| The Bends | ||||
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| Released | 13 March 1995 (1995-03-13) | |||
| Recorded | 1993 ("High and Dry") February–November 1994 | |||
| Venue | London Astoria, London | |||
| Studio |
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| Genre | ||||
| Length | 48:33 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer |
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| Radiohead chronology | ||||
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| Singles from The Bends | ||||
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The Bends is the second studio album by the English rock bandRadiohead, released on 13 March 1995 byParlophone. It was produced byJohn 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 atRAK 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 atAbbey Road in London andthe Manor in Oxfordshire.The Bends was the first Radiohead album recorded with Godrich and the artistStanley Donwood, who have worked on every Radiohead album since.
Several singles were released, backed by music videos: "My Iron Lung", the double A-side "High and Dry / Planet Telex", "Fake Plastic Trees", "Just", and Radiohead's first top-five entry on theUK 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 forThe Bends, including US tours supportingR.E.M. andAlanis Morissette.
The Bends reached number four on theUK Albums Chart, but failed to build on the success of "Creep" outside the UK, reaching number 88 on the USBillboard 200. It received greater acclaim thanPablo Honey, including a nomination forBest British Album at theBrit Awards 1996, and elevated Radiohead fromone-hit-wonders to one of the most recognised British bands. It is frequently named one of the greatest albums of all time, cited in lists includingColin Larkin'sAll Time Top 1000 Albums and all three editions ofRolling Stone's lists of the500 Greatest Albums of All Time.The Bends is credited for influencing a generation ofpost-Britpop acts, such asColdplay,Muse andTravis. It iscertified platinum in the US and quadruple platinum in the UK.
Radiohead released their debut album,Pablo Honey, in 1993. By the time they began their first US tour early that year, their debut single, "Creep", had become a hit.[1] The band felt pressured by the success and mounting expectations.[2] Following the tours, the singer,Thom Yorke, became ill and Radiohead cancelled an appearance at the 1993Reading Festival. He toldNME: "Physically I'm completely fucked and mentally I've had enough."[3]
According to some reports, Radiohead's record company,EMI, gave them six months to "get sorted" or be dropped. EMI'sA&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 fromPablo Honey."[3]
After Radiohead finished recordingPablo Honey, Yorke played the co-producerPaul Q. Kolderie a demo tape of new material with the working titleThe Benz. Kolderie was shocked to find the songs were "all better than anything onPablo Honey".[3] The guitaristEd O'Brien said later: "After all that touring onPablo Honey ... the songs that Thom was writing were so much better. Over a period of a year and a half, suddenly,bang."[4] Kolderie credited Radiohead'sPablo Honey tours for "turning them into a tight band".[5]
To produce their next album, Radiohead selectedJohn Leckie, who had produced records by acts they admired, such asMagazine.[3][6] Leckie did not likePablo Honey, but saw potential in Radiohead's new demos, Yorke's vocals and the three-guitar lineup.[7] The drummer,Philip Selway, said Radiohead were reassured by how relaxed and open-minded Leckie was on their first meeting.[6] 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.[8] 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".[3]
Recording was postponed so Leckie could work on the albumCarnival of Light, by another Oxford band,Ride.[9] Radiohead used the extra time to rehearse in a disused barn on an Oxfordshire fruit farm in January 1994.[10][11] 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."[10]
EMI gave Radiohead nine weeks to record the album,[3] planning to release it in October 1994.[12] Work began atRAK Studios in London in February 1994.[2] Yorke would arrive at the studio early and work alone at the piano; according to Leckie, "New songs were pouring out of him."[3] The band praised Leckie for demystifying the studio environment. The guitaristJonny 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."[13]
WhereasPablo Honey was mostly written by Yorke,The Bends saw greater collaboration.[12] Previously, all three guitarists had often played identical parts, creating a "dense, fuzzy wall" of sound. TheirBends roles were more divided, with Yorke generally playingrhythm, Greenwoodlead and Ed O'Brien providing effects.[12] O'Brien described theBoss DD-5, adelay pedal, as important to the album's sound.[14] The band also created more restrained arrangements; in O'Brien's words, "We were very aware of something onThe Bends that we weren't aware of onPablo Honey... If it sounded really great with Thom playing acoustic with Phil and [Colin], what was the point in trying to add something more?"[12]
"Planet Telex" began with adrum loop taken from another song, the B-side "Killer Cars", and was written and recorded in a single evening at RAK.[15] "(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".[12] Not satisfied with the versions of "My Iron Lung" recorded at RAK, Radiohead used a live recording from theLondon Astoria, with Yorke's vocals replaced and the audience removed.[13]
Radiohead made several efforts to record "Fake Plastic Trees". O'Brien likened one version to theGuns N' Roses song "November Rain", saying it was "pompous and bombastic ... just the worst".[12] Eventually, Leckie recorded Yorke playing "Fake Plastic Trees" alone, which the rest of the band used to build the final song.[12] "High and Dry" was recorded the previous year at Courtyard Studios, Oxfordshire, by Radiohead's live sound engineer, Jim Warren.[12] Yorke later said it was a "very bad" song that EMI had pressured him into releasing.[16]
"The Bends", "(Nice Dream)" and "Just" were identified as potential singles and became the focus of the early sessions, which created tension.[7] 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."[7] Yorke in particular struggled with the pressure, and Radiohead's co-manager Chris Hufford considered quitting, citing Yorke's "mistrust of everybody".[7] Jonny Greenwood spent days testing new guitar equipment, searching for a distinctive sound, before reverting to hisTelecaster.[7][3] The bassist,Colin Greenwood, described the period as "eight weeks of hell and torture".[17] According to Yorke, "We had days of painful self-analysis, a total fucking meltdown for two fucking months."[12] O'Brien said each member examined their options for leaving their contracts.[18]
With the October deadline abandoned, recording paused in May and June while Radiohead toured Europe, Japan and Australasia.[12] Work resumed for two weeks in July at theManor studio in Oxfordshire, where Radiohead completed songs including "Bones", "Sulk" and "The Bends".[7] This was followed by tours of the UK, Thailand and Mexico. In Mexico, the band members had a major argument.[18] 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."[18] 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".[7]
Recording ended in November 1994 atAbbey Road Studios in London.[12][19] Selway said the album was recorded in about four months total.[6] While LeckiemixedThe Bends at Abbey Road, EMI grew concerned that he was taking too long.[3][19] Without his knowledge, they sent tracks toSean Slade andPaul Q. Kolderie, who had producedPablo Honey, to mix instead. 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."[3] Only three of Leckie's mixes were used on the album.[3]
The Bends was Radiohead's first collaboration withNigel Godrich, whoengineered the RAK sessions. When Leckie left the studio to attend a social engagement, Godrich and the band stayed to recordB-sides. One song, "Black Star", was included on the album.[12] Godrich produced all of Radiohead's later albums.[12]
The Bends has been described asalternative rock[20][21] andindie rock.[22] LikePablo Honey, it features guitar-oriented rock songs, but its songs are "more spacey and odd", according toThe Gazette's Bill Reed.[23] The music is more eclectic thanPablo Honey;[24] Colin Greenwood said Radiohead wanted to distinguish themselves fromPablo Honey and thatThe Bends better represented their style.[25]Pitchfork wrote that it contrasts warmth and tension, riffs and texture, and rock andpost-rock.[26] Several critics identified it as aBritpop album, though Radiohead disliked Britpop, seeing it as a "backwards-looking" pastiche.[27][28][29]
The criticSimon Reynolds wrote thatThe Bends brought an "Englishart rock element" to the fore of Radiohead's sound.[30] 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.'"[7] Reed described the album as "intriguingly disturbed" and "bipolar". He likened "The Bends" to the late music ofthe Beatles, described "My Iron Lung" ashard 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".[23]
