In terms of overall effectiveness/appeal/complexity, The Bends is probably in the middle of the pack of their records.  So why is The Bends my favorite record?  For me it’s the perfect branch between grungy Pablo Honey and the modernity that started with their best overall record, OK Computer.  The Bends contains a piece of every musical thought they have embraced in their long careers in some form.

Let’s start with “Bones”.  “Bones” embraces the arena grunge sound that started with “Creep” and became even more apparent with the numerous other Britpop bands that appeared just after “Creep” (Blur, Oasis, Primal Scream, etc.).  I love that it has this sound, that it bridges that part of them to the present and future.  “Bones” is probably the closest Radiohead got to the sound they had on Pablo Honey.  “Planet Telex”, on the other hand, with its use of guitar effects on pianos and guitars and other instruments, sounds more like a link to the modern Radiohead.

There are three songs from The Bends that really form my opinion about this album:  “High and Dry”, “Fake Plastic Trees”, and “My Iron Lung”.  First, about “My Iron Lung”, this song would be part of the branch to the modern Radiohead from OK Computer and later albums.  The chiming electric guitar figure played by Ed O’Brien, augmented by the sweeping to over-the-top distorted lead of Jonny Greenwood.  No, there’s no hint of electronic effects to this song, but the effects they used in the song alone would be featured more and more on OK Computer.

“High and Dry” and “Fake Plastic Trees” are the softer side of Radiohead and Thom Yorke at his most confessional.  These two songs alone launched the career of Coldplay, because they fit just as well in their catalog as they would in Radiohead’s.  My obsession with the sound of an acoustic guitar on record grew immensely when I heard these songs.  I always felt some electricity from the way Greenwood and O’Brien sounded playing and wanted to emulate it in my own playing.  I knew when I first heard these songs years and years ago that Radiohead was not the same band that had just released Pablo Honey a few years before.  They were older, more mature, and had embraced their want to create something with more depth.

“Fake Plastic Trees”?  It’s easily my favorite song of theirs of all their songs.  Why?  I don’t know, there must be some magical pull for me to it.  I think part of it is the emotional intensity of Yorke’s vocals.  I love the guitar work (all of it).  I like that he uses the words “fake plastic trees” to create a song.  There’s just a sincerity there that grabs my attention.