Editing The Bends (album) (section)

==Music==

''The Bends'' has been described as [[alternative rock]]<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2012/10/pablo-honey-the-king-of.html | title=Radiohead's Discography Ranked | website=[[Paste (magazine)|Paste]] | date=20 October 2012 | access-date=2 September 2015 | last=Kane, Tyler | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924141339/http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2012/10/pablo-honey-the-king-of.html | archive-date=24 September 2015 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/radioheads-the-bends-trivia-962378/|title=Radiohead's The Bends: 10 Things You Didn't Know|date=March 13, 2020|first=Angie|last=Martoccio|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|access-date=December 7, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/best-second-albums|title=The second albums that beat the second album curse|first=Josiah|last=Gogarty|date=10 September 2024|website=[[GQ Magazine|GQ UK]]|access-date=27 March 2025|quote=And though it doesn’t have quite the same critical reputation as what follows, it should: The Bends is a gorgeous alternative rock album.}}</ref> and [[indie rock]].<ref name="nme-review" /> Like ''Pablo Honey'', it features guitar-oriented rock songs, but its songs are "more spacey and odd", according to ''[[The Gazette (Colorado Springs)|The Gazette]]''<nowiki/>'s Bill Reed.<ref name="Reed-2003">{{cite news |last=Reed |first=Bill |date=August 22, 2003 |title=Tune in, tune on to Radiohead |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/colorado-springs-gazette-aug-22-2003-p-260/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210915154434/https://newspaperarchive.com/colorado-springs-gazette-aug-22-2003-p-260/ |archive-date=15 September 2021 |access-date=September 15, 2021 |work=[[The Gazette (Colorado Springs)|The Gazette]]}}</ref> The music is more eclectic than ''Pablo Honey,''<ref name="Bauder-1996" /> and Colin Greenwood said ''The Bends'' better represented their style.<ref>{{cite news |last=Wener |first=Ben |date=July 21, 1997 |title=Yes, we have no message |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/santa-ana-orange-county-register-jul-21-1997-p-192/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210916160836/https://newspaperarchive.com/santa-ana-orange-county-register-jul-21-1997-p-192/ |archive-date=16 September 2021 |access-date=September 16, 2021 |work=[[Orange County Register]]}}</ref> ''Pitchfork'' wrote that it contrasts warmth and tension, riffs and texture, and rock and [[post-rock]].<ref name="Plagenhoef-2009" /> Several critics identified it as a [[Britpop]] album, though Radiohead disliked Britpop, seeing it as a "backwards-looking" pastiche.<ref name="Spin2">{{cite magazine |last=Pappademas |first=Alex |date=23 June 2003 |title=The Spin Record Guide: Essential Britpop |url=http://www.spin.com/2003/06/spin-record-guide-essential-britpop/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170614002823/http://www.spin.com/2003/06/spin-record-guide-essential-britpop/ |archive-date=14 June 2017 |access-date=19 January 2017 |magazine=[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]}}</ref><ref name="Pitchfork"> {{cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/10045-the-50-best-britpop-albums/|title=The 50 Best Britpop Albums|first=Jazz|last=Monroe|date=29 March 2017|website=[[Pitchfork Magazine|Pitchfork]]|access-date=4 October 2024}} </ref><ref name="Rhapsody in Gloom" />

The critic [[Simon Reynolds]] wrote that ''The Bends'' brought an "English [[art rock]] element" to the fore of Radiohead's sound.<ref name="REYNOLDS">{{cite journal |last=Reynolds |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Reynolds |date=June 2001 |title=Walking on Thin Ice |url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/radiohead-walking-on-thin-ice |journal=[[The Wire (magazine)|The Wire]] |issue=209 |access-date=16 November 2023 |archive-date=6 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231106061301/https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/radiohead-walking-on-thin-ice |url-status=live }}</ref> According to Kolderie, "''The Bends'' was neither an English album nor an American album. It's an album made in the void of touring and travelling. It really had that feeling of, 'We don't live anywhere and we don't belong anywhere.'"<ref name="Irvin-1997" /> Reed described it as "intriguingly disturbed" and "bipolar". He likened "The Bends" to the late music of [[the Beatles]], described "My Iron Lung" as [[hard rock]], and noted more subdued sounds on "Bullet Proof ... I Wish I Was" and "High and Dry", showcasing Radiohead's "more plaintive and meditative side".<ref name="Reed-2003" />

