Album review: The Bends
Mar. 3rd, 2009 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juliet(One of the things on my 101 things list is to listen to & review some old albums - by which I basically mean anything I bought more than a year ago, I guess.)
I put this on, and the first chords of Planet Telex kicked in, and I said "Fuck, I'd forgotten how awesome this is". And that was basically what happened repeatedly for the rest of the album. I don't listen to albums so often any more - I tend to put the iPod on random, or pick a playlist. I don't think I've listened to this particular album in - possibly in years, actually.
It's so guitar-y! You can hear the edges of their later directions; but this is songs with guitars and regular tunes, and dammit, I like that.
Of course, I have history with this album (well, with Radiohead in general), which affects the way I hear it. I can't hear High and Dry without hearing the live version behind it: Thom sounding like he's ripping himself apart, so much more than the album version. Or Fake Plastic Trees without remembering them headlining Glastonbury 1997, a field-full of people holding their breath as FPT faded out. (And it still makes my breath catch.)
Bones has that twang/echo guitar sound (I should remember the name of that pedal!) that I associate with that-era REM, as well. Sounding a bit more dated than some of the rest.
Just is another case of over a decade of history - of dancing in clubs and at parties, and, these days, at my mates' weddings. I do not think I am capable of listening to this without headbanging just a little bit, at least.
[ counts the bar out in the middle... ]
[ barely resists getting up and jumping around the living-room a bit ]
Aw, man, the soaringness of the chorus of Sulk is so gorgeous.
The (very splendid) Holy Roman Empire cover of Street Spirit thankfully hasn't spoilt it for me. It still catches at the back of my neck; makes me shut my eyes and put my head back.
Overwhelmingly, I just love it *all*. It's beautifully uplifting - I've been pottering around cooking & reading the internets this evening, beaming happily to myself every time a particularly awesome bit comes on. I am obviously still an indiekid at heart, however much psytrance I might listen to these days. Hurrah.
I put this on, and the first chords of Planet Telex kicked in, and I said "Fuck, I'd forgotten how awesome this is". And that was basically what happened repeatedly for the rest of the album. I don't listen to albums so often any more - I tend to put the iPod on random, or pick a playlist. I don't think I've listened to this particular album in - possibly in years, actually.
It's so guitar-y! You can hear the edges of their later directions; but this is songs with guitars and regular tunes, and dammit, I like that.
Of course, I have history with this album (well, with Radiohead in general), which affects the way I hear it. I can't hear High and Dry without hearing the live version behind it: Thom sounding like he's ripping himself apart, so much more than the album version. Or Fake Plastic Trees without remembering them headlining Glastonbury 1997, a field-full of people holding their breath as FPT faded out. (And it still makes my breath catch.)
Bones has that twang/echo guitar sound (I should remember the name of that pedal!) that I associate with that-era REM, as well. Sounding a bit more dated than some of the rest.
Just is another case of over a decade of history - of dancing in clubs and at parties, and, these days, at my mates' weddings. I do not think I am capable of listening to this without headbanging just a little bit, at least.
[ counts the bar out in the middle... ]
[ barely resists getting up and jumping around the living-room a bit ]
Aw, man, the soaringness of the chorus of Sulk is so gorgeous.
The (very splendid) Holy Roman Empire cover of Street Spirit thankfully hasn't spoilt it for me. It still catches at the back of my neck; makes me shut my eyes and put my head back.
Overwhelmingly, I just love it *all*. It's beautifully uplifting - I've been pottering around cooking & reading the internets this evening, beaming happily to myself every time a particularly awesome bit comes on. I am obviously still an indiekid at heart, however much psytrance I might listen to these days. Hurrah.
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-03 01:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-03 09:26 pm (UTC)Pablo Honey (which is the only one I don't have with me on the laptop, though I have it at home) is fun, but no, not the same.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-04 09:03 am (UTC)Ha, it's actually cheaper to buy it physically from Amazon (4.95) than to buy the download (6.49). That's ridiculous!
Planet Telex
Date: 2009-03-04 12:48 am (UTC)I thought it was more or less impossible to have been a teenager in the 1990s and not like this album.
Re: Planet Telex
Date: 2009-03-04 01:00 am (UTC)can't get the stink off, he's been hanging around for days
Date: 2009-03-05 05:24 am (UTC)I rediscovered The Bends after a LONG absence about 4 years ago and was all of the 'my love! why did I ever forsake you!' And yes, re Street Spirit, it just tingles, doesn't it?
Re: can't get the stink off, he's been hanging around for days
Date: 2009-03-06 02:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-08 07:08 pm (UTC)