Radiohead is a band that captivates and pulls the listener into another place entirely. Honestly, headphones, a quiet dimly lit room, with eyes closed…and you travel along with Thom Yorke to places very few artists could even conceptualize…let alone create. I have lost hours listening to Radiohead’s music and all of their experiments and genre pushing successes are worthy of acclaim.
As I agreed to be a part of this piece for the Equinox, I knew my personal favorite, but I went back to listen to all the early Radiohead releases. As I listened, I was transported back in time and reminded of so many wonderful memories of my time with this band as my life backdrop. I was in graduate school from 1990-1995 and during this period of my life, I became a very big fan of the alternative rock artists in the early 1990s. In 1993, I was spending a great deal of time in my advisor’s lab trying to solidify my research questions for my thesis. Radiohead released Pablo Honey. When I first heard Creep from that album, I was hooked and played it over and over, like so many other fans. I remember my advisor getting very tired of Creep but admitting that “this new band is going to change the music industry if they continued making music like that” or something to that effect—that conversation was a long time ago.
I listened to alternative rock and grunge rock, but Radiohead was a favorite for me throughout graduate school beginning with that debut album in my third year. I counted on great music to get through late nights and my favorite music distracted me when things were tedious with a soundscape that took me away. Although I was a very, annoyingly, big fan of Creep, I was entirely enthralled with The Bends when released in 1995. I absolutely loved every song on this album.
From the stratospheric launch into Planet Telex, followed by angst, keyboard, and great guitar riffs, all behind that incredible voice. Honestly, I remember stopping everything and just sitting down moments into that first song until I had listened to every track. Then repeat. My advisor sighed a great deal when around me over the coming weeks. But the writing of my dissertation was set to the musical score of The Bends. I credit my completion of graduate school to the need to get out of the house. I absolutely loved every slightly depressing, angst ridden song on The Bends.
The song lineup after Planet Telex showcases Thom Yorke’s range and vocal artistry in ways that I don’t find other releases to rival. Thom is pushed along, driven with force, and then suspended effortlessly to drift back down to earth throughout the album by his band mates Johnny Greenwood and Ed O’Brien on guitar and keyboard, Colin Greenwood on bass, with Philip Selway driving it all with the best performance on drums of any work they have created. High and Dry remains one of my all time favorite songs. Followed by Fake Plastic Trees; which offers new detours of thought for me every time I listen. With Bones or Black Star transforming me, embarrassingly for anyone nearby, into a solo airband with full vocals every time. Creep was permanently moved to the back of the line by all of this album’s recordings.
As I listened to write this piece I still would argue the emotion, composition, musicality, and Thom Yorke’s lead vocal have never been matched. I consider The Bends the best musical work of Radiohead. A band that has done so much to change what we believe music can be and the emotional and intellectual spaces you can visit with talent like Radiohead to guide you.
I hope you will take some time, put in earbuds, sit down in a quiet space, and close your eyes…just be there with The Bends, it’s simply the best.
