Radiohead – The Bends + "Creep"

Radiohead first became commercially successful through their hit single “Creep”. It was a standard angst filled pop song but Radiohead quickly developed into something revolutionary. On some levels, The Bends contrasts the sound that Radiohead emitted through their first album’s hit single “Creep” because they begin to endeavor into new instrumental techniques. I like that they were attempting to find their own in the music world but this experimental process sometimes produced unappealing sounds throughout the album that made its singles rather hard to listen to at times. While the beginning of the album in “Planet Telex” is intriguing and unique, the harsh howling of wind gave me a headache with its shrillness. At other times, such as in “My Iron Lung”, I felt that they threw in random parts during the instrumental break that did not fit in with the rest of the song’s main countermelody. This blaring randomness sounds simply like noise and I personally feel that it detracts from the fluidness and overall quality of Radiohead’s singles.

Despite these awkward quirks that Radiohead tried desperately to work into their music, I generally found their music unique in a good way. The heavier texture of singles on The Bends makes it appeal to a different type of audience as “Creep” but I feel that I can get used to this type of music. The slow progression in popularity of this album supports my general feeling of this music growing on people. I think when The Bends initially came out, it probably came as a shocker to many of their fans, but as they began to realize that Radiohead was doing revolutionary things with their music that would set the stage later, the singles became more successful.

The thing is, while on the surface Radiohead’s second album may seem to greatly differ from their initial hit single, I personally feel that a lot of important qualities stayed the same or improved as time progressed. Their songs still maintained a steady pace that was spiced up with dynamic instrumentals intermediately parsed throughout the melody. Their songs still have the classic vocals of Thom Yorke which is so influential on giving the songs their heart and soul. One thing I love about Radiohead is that they are able to have powerful instrumentals and countermelodies while still preserving the main melody in the vocals. Yorke’s vocals provide so much talent and dynamic to the song. While they are mainly soft (in “Creep” and The Bends) he is able to add various fluctuations in his tone (and utilize a formidable false setto) that provide effective shifts in the song. His voice is able to make songs either extremely powerful or melancholy.

Another thing that Radiohead succeeded at later on in their discography is that they began endeavoring into deeper lyrics that embellished upon larger ideas. There were many powerful lyrics in the few singles that we were exposed to from The Bends and I feel that when these are paired with a strong, melancholy melody, a great deal of emotional weight can be derived from this. Their utilization of guitar strums and keyboards in revolutionary ways also enabled the power to bleed from each of their songs.

Lastly, I feel that Radiohead’s album was able to slowly succeed due to the fact of the changing music society. The way that people consume music greatly influences the success of various types of music and how music is created and produced. Although The Bends was not initially accepted into mass popularity when it was first released, I think the way the musical world was constructed enabled them to slowly build into success. As society developed into a world of consumers of singles rather than albums more, the individual songs off of The Bends enabled it to become more exposed to a wider audience. As people began to enjoy certain songs, I think they probably thought they would give others a chance as well. Additionally, this was around the time when music videos were blowing up in popularity. Radiohead, in order to keep up with the times, created many music videos to publicize their songs and illustrate the meaning of them. Keep in mind, this is the same band who first came out with the “pa what you want” album sales plan. While some music videos of theirs simply detract from the power and mood of the songs, I feel that others effectively convey a message (although sometimes cryptic at times). As we progressed throughout their discography, I was impressed at how the music video quality improved at a rapid rate.

Overall, I enjoyed all of Radiohead’s songs because they were able to effectively blend soft vocals and tone with powerful and intense countermelodies at times. By throwing meaningful lyrics into the mix, I feel that this band was very revolutionary.