Let's talk about Radiohead - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

shoopadoowop

Gender: Male

Age: 28

Location: Canadia

Last time I tried doing one of these unpopular opinions threads it didn't go down so well (I'm referring to the Pet Sounds topic of course).

So now I'm gonna try this again, but hopefully a way that everyone can have a healthy discussion on.

Alright, so I'm just going to get to the point. The Bends in my opinion is the best Radiohead album. A lot of people will say "OK Computer!", "Kid A!", or "In Rainbows!", but It's always been The Bends for me. Let me explain.

OK Computer came out in May of 1997 right? Well I was born in February of 1997, and my dad loves Radiohead. I grew up listening to High and Dry, Paranoid Android, and Karma Police (along with the rest of the albums of course but mainly those songs). Basically in short, Radiohead provided the soundtrack to my childhood and on, and I can't listen to either OK Computer or The Bends without being extremely emotional. To this day those albums are ones I hold very dear to me. Now let me explain why I think The Bends is better.

I appreciate bands that experiment, try something new, and I love the direction that Radiohead took, no doubt about it, and I believe you could make very fair arguments as to why their later albums are better. But Radiohead as a rock band, I think, is better than Radiohead as an experimental/electronic band. I understand and can relate when people love innovation or something different, but what I can't understand is the necessity for it. I'm perfectly fine with a good rock album, and to me that's what The Bends was. And not only is it a good rock album, but a damn awesome one. So awesome that it seems to be perfect from start to finish. Nothing gets to me like Fake Plastic Trees, High and Dry, The Bends, or My Iron Lung, songs that they haven't been able to recreate since The Bends. Not only is it the best rock album of the 90s, its also one of the best albums of all time (in my opinion).

While I patiently wait to see the hate everyone has written up for me I would love to read about your opinion.

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Gender: Female

Age: 40

Nothin seems wrong with having a preference informed by personal experience. But... OK Computer is way way way way way more a rock album than an experimental electronic one.

shoopadoowop

Gender: Male

Age: 28

Location: Canadia

secretdad wrote:

Nothin seems wrong with having a preference informed by personal experience. But... OK Computer is way way way way way more a rock album than an experimental electronic one.

Oh yeah definitely, I was referring to Kid A and up when I said experimental/electronic. I just feel that The Bends is more of a rock album than OK Computer, not that thats better or worse, just a preference.

revolver94

professional dilettante

Gender: Male

Age: 31

Location: Washington, D.C.

not going to comment on my favorite radiohead album, just coming to say that recently (past few years) i've noticed that it's become v hip to have the bends as your favorite radiohead album. and ppl always act like theyre so effing cool and subversive for it

"Actually, my favorite Radiohead album is The Bends. I know, I know, it wasn't as experimental, but the songwriting was just top-notch, y'know?" god it irks me. like just say it as if it's a normal opinion. everyone likes the bends.

i'm not saying your post sounded like that, ofc, i'm just saying that everyone in real life who has ever said the bends is their fav album (which just keeps happening more and more, like i said) theyre like pseudo-snotty/2cool4u about it.
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SuedeSwede

Ognoo

Gender: Female

Age: 27

Location: On a cloud

Kid A isn't particularly experimental. Takes influence from a ton of 90s electronic artists and its almost like they just plug this influence into their older sound.

But yeah, Kid A is still really, really great and also my favourite.
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shoopadoowop

Gender: Male

Age: 28

Location: Canadia

revolver94 wrote:

not going to comment on my favorite radiohead album, just coming to say that recently (past few years) i've noticed that it's become v hip to have the bends as your favorite radiohead album. and ppl always act like theyre so effing cool and subversive for it

"Actually, my favorite Radiohead album is The Bends. I know, I know, it wasn't as experimental, but the songwriting was just top-notch, y'know?" god it irks me. like just say it as if it's a normal opinion. everyone likes the bends.

i'm not saying your post sounded like that, ofc, i'm just saying that everyone in real life who has ever said the bends is their fav album (which just keeps happening more and more, like i said) theyre like pseudo-snotty/2cool4u about it.

That's pretty interesting, I haven't come across that. I know The Bends was pretty well known but I just feel its often overlooked when compared to their other works. Though the whole discography is great, so whatever floats your boat.

Necharsian

Best Ever User

Gender: Male

I think the bends is pretty bad and im still a 2cool4u kid.

Satie

SuedeSwede wrote:

Kid A isn't particularly experimental.

it's just a shitty mashup of Radio-Aktivitat and half of Brian Eno's catalog, yeah

ranking Radiohead albums is to music forums as citing Foucault is to academic writing, so instead, i present my 0% error list of douchiest favorite Radiohead album to have, from douchiest to least douchey

In Rainbows (what a groundbreaking distribution model)
Amnesiac (i'm more of an Amnesiac man myself)
Hail to the Thief (it's soooo political)
Kid A (on par with Stockhausen in its expansiveness)
The King of Limbs (sure, i thought this was only part one of a planned two-part album, but now that i've spent over 75 hours of my life forcing myself to like it, i look really cool on the Internet)
The Bends (i'm not into most britpop, but these lads...)
OK Computer (god i need a rich guy to tell me why capitalism is bad)

Pablo Honey (i do not recognize Thom Yorke's face, and i bought this in the early '90s when "I'm a Weirdo" was on the radio a lot. i am a well-adjusted human)

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Gender: Female

Age: 40

You just dropped those names so hard that they died

r.i.p. names

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male

Location: LA

shoopadoowop wrote:

Alright, so I'm just going to get to the point. The Bends in my opinion is the best Radiohead album. A lot of people will say "OK Computer!", "Kid A!", or "In Rainbows!", but It's always been The Bends for me.

You're not alone. Look at me. The Bends is #1 on my list, and I named my username after a song on it. Experimental music does not equal better music. Of course Kid A and OK Computer are incredible as well, but from beginning-to-end, I agree The Bends is their best. The Bends is one of the few albums I've ever listened to where every single song got better with time, including the subtle, but beautiful Bulletproof and Sulk. Their next two albums come close to that. But on both albums, there are some tracks that never clicked with me, no matter how many times I listened to them. OK Computer, especially, which I consider 3rd after Kid A, I never really got into any song on the whole second half. Those songs were somewhere between okay and good, but they don't come anywhere close to any song from Airbag to Karma Police. Anyway, The Bends is the best, still mind-blowing after so many years and countless listens.
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