The Bends is the second studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 13 March 1995 by Parlophone. It was produced by John Leckie, with extra production by Radiohead, Nigel Godrich and Jim Warren. The Bends combines guitar songs and ballads, with more restrained arrangements and cryptic lyrics than Radiohead's debut album, Pablo Honey (1993).
Work began at RAK Studios, London, in February 1994. Tensions were high, with pressure from Parlophone to match sales of Radiohead's debut single, "Creep", and progress was slow. After an international tour in May and June, Radiohead resumed work at Abbey Road in London and the Manor in Oxfordshire. The Bends was the first Radiohead album recorded with Godrich and the artist Stanley Donwood, who have worked on every Radiohead album since.
Several singles were released: "My Iron Lung", the double A-side "High and Dry / Planet Telex", "Fake Plastic Trees", "Just", and Radiohead's first top-five entry on the UK singles chart, "Street Spirit (Fade Out)". "The Bends" was also released as a single in Ireland. A live video, Live at the Astoria, was released on VHS. Radiohead toured extensively for The Bends, including US tours supporting R.E.M. and Alanis Morissette.
The Bends reached number four on the UK Albums Chart. It sold slowly in the US, but sales grew through word of mouth, positive reviews and distinctive music videos. It was eventually certified platinum in the US and quadruple platinum in the UK. The Bends was nominated for Best British Album at the Brit Awards 1996 and elevated Radiohead from one-hit-wonders to one of the most recognised British bands, credited for influencing a generation of post-Britpop acts such as Coldplay, Muse and Travis. It is cited in best-of lists including Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums and all three editions of Rolling Stone's lists of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Background Radiohead released their debut album, Pablo Honey, in 1993, featuring the hit single "Creep". They felt pressured by the success and mounting expectations. Following the world tour for Pablo Honey, the singer, Thom Yorke, became ill and Radiohead cancelled an appearance at the 1993 Reading Festival. He told NME: "Physically I'm completely fucked and mentally I've had enough."
According to some reports, Radiohead's record company, EMI, gave them six months to "get sorted" or be dropped. EMI's A&R head, Keith Wozencroft, denied this, saying: "Experimental rock music was getting played and had commercial potential. People voice different paranoias, but for the label [Radiohead] were developing brilliantly from Pablo Honey."
After Radiohead finished recording Pablo Honey, Yorke played the co-producer Paul Q. Kolderie a demo tape of new material with the working title The Benz. Kolderie was shocked to find the songs were "all better than anything on Pablo Honey". The guitarist Ed O'Brien said later: "After all that touring on Pablo Honey ... the songs that Thom was writing were so much better. Over a period of a year and a half, suddenly, bang." Kolderie credited Radiohead's Pablo Honey tours for "turning them into a tight band".
To produce their second album, Radiohead selected John Leckie, who had produced records by acts they admired, such as Magazine. Leckie did not like Pablo Honey, but saw potential in Radiohead's new demos, Yorke's vocals and the three-guitar lineup. The drummer, Philip Selway, said Radiohead were reassured by how relaxed and open-minded Leckie was on their first meeting. According to O'Brien, the success of "Creep" meant that Radiohead were not in debt to EMI and so had more freedom on their next album. EMI asked Radiohead to deliver a followup to "Creep" for the American market; however, according to Leckie, Radiohead had disowned "Creep" and did not "think in terms of making hit singles".
Recording was postponed so Leckie could work on the album Carnival of Light, by another Oxford band, Ride. Radiohead used the extra time to rehearse in a disused barn on an Oxfordshire fruit farm in January 1994. Yorke said: "We had all of these songs and we really liked them, but we knew them almost too well ... so we had to sort of learn to like them again before we could record them, which is odd."
Recording
EMI gave Radiohead nine weeks to record the album, planning to release it in October 1994. Work began at RAK Studios in London in February 1994. Yorke would arrive at the studio early and work alone at the piano; according to Leckie, "New songs were pouring out of him." The band praised Leckie for demystifying the studio environment. The guitarist Jonny Greenwood said: "He didn't treat us like he had some kind of witchcraft that only he understands. There's no mystery to it, which is so refreshing." Leckie said Radiohead were "very democratic" and that each member's opinion was valid, which slowed the recording process.