''Rolling Stone'' described ''The Bends'' as a "mix of sonic guitar anthems and striking ballads", with lyrics evoking a "haunted landscape" of sickness, consumerism, jealousy and longing.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Radiohead: Biography|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/radiohead/biography|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110118230746/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/radiohead/biography|archive-date=18 January 2011|access-date=20 January 2009|magazine=Rolling Stone}}</ref> Several songs evoke a "sense of a disintegrated or disconnected subject".<ref name="Tucker-2013">{{cite journal |last=Tucker |first=Shawn |date=2013 |title=The Aesthetics of Dissociation:: Radiohead's "How to Disappear Completely" and Jasper Johns's Device Paintings |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/soundings.96.1.0085 |journal=Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal |volume=96 |issue=1 |pages=85–98 |doi=10.5325/soundings.96.1.0085 |issn=0038-1861 |jstor=10.5325/soundings.96.1.0085 |s2cid=189250854 |access-date=11 July 2021 |archive-date=11 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711111943/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/soundings.96.1.0085 |url-status=live }}</ref> The journalist Mac Randall described the lyrics as "a veritable compendium of disease, disgust and depression" that nonetheless become uplifting in the context of the "inviting" and "powerful" arrangements.<ref name="Randall-2015" /> Jonny Greenwood said ''The Bends'' was about "illness and doctors... revulsion about our own bodies".<ref name="Dalton-2016" /> Yorke said it was "an incredibly personal album, which is why I spent most of my time denying that it was personal at all".<ref name="Dalton-2016" /> The album title, a term for [[decompression sickness]], references Radiohead's rapid rise to fame with "Creep". Yorke said, "We just came up too fast."<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=February 25, 1995 |title=Radiohead creeps past early success |url=http://www.greenplastic.com/coldstorage/articles/billboard22595.html |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106134201/http://www.greenplastic.com/coldstorage/articles/billboard22595.html |archive-date=6 January 2022 |access-date=6 January 2022 |magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]}}</ref>

