Radiohead - The Bends (Capitol, 1995)

I don't plan to do this record justice, it is truly timeless. The Bends is one of those records that I knew I would come across in this project and not know where to start. So I will just tell you my Radiohead story. Like most of you, I heard Creep on MTV and the radio enough to sing both versions by heart. Bought Pablo Honey after a year or so at a CD warehouse (used cd chain store in Dallas) for a few bucks. Liked Pablo Honey, but didn't dust off a special corner of my tiny cd collection for it. In '95, still glued to MTV (when it was still delivering), I fell in love with Fake Plastic Trees, both the song and the video. My high school budget didnt allow for me to buy every record that I wanted and my instinct told me The Bends would be in heavy rotation so why bother with the record at this point. Impressed with my teenage insight, but sad it happened that way, to be honest. It wasn't until another trip to CD warehouse in '96 that I saw a used copy of The Bends for $9 and picked it up. Funny how my OK Computer experience wasn't much different. I guess it took me a while to take this band seriously just because everyone else was telling me to - I'm just not wired that way.

This is one of the best records of my lifetime and absolutely defined what could happen when a well of unending ambition and talent is tapped. The parts I love stem mostly from the lyrics that all tell stories and paint pictures like music should and in a falsetto that I never appreciated until I tried to sing myself. And a video for every category: Best slow-mo movie magic in Street Spirit (Fade Out), Most clever storyline/cliffhanger, also in slow-mo, in Just,  and the "let's-just-cut-to-the-live-footage" collage
(after all, Thom Yorke and co. in their live form are animated enough) in My Iron Lung.

I am really finding myself lost for words on this record and honestly, you shouldn't need my opinion on The Bends as you probably already know why you need it.

"if i could be who you wanted all the time" - Fake Plastic Trees