Whereas Pablo Honey was mostly written by Yorke, The Bends saw greater collaboration. Previously, all three guitarists had often played identical parts, creating a "dense, fuzzy wall" of sound. Their Bends roles were more divided, with Yorke generally playing rhythm, Greenwood lead and O'Brien providing effects. O'Brien described the Boss DD-5, a delay pedal, as important to the album's sound. The band also created more restrained arrangements; in O'Brien's words: "We were very aware of something on The Bends that we weren't aware of on Pablo Honey... If it sounded really great with Thom playing acoustic with Phil and [Colin], what was the point in trying to add something more?"
"Planet Telex" began with a drum loop taken from another song, the B-side "Killer Cars", and was written and recorded in a single evening at RAK. "(Nice Dream)" began as a simple four-chord song by Yorke, and was expanded with extra parts by O'Brien and Greenwood. Much of "Just" was written by Greenwood, who, according to Yorke, "was trying to get as many chords as he could into a song". Not satisfied with the versions of "My Iron Lung" recorded at RAK, Radiohead used a live recording from the London Astoria, with Yorke's vocals replaced and the audience removed.
Radiohead made several efforts to record "Fake Plastic Trees". O'Brien likened one version to the Guns N' Roses song "November Rain", saying it was "pompous and bombastic ... just the worst". Eventually, Leckie recorded Yorke playing "Fake Plastic Trees" alone, which the rest of the band used to build the final song. "High and Dry" was recorded the previous year at Courtyard Studios, Oxfordshire, by Radiohead's live sound engineer, Jim Warren. Yorke later said it was a "very bad" song that EMI had pressured him into releasing.
"The Bends", "(Nice Dream)" and "Just" were identified as potential singles and became the focus of the early sessions, which created tension. Leckie recalled: "We had to give those absolute attention, make them amazing, instant smash hits, number one in America. Everyone was pulling their hair out saying, 'It's not good enough!' We were trying too hard." Yorke in particular struggled with the pressure, and Radiohead's co-manager Chris Hufford considered quitting, citing Yorke's "mistrust of everybody". Jonny Greenwood spent days testing new guitar equipment, searching for a distinctive sound, before reverting to his Telecaster. The bassist, Colin Greenwood, described the period as "eight weeks of hell and torture". According to Yorke, "We had days of painful self-analysis, a total fucking meltdown for two fucking months." O'Brien said each member examined their options for leaving their contracts.
With the October deadline abandoned, recording paused in May and June while Radiohead toured Europe, Japan and Australasia. Work resumed for two weeks in July at the Manor studio in Oxfordshire, where Radiohead completed songs including "Bones", "Sulk" and "The Bends". This was followed by tours of the UK, Thailand and Mexico. In Mexico, the band members had a major argument. Yorke said: "Years of tension and not saying anything to each other, and basically all the things that had built up since we'd met each other, all came out in one day. We were spitting and fighting and crying and saying all the things that you don't want to talk about. It completely changed and we went back and did the album and it all made sense." The tour gave Radiohead a new sense of purpose and their relationships improved. Hufford encouraged them to make the album they wanted instead of worrying about "product and units".
Recording ended in November 1994 at Abbey Road Studios in London. Selway said the album was recorded in about four months total. While Leckie mixed The Bends at Abbey Road, EMI grew concerned that he was taking too long. Without his knowledge, they enlisted Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie, who had produced Pablo Honey. Leckie disliked their mixes, finding them "brash", but later said: "I went through a bit of trauma at the time, but maybe they chose the best thing." Only three of Leckie's mixes were used.
The Bends was Radiohead's first collaboration with Nigel Godrich, who engineered the RAK sessions. When Leckie left the studio to attend a social engagement, Godrich and the band stayed to record B-sides. One song, "Black Star", was included on the album. Godrich produced all of Radiohead's later albums.
Music
The Bends has been described as alternative rock, indie rock, art rock, and post-grunge. Like Pablo Honey, it features guitar-oriented rock songs, but its songs are "more spacey and odd", according to The Gazette's Bill Reed. The music is more eclectic than Pablo Honey, and Colin Greenwood said The Bends better represented their style. Pitchfork wrote that it contrasts warmth and tension, riffs and texture, and rock and post-rock. Several critics identified it as a Britpop album, though Radiohead disliked Britpop, seeing it as a "backwards-looking" pastiche.
The critic Simon Reynolds wrote that The Bends brought an "English art rock element" to the fore of Radiohead's sound. 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.'" 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".
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. Several songs evoke a "sense of a disintegrated or disconnected subject". 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. Jonny Greenwood said The Bends was about "illness and doctors... revulsion about our own bodies". Yorke said it was "an incredibly personal album, which is why I spent most of my time denying that it was personal at all". 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."