The Bends

The Bends is the second album by the English rock band Radiohead, produced by John Leckie with Nigel Godrich, who would later become the band's main producer. Released in 1995, it surprised critics with its departure from the previous album, Pablo Honey. Keyboards are given prominence, the guitars take on a harder sound, and the lyrics become more inspired, with Thom Yorke taking his role as lyricist very seriously, denouncing among other things the exhaustion of endless touring.

The album received largely favorable critical reviews, even more so than its predecessor, but it did not repeat the commercial success of Creep. Its final single, Street Spirit (Fade Out), was nonetheless the band's first to reach the British Top 5, while the album peaked at number 88 on the American charts.

Although it did not achieve the dazzling success that would later mark each of the band's releases, The Bends was certified triple platinum in the United Kingdom and Canada, and platinum once in the United States and Europe. Given the impact of Radiohead's early career, it is still regarded today as one of the major artistic works of the 1990s. Matthew Bellamy, leader of Muse, has cited it as one of the greatest albums of that decade, alongside Nirvana's Nevermind. Several of its tracks, including Planet Telex, Just, Fake Plastic Trees, My Iron Lung and Street Spirit (Fade Out), were played live by the band on every tour up to the most recent one, in 2016-2018. The album is dedicated to the American comedian Bill Hicks, who died in February 1994 at the age of 32.