In "Fake Plastic Trees", Yorke laments the effects of consumerism on modern relationships.<ref name="Tucker-2013" /> It was inspired by the commercial development of [[Canary Wharf]] and a performance by [[Jeff Buckley]], who inspired Yorke to use [[falsetto]].<ref name="Power-2020">{{Cite news |last=Power |first=Ed |date=12 March 2020 |title=Why Radiohead's ''The Bends'' is the worst great album of all time |language=en |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/why-radiohead-s-the-bends-is-the-worst-great-album-of-all-time-1.4199850 |access-date=2020-09-09 |archive-date=3 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303034521/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/why-radiohead-s-the-bends-is-the-worst-great-album-of-all-time-1.4199850 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{citation|title= Fake Plastic Trees Lyrics|url= http://www.greenplastic.com/radiohead-lyrics/the-bends/fake-plastic-trees/|date= March 1995|access-date= 5 January 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150102173226/http://www.greenplastic.com/radiohead-lyrics/the-bends/fake-plastic-trees/|archive-date= 2 January 2015|url-status= usurped}}</ref> [[Sasha Frere-Jones]] compared its melody to the "second theme of a [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]] string quartet".<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Frere-Jones|first=Sasha|author-link=Sasha Frere-Jones|date=June 18, 2006|title=Fine Tuning|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/06/26/fine-tuning|access-date=2021-07-11|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|language=en-US|archive-date=29 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210929031937/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/06/26/fine-tuning|url-status=live}}</ref> In "Just", Jonny Greenwood plays [[octatonic scale]]s that extend over four octaves,<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Ross|first=Alex|date=August 12, 2001|title=Becoming Radiohead|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/08/20/the-searchers|access-date=2021-07-11|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|language=en-US|archive-date=29 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210729041246/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/08/20/the-searchers|url-status=live}}</ref> influenced by the 1978 [[Magazine (band)|Magazine]] song "[[Shot by Both Sides]]".<ref>{{cite work |last=Buxton |first=Adam |title=Colin Greenwood, Jonny Greenwood and Adam Buxton sit in [Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service BBC Radio 6] |date=2013-07-07 |publisher=[[BBC Radio 6]] |quote=Q: That was a live version of that Magazine track... [Colin Greenwood :] it's a special record for both of us... John McGeoch guitar playing... So I thought it would be nice we could listen to some stuff ... and maybe influence some of what we do... Q: I dont see anyone objecting to Magazine on the Radiohead tour bus ... Have you ever covered any Magazine track ? [Jonny Greenwood:] Sure, we have played "Shot by Both Sides" and we have played the song "Just" which is pretty much the same kind of idea. Q: You were thinking very much Magazine with the angular guitar riffing on "Just", right ? I've been thinking that on most of our kind of angular guitar songs that we do. It's really inventive music. |author-link=Adam Buxton |time=14:32}}</ref> With the use of a [[DigiTech Whammy]] pedal, Greenwood [[Pitch shifting|pitch-shifts]] the solo into a high, piercing frequency.<ref name="Randall-2011" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lowe |first=Steve |date=December 1999 |title=Back to save the universe |journal=[[Select (magazine)|Select]]}}</ref> Greenwood also uses the Whammy for the opening riff of "My Iron Lung", creating a "glitchy, lo-fi" sound.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=19 October 2018 |title=Iron man |url=https://www.pressreader.com/australia/total-guitar/20181019/283016875682882 |journal=[[Total Guitar]] |publisher=[[Future plc]] |via=[[PressReader]]}}</ref> According to Randall, "My Iron Lung" transitions from a "jangly" opening hook to a "[[Paul McCartney|McCartney]]-esque verse melody" and "pulverising guitar explosions" in the bridge.<ref name="Randall-2015" />

"Sulk" was written as a response to the [[Hungerford massacre]]. It originally ended with the lyric "just shoot your gun". Yorke omitted it after [[Suicide of Kurt Cobain|the suicide]] of the [[Nirvana (band)|Nirvana]] frontman [[Kurt Cobain]] in 1994, as he did not want listeners to believe it was an allusion to Cobain.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Potter |first=Jordan |date=2022-03-31 |title=The Radiohead lyrics edited due to Kurt Cobain's suicide |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/radiohead-lyrics-edited-kurt-cobain-suicide/ |access-date=2022-04-01 |website=[[Far Out Magazine]] |language=en-US |archive-date=1 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401141742/https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/radiohead-lyrics-edited-kurt-cobain-suicide/ |url-status=live }}</ref> "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" was inspired by [[R.E.M.]] and the 1991 novel ''[[The Famished Road]]'' by [[Ben Okri]];<ref>{{cite journal |last=Draper |first=Brian |date=11 October 2014 |title=Chipping Away: Brian Draper Talks to Thom Yorke |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Yq7ZTsst1YC&q=Third%20Way%20Magazine%2C%20october%2011th%202004&pg=PA16 |journal=Third Way |location=St. Peters, Sumner Road, Harrow |publisher=Third Way Trust, Ltd. |access-date=3 January 2015 |archive-date=16 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220416030025/https://books.google.com/books?id=8Yq7ZTsst1YC&q=Third%20Way%20Magazine%2C%20october%2011th%202004&pg=PA16 |url-status=live }}</ref> the lyrics detail an escape from an oppressive reality.<ref name="Tucker-2013" /> The journalist [[Rob Sheffield]] described "Street Spirit", "Planet Telex" and "High and Dry" as a "big-band dystopian epic".<ref name="Sheffield" />