Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1995…
#4 – The Bends – Radiohead
The most critically celebrated Radiohead album of the 90s is 1997’s OK Computer, and deservedly so. But I’ve always been partial to the band’s sophomore release, The Bends.
This album finds the band in a sweet spot between the straight-forward grunge of their debut Pablo Honey and the more experimental rock of future releases. The songs here are rather conventional but, due to the band’s performance and Thom Yorke’s yearning vocals, they’re extremely emotionally effective.
The best song on The Bends is ‘Fake Plastic Trees,’ a passionate and mournful screed against consumerism. If I ever get around to coming up with a “favorite 100 songs” list, that one has a shot at it.
The Bends remains Radiohead’s second best-selling album, behind OK Computer, going 4x platinum in the UK and moving a million and a half copies in the U.S. It produced four top twenty hits in the UK (though only today’s song cracked the Hot 100 in the U.S.).
Two jumps in a week, I bet you
Think that’s pretty clever, don’t you, boy
Flying on your motorcycle
Watching all the ground beneath you drop
You’d kill yourself for recognition
Kill yourself to never, ever stop
You broke another mirror
You’re turning into something you are not
[Chorus]
Don’t leave me high
Don’t leave me dry
Don’t leave me high
Don’t leave me dry
[Verse 2]
Drying up in conversation
You will be the one who cannot talk
All your insides fall to pieces
You just sit there wishing you could still make love
They’re the ones who’ll hate you
When you think you’ve got the world all sussed out
They’re the ones who’ll spit at you
You will be the one screaming out
[Chorus]
Don’t leave me high
Don’t leave me dry
Don’t leave me high
Don’t leave me dry
[Guitar Solo]
[Bridge]
Oh, it’s the best thing that you’ve ever had
The best thing that you’ve ever, ever had
It’s the best thing that you’ve ever had
The best thing you’ve had has gone away
[Chorus]
So don’t leave me high
Don’t leave me dry
Don’t leave me high
Don’t leave me dry
Don’t leave me high
Don’t leave me high
Don’t leave me dry
Meet Me In Montauk 
My first impression of Radiohead came from them opening for REM. I was decidedly not a fan of most of what I heard that night and, unlike you, never sought out more from them. I do, however, appreciate “Creep” and the handful of songs you have featured – sparing me from the rest of their discography.
My favorite band.
I remember being very concerned about my unborn daughter’s delicate growing eardrums during the opening act for my beloved REM and wondering why we were being subjected to this “music.”
Never really gave them a chance after that inauspicious introduction.