at a glance...

Hometown: Oxford, England
Year Formed: 1987

Members:
Thom Yorke -vocals, guitar
Jonny Greenwood -guitars
Ed O'Brien -guitars
Colin Greenwood -bass
Phil Selway -drums

Bands In The Family:
UNKLE, Badly Drawn Boy, Unbelievable Truth, R.E.M., Björk, PJ Harvey

Notes:
On A Friday relied on hometown support of their first EP, Drill, before signing a major-label deal. Changing their name to Radiohead (from a Talking Heads song) the band released Pablo Honey in 1993, spawning the anti-hero smash, "Creep." The song became so engrained in the U.S. mainstream conscience, Radiohead were immediately written off as one-hit wonders. Their second album, the lush and complex The Bends, prevented the pundits from burying the band. While it saw brisk sales, critics raved, ranking Radiohead as one of the premiere bands in the world, a positioned solidfied by the 1997 release of OK Computer, which debuted at No. 1 in their home country's charts. A consensus best album choice by critics, OK Computer even convinced conservative NARAS members to give the band a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year, which the band snubbed by refusing to attend or perform at the ceremony. Initial plans for Massive Attack to remix the entire album fell through in deference to Massive Attack's release of Mezzanine. Instead, to satisfy fans, Radiohead released Airbag, a six-song EP featuring several B-sides from their UK singles. The band's groundbreaking music videos and tour film (available on 7 Television Commercials and Meeting People Is Easy, respectively) further displayed the band's artistic bent and desire to expand boundaries. The highly-anticipated Kid A arrived in 2000.

Links:
Radiohead Mothership
We Love Radiohead

The Bends wallows in the recesses of unhappiness, amplified by crashing guitars and expansive vocals. The outward self-loathing of "Creep" here turns inward, voiced by Yorke's pained lyrics and the band's sonic schizophrenia. If you're tempted to dismiss Yorke as a middle-class whiner, the quiet and peculiar beauty of songs like "Bullet Proof...I Wish I Was" and "[Nice Dream]" will have you believing in Radiohead's claustrophobia.

It's not just Yorke's show: all five members play integral roles on this record -- cantankerous guitar numbers like "Just" or "My Iron Lung" switch paces in an instant and require a full ensemble effort. The coup de grace is "Street Spirit (Fade Out)," the sound of a summer rain shower growing into a devastating monsoon. The simple acoustic tension grows with every guitar strum, metronomic drum tap and otherworldly moan.

The Bends is a triumph of craft over contrivance, proving that there is more to great music than posing or shoe-gazing.