A very worthy entry for one of the greatest British bands of all time. After the success of 'Creep' for their debut album, 'Pablo Honey', The Bends is the album that propelled the band forward and further into the mainstream, as well as receiving critical acclaim with the music press, who began to sit up and take notice. Along with Ok Computer, this album scores highly on most notable album releases of the 90s and remains a hugely popular album amongst their hardcore fans. It is my personal favourite of theirs, and I miss this early energy and concoction of optimism, pessimism, hope and hopelessness that is all rolled into one. That opening quadruple of Planet Telex, The Bends, High and Dry, and Fake Plastic Trees goes from garage rock band to a festival anthem, to a love song, and back down to despair, all within the space of four tracks.
If this album should be singled out for one particular track, that track surely has to be Street Spirit (Fade Out). It's a song that is stuck within its own time bubble. It sounds just as fresh, haunting, full of despair and darkness now as it did back in 1995. Some songs transcend space and time, and this surely has to be one of them. What a brilliant stroke of genius to finish this album with that track, and what a far cry from the opening track. It's an excellent and memorable closer to a fantastic album. One of the greatest of its era and an album that really deserves far more recognition that it actually receives. Time will be very kind to this album.
