Radiohead - The Bends

OK, I'm cheating here a little bit. These reviews are supposed to be for albums I've never heard before, but I just downloaded The Bends recently. And it was like I was hearing it again, for the first time, OK? So I'm going to discuss it a li'l bit.

It's a great album. I encourage every single Jack-in-the-dust among you to go out and buy it NOW NOW NOW. Consume some media, why don't you.

It really is good. I suppose it's Radiohead at the height of their powers, before they turned to crap. You know what I mean? Go here, check out Amazon's customer reviews for Kid A. They're pretty much split between 5 stars (all the never-say-die Radiohead fanboys) and 0 stars (everyone else). Look at those fools going on about the revolutionary new soundscapes presented in Kid A. Goddam it, I don't want to hear a soundscape. I want to listen to some goddam music. Get it? It all fell into place for me when I was listening to a radio interview of Thom Yorke a while ago. The interviewer asked him, are you guys planning any more albums? His response was no, they'd fulfilled their recording contract and they were going to work on their own projects now. Aha; that's why the last two albums were shite. Gotta get something out there to wrap up that contract. If a few gullible fools buy into your brand new soundscapes, so much the better. I hope you and Björk are very happy together.

But this isn't a review of Kid A, it's a review of The Bends, which is a damned fine album. It's a little on the mellow side, nothing to get really wound up about, perhaps even a little depressing. But that's really standard Radiohead fare, and if you know Radiohead you know what you're getting into. Give it a listen. 4/5.