Advantages: Everything
Disadvantages: Nothing

...The Bends. As well as being a bloody awful thing that happens if you come up too fast from a dive, it is also one of the most genre-creating, important albums of the 90s. Along with Oasis' (Whats the Story?) album and Nevermind by Nirvana, this is going to be on the 90's most important albums lists, not Robbie Williams and Destiny's Child!! 1995's most important rock album. One of this century's most important rock albums! The Bends is Radiohead's 2nd album, before the masterpiece that was OK Computer, and the just as great Kid A / Amnesiac pair. Before The Bends was the heavily rocky Pablo Honey. There has also been a sneaky few releases, like My Iron Lung EP, and some wierd Japanese titles which I intend to hunt down sometime... Radiohead and Co. decided on including 12 fine tracks on this album. They are all superb, fantastic... Read review

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Advantages: Sheer Quality
Disadvantages: Erm... some of the writing in the booklet is a bit hard to read...no, I give up. A Classic.

...The Bends, released in the very middle of the decade, is without doubt one of the greatest albums of the 1990's. I would go as far as to say that for me personally it is one of the greatest albums of all time. It is also one of the very few albums that can be listened to from beginning to end without skipping any songs; there is no obvious "filler" material as there was with some of the other supposed great albums of the 90's, such as the Verve's Urban Hymns or Oasis' Morning Glory. The Bends is, quite simply, magnificent from start to finish. The album drifts from 100 miles an hour, top quality, guitar solos (The Bends) to haunting acoustic songs (Fake Plastic Trees), without the quality ever dipping below superb. Unusually for an album of such diversity and quality, the Bends is also instantly accessible; first time listeners... Read review

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Advantages: An all-time great album
Disadvantages: What disadvantages?!

...When 'Pablo Honey' arrived to the world in 1994, many lesser witted people dubbed Creep a one hit wonder and Radiohead little more than a stop-fill gap between the early nineties Nirvana-led grunge revolution and the mid-nineties Brit-pop era. How wrong they were. Their second album 'The Bends' designed and moulded the band into a superpower from which they never looked back. And the most serious question asked or topic discussed about this album in years gone by?? Not the lack of 'filler' tracks or 'radio-friendly' music, but whether 'The Bends' or 'OK Computer' is not only Radiohead's best album, but one of the best albums rock music has ever produced. