The Bends

I've heard this is where everything picks up, as distinct from immature Pablo Honey, but the two actually resembled one another pretty closely to me. They say "Street Spirit" is the defining moment in the acceleration (or descent) toward OK Computer... I've never particularly attached to that song. It just isn't quite my style. It's aggro sad, while I prefer melancholy sad. I prefer "Bulletproof" for sad. I prefer maj7s for sad, or at least min7s, not hard minor. "Street Spirit" is hard minor so I never connected, though it's reputed to be the album's clear highlight, like "Blind Willie McTell" foreshadowing Dylan's resurgence. That's another hard minor song I never took a shine to.

So the supposed highlights of The Bends are "Street Spirit" and probably "Fake Plastic Trees". I surely dig the latter, though this duality demonstrates how the album bounces between hard minor and hard major, it's a little too polar. "Nice Dream" is soooo gentle (besides its aggressive bridge!). Still too much grunge left over from Pablo Honey (which will haunt us through OK Computer and even to a small degree later on), and the non-grungey moments aren't typically profound.

My highlights haven't changed since I last listened through this album many years ago: "Fake Plastic Trees" and "Bulletproof". Two of the softest songs, maybe the two softest. Clearly grunge isn't my cup of tea. Nor punk -- some of this album almost sounded like Green Day from the 90s.

It seems obvious this is a progression from Pablo Honey, but not a very ambitious one. They're still a punky angsty band with a lot of talent and too much unbridled anger that they don't know how to harness other than in guitar distortion. Their emotions too easily fall into distortion, one of the cheaper ways to create musical sensation.

I can't say I love this album. Even OK Computer is hit-and-miss for me. I'm all about late-stage Radiohead... though not too late. Mid-stage: 2000-2007