Reviews
Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's.", Ranked #16 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "With songs of such unpredictable elegance they would touch the heart in any setting.", "...THE BENDS' greatest asset is its approximation of London Suede, all the parody and none of the pomp....THE BENDS proves that Radiohead didn't shoot their bolt with `Creep.' That there's a lot more stirring down there than their recent past might admit...", "...Sometimes folky, sometimes rocky, the sophomore album from this English band offers a smorgasbord of guitar flavors, most of them tasty, The stylistic leaps make for schizoid listening....but give these boys credit for not standing still..." - Rating: B+, Ranked #6 on Melody Maker's list of 1995's `Albums Of The Year' - "Rock as self-evisceration....consistently, savagely brilliant...", Ranked #30 in The NME "Top 30 Heartbreak Albums" - "...Suburban bleakness....More personal than OK COMPUTER and all the more chilling for it.", 5 Stars Out of 5 -- "It Had It All....Yorke's Gloriously Acerbic Sarcasm Ringing True Throughout.", Ranked #110 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "Operatic, marrying a majestic and somber guitar sound to the virtuosic urgency of Thom Yorke's vocals...", "Fourteen years later, Coldplay and dozens of lesser imitators are still hammering away at the stadium-size melancholy Radiohead perfected here.", Ranked #4 in Q's "Best 50 Albums of Q's Lifetime", "On these dozen songs, Yorke comes into his own as a troubled, enigmatic lyricist and howler of haunted melodies.", 3.5 Stars - Very Good - "...THE BENDS is a sonically ambitious album that offers no easy hits. It's a guitar field day, blending acoustic strumming with twitches of fuzzy tremolo and eruptions of amplified paranoia...", Ranked #4 in Nme's `Top 50 Albums of the Year' for 1995., Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums of the 1990s.", "THE BENDS was essentially split between these poles: warmth and tension; riffs and texture; rock and post-rock...", Included in Q's 50 Best Albums of 1995 - "...THE BENDS' lasting mightiness is confirmed--as is the scary impression that they'll only get better...", Ranked #35 in Q's "100 Greatest British Albums", 4.5 Stars Out of 5 -- "With a Wild Sweep of Sound Colors and Exploded Emotional Palette..."