Rolling Stone describedThe Bends as a "mix of sonic guitar anthems and striking ballads", with lyrics evoking a "haunted landscape" of sickness, consumerism, jealousy and longing.[31] Several songs evoke a "sense of a disintegrated or disconnected subject".[32] 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.[12] Jonny Greenwood saidThe Bends was about "illness and doctors... revulsion about our own bodies".[18] Yorke said it was "an incredibly personal album, which is why I spent most of my time denying that it was personal at all".[18] The album title, a term fordecompression sickness, references Radiohead's rapid rise to fame with "Creep". Yorke said, "We just came up too fast."[33]
In "Fake Plastic Trees", Yorke laments the effects of consumerism on modern relationships.[32] It was inspired by the commercial development ofCanary Wharf and a performance byJeff Buckley, who inspired Yorke to usefalsetto.[34][35]Sasha Frere-Jones compared its melody to the "second theme of aSchubert string quartet".[36] In "Just", Jonny Greenwood playsoctatonic scales that extend over four octaves,[37] influenced by the 1978Magazine song "Shot by Both Sides".[38] With the use of aDigiTech Whammy pedal, Greenwoodpitch-shifts the solo into a high, piercing frequency.[5][39] Greenwood also uses the Whammy for the opening riff of "My Iron Lung", creating a "glitchy, lo-fi" sound.[40] According to Randall, "My Iron Lung" transitions from a "jangly" opening hook to a "McCartney-esque verse melody" and "pulverising guitar explosions" in the bridge.[12]
"Sulk" was written as a response to theHungerford massacre. It originally ended with the lyric "just shoot your gun". Yorke omitted it afterthe suicide of theNirvana frontmanKurt Cobain in 1994, as he did not want listeners to believe it was an allusion to Cobain.[41] "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" was inspired byR.E.M. and the 1991 novelThe Famished Road byBen Okri;[42] the lyrics detail an escape from an oppressive reality.[32] The journalistRob Sheffield described "Street Spirit", "Planet Telex" and "High and Dry" as a "big-band dystopian epic".[43]
The Bends was the first Radiohead album with artwork byStanley Donwood, who has worked with Yorke to create all of Radiohead's artwork since.[44] Donwood met Yorke while they were students at theUniversity of Exeter, and previously created artwork for theMy Iron Lung EP.[44] ForThe Bends, Yorke and Donwood hired a cassette camera and filmed objects including road signs, packaging and street lights. They entered a hospital to film aniron lung, but, according to Donwood, found that iron lungs "are not very interesting to look at". Instead, they filmed aCPR mannequin, which Donwood described as having "a facial expression like that of an android discovering for the first time the sensations of ecstasy and agony, simultaneously".[45] To create the cover image, the pair displayed the footage on a television set and photographed the screen.[45]
In September 1994,EMI released theMy Iron Lung EP, comprising "My Iron Lung" plusBends outtakes.[12] "My Iron Lung" was also released as a single.[46] The A&R VP Perry Watts-Russel said EMI did not pursue radio play as "My Iron Lung" was intended for fans rather than as thelead single forThe Bends.[47]
The Bends was released at the height of Britpop, when the British music charts were dominated by bands such asOasis andBlur, and initially made little impact.[48] It was released in Japan on 8 March 1995 by EMI,[49] and in the UK on 13 March byParlophone Records.[50] It spent 16 weeks on theUK Albums Chart, reaching number four.[51] On the same day as the UK release, Radiohead's performance at theLondon Astoria in May 1994 was released on VHS asLive at the Astoria,[52] including severalBends tracks.[53]
In the US,The Bends was released on 4 April by EMI's North American subsidiary,Capitol Records.[50] According to the journalistTim Footman, Capitol almost refused to release it, feeling it lacked hit singles.[54] It debuted at the bottom of the USBillboard 200 in the week of 13 May[55] and reached number 147 in the week of 24 June.[56] However, its US sales slowly improved.[57] It re-entered the chart in the week of 17 February 1996,[58] and reached number 88 on 20 April,[59] almost exactly a year after its release. On 4 April,The Bends wascertified gold in the US for sales of half a million copies.[60] Though it remains Radiohead's lowest-charting album in the US, it was certified platinum in January 1999 for sales of one million copies.[61]
Interest from influential musicians such as theR.E.M. vocalistMichael Stipe, combined with several distinctive music videos, helped sustain Radiohead's popularity outside the UK.[62] The US critic Barry Walters wrote that the videos "confirmed that this was a band that was nailing the sweet spot between accessibility and mystery".[57] "Fake Plastic Trees" was used in the 1995 filmClueless and is credited for introducing Radiohead to a larger American audience.[63] According to theMTV hostMatt Pinfield, record companies would ask why MTV kept promotingThe Bends when it was selling less than their albums; his reply was: "Because it's great!"[64] Yorke thanked Pinfield by giving him a gold record ofThe Bends.[64]
The Bends slowly found fans through word of mouth.[48] Selway credited the videos for helpingThe Bends "gradually seep into people's consciousness".[6] Colin Greenwood wrote later: "I spoke to so many music writers who'd receivedThe Bends as a promo, left it to gather dust on top of their PC tower, and hadn't bothered to play it until word of mouth nudged them."[48] By the end of 1996,The Bends had sold around two million copies worldwide.[65] In the UK, it was certified platinum in February 1996 for sales of over 300,000, and was certified quadruple platinum in July 2013.[66]
According to Hufford, American audiences were disappointed by the lack of a "Creep"-style song onThe Bends. In response, Capitol chose "Fake Plastic Trees" as the first US single, to further distance Radiohead from "Creep".[67] It failed to enter the USBillboard Hot 100, but reached number 20 on theUK singles chart.[15] "Just", released in the UK on August 21, reached number 19. It was not released as a single in the US, but its music video, directed byJamie Thraves, received attention there.[15] The next US single, thedouble A-side "High and Dry" and "Planet Telex", reached number 78.[15] "Street Spirit (Fade Out)", released in January 1996, reached number five on the UK singles chart, surpassing "Creep" and demonstrating that Radiohead were notone-hit wonders.[15] "The Bends" was released as a single in Ireland and reached number 26 on theIrish Singles Chart in August 1996.[68]
Radiohead toured extensively forThe Bends, with performances in North America, Europe and Japan.[15] They first toured in support ofSoul Asylum, then R.E.M., one of their formative influences and one of the world's biggest rock bands at the time.[62] Yorke said about the tour with R.E.M: "Everything that we've come to expect was completely turned on its head. Like the idea that you get to a certain level and you lose it. Everything was amicable and there was no bitchiness or pettiness about it."[67] The US tour included a performance at theKROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas concert at theUniversal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, alongsideOasis,Alanis Morissette,No Doubt andPorno for Pyros. The Capitol employee Clark Staub described the performance as a "key stepping stone" for Radiohead in the US.[15]
Before a performance in Denver, Colorado, Radiohead's tour van was stolen and with it their musical equipment. Yorke and Jonny Greenwood performed a stripped-down set with rented instruments and several shows were cancelled. Greenwood was reunited with his stolenFender Telecaster Plus in 2015 after a fan recognised it as one they had purchased in Denver in the 1990s.[69] In November 1995, Yorke became sick and collapsed on stage at a show in Munich.NME covered the incident in a story titled "Thommy's Temper Tantrum". Yorke said it was the most hurtful thing anyone had written about him, and refused to give interviews toNME for five years.[18]
In March 1996, Radiohead toured the US again and performed onThe Tonight Show and120 Minutes. In mid-1996, they played at European festivals includingPinkpop in Holland,Tourhout Werchter in Belgium andT in the Park in Scotland.[15] That August, Radiohead toured as the opening act for Alanis Morissette,[70] performing early versions of songs from their next album,OK Computer.[29] Morissette said later: "It was really grounding for me to be with such bona-fide-to-the-bone artists. It felt really validating because the industry was very wild and patriarchal, so to be on the road with such true savants was a gift for me."[8]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Chicago Tribune |   [71] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+[72] |
| The Guardian | [73] |
| Los Angeles Times | [74] |
| NME | 9/10[22] |
| Q | [75] |
| Rolling Stone |  [76] |
| Select | 4/5[77] |
| Spin | 5/10[78] |
| The Village Voice | C[79] |
The Bends brought Radiohead significant critical attention.[23] TheGuardian critic Caroline Sullivan wrote that Radiohead had "transformed themselves from nondescript guitar-beaters to potential arena-fillers ... The grandeur may eventually pall, as it has withU2, but it's been years since big bumptious rock sounded this emotional."[73]Q describedThe Bends as a "powerful, bruised, majestically desperate record of frighteningly good songs".[75] InNME, Mark Sutherland wrote that "Radiohead clearly resolved to make an album so stunning it would make people forget their own name, never mind ['Creep']", describing it as "the consummate, all-encompassing, continent-straddling '90s rock record".[22] Dave Morrison ofSelect wrote that it "captures and clarifies a much wider trawl of moods thanPablo Honey" and praised Radiohead as "one of the UK's big league, big-rock assets".[77]NME andMelody Maker namedThe Bends among the top ten albums of the year.[24]
Critical reception in the US was mixed.[57]Chuck Eddy ofSpin deemed much ofThe Bends "nodded-out nonsense mumble, not enough concrete emotion",[78] while Kevin McKeough from theChicago Tribune panned Yorke's lyrics as "self-absorbed" and the music as overblown and pretentious.[71] InThe Village Voice,Robert Christgau wrote that the guitar parts and expressions of angst were skilful and natural, but lacked depth: "The words achieve precisely the same pitch of aesthetic necessity as the music, which is none at all."[79] In theLos Angeles Times, Sandy Morris praised Yorke as "almost as enticingly enigmatic asSmashing Pumpkins'Billy Corgan, though of a more delicate constitution".[74]
In 1997, Jonny Greenwood saidThe Bends had been a "turning point" for Radiohead: "It started appearing in people's [best of] polls for the end of the year. That's when it started to feel like we made the right choice about being a band."[80] The success gave Radiohead the confidence to self-produce their next album,OK Computer (1997), with Godrich.[81]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | [82] |
| The A.V. Club | A[83] |
| Blender | [84] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [85] |
| Entertainment Weekly | A[86] |
| Pitchfork | 10/10[87] |
| Q | [88] |
| Rolling Stone | [89] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [43] |
| Uncut | [90] |
In 2015, Selway saidThe Bends originated the "Radiohead aesthetic", aided by Donwood's artwork.[6] The journalistRob Sheffield recalled that it "shocked the world", elevating Radiohead from "pasty British boys to a very 70s kind of UK art-rock godhead".[43] It attracted interest from high-profile musicians and film stars.[30]
Two years after its release, theGuardian critic Caroline Sullivan wrote thatThe Bends had taken Radiohead from "indie one hit-wonder" into the "premier league of respected British rock bands".[91] TheRolling Stone journalist Jordan Runtagh wrote in 2012 thatThe Bends was "a musically dense and emotionally complex masterwork that erased their one-hit-wonder status forever".[92] AnotherRolling Stone critic, Barry Walters, who had previously dismissed Radiohead as one of "plenty of second-hand, third-tier, fake-Seattle bands canvassing the US", wrote thatThe Bends "sustained the tunes that supported their seriousness, and put the 'Creep'-enabled money being thrown at them to good use".[57]
The writerNick Hornby wrote in 2000 that, withThe Bends, Radiohead "found their voice ... No other contemporary band has managed to mix such a cocktail of rage, sarcasm, self-pity, exquisite tunefulness and braininess."[93] In 2009, thePitchfork critic Scott Plagenhoef wrote thatThe Bends was a "more approachable and loveable version" of Radiohead and remained many fans' favourite album.[26] He argued that it presented a transition from Britpop to "the more feminine, emotionally engaging music that would emerge in the UK a few years later", led byOK Computer.[26] In March 2025, the 30th anniversary ofThe Bends, Radiohead posted footage of Yorke performing at theHorseshoe Tavern in Toronto on March 28th, 1995.[94]
The Bends influenced a generation of British and Irish acts, includingColdplay,Keane,James Blunt,Muse,Athlete,Elbow,Snow Patrol,Kodaline,Turin Brakes andTravis.[28][34]Pitchfork credited songs as such as "High and Dry" and "Fake Plastic Trees" for anticipating the "airbrushed"post-Britpop of Coldplay and Travis.[28] Acts includingGarbage, R.E.M. andk.d. lang began to cite Radiohead as a favourite band.[95]The Cure contacted Radiohead to inquire about theBends production in the hope of replicating it.[24]
In 2006,The Observer namedThe Bends one of "the 50 albums that changed music", saying it had popularised an "angst-laden falsetto ... a thoughtful opposite to the chest-beating lad-rock personified byOasis", which "eventually coalesced into an entire decade of sound".[96] Yorke held contempt for the style of rockThe Bends popularised, feeling other acts had copied him. He said in 2006: "I was really, really upset about it, and I tried my absolute best not to be, but yeah, it was kind of like— that sort of thing of missing the point completely."[97] Godrich felt Yorke was oversensitive and had not invented "guys singing in falsetto with an acoustic guitar".[8]
In 2000, in a vote of more than 200,000 music fans and journalists,The Bends was named the second-greatest album of all time behindRevolver (1966) by theBeatles.[98]Q readers voted it the second-best album in 1998 and 2006, behindOK Computer.[99][100]Colin Larkin named it the second-best album of all time in the 2000 edition ofAll Time Top 1000 Albums.[101] It was included in the 2005 book1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[102]Rolling Stone included it at number 110 on its original 2003 list of the500 Greatest Albums of All Time, at 111 in its 2012 list,[103] and at 276 in its 2020 list.[104] In 2003,Rolling Stone included "Fake Plastic Trees" at number 385 on its list of the500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[105]
In 2006,The Bends reached number 10 in a worldwide poll of the great albums organised byBritish Hit Singles & Albums andNME.[106]Paste named it the 11th-greatest album of the 1990s.[107] In 2020, theIndependent named it the best album of 1995, writing: "Downbeat, melancholic, yet wonderfully melodic and uplifting ...The Bends stood apart from Britpop and everything else in the storied year of 1995."[108] In 2017,Pitchfork namedThe Bends the third-greatestBritpop album, writing that its "epic portrayal of drift and disenchantment secures its reluctant spot in Britpop's pantheon".[28]
Radiohead left EMI after their contract ended in 2003.[109] In 2007, EMI releasedRadiohead Box Set, a compilation of albums recorded while Radiohead were signed to EMI, includingThe Bends.[109] On 31 August 2009, EMI reissuedThe Bends and other Radiohead albums in a "Collector's Edition" compiling B-sides and live performances. Radiohead had no input into the reissue and the music was not remastered.[110][26][111]
In February 2013, Parlophone was bought byWarner Music Group (WMG).[112] In April 2016, as a result of an agreement with the trade groupImpala, WMG transferred Radiohead's back catalogue toXL Recordings. The EMI reissues, released without Radiohead's consent, were removed from streaming services.[113] In May 2016, XL reissued Radiohead's back catalogue on vinyl, includingThe Bends.[114]
All songs written byRadiohead.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Planet Telex" | 4:19 |
| 2. | "The Bends" | 4:06 |
| 3. | "High and Dry" | 4:17 |
| 4. | "Fake Plastic Trees" | 4:50 |
| 5. | "Bones" | 3:09 |
| 6. | "(Nice Dream)" | 3:53 |
| 7. | "Just" | 3:54 |
| 8. | "My Iron Lung" | 4:36 |
| 9. | "Bullet Proof..I Wish I Was" | 3:28 |
| 10. | "Black Star" | 4:07 |
| 11. | "Sulk" | 3:42 |
| 12. | "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" | 4:12 |
| Total length: | 48:33 | |
Adapted from the liner notes.[115]
Radiohead
Additional musicians
| Production
Design
|
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Argentina (CAPIF)[136] | Gold | 30,000^ |
| Belgium (BEA)[137] | Gold | 25,000* |
| Canada (Music Canada)[138] | 3× Platinum | 300,000^ |
| Italy (FIMI)[139] sales since 2009 | Gold | 25,000‡ |
| Netherlands (NVPI)[140] | Gold | 50,000^ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[141] | Platinum | 15,000^ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[143] | 4× Platinum | 1,248,350[142] |
| United States (RIAA)[145] | Platinum | 1,540,000[144] |
| Summaries | ||
| Europe (IFPI)[146] | Platinum | 1,000,000* |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. | ||
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.
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link){{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)Bibliography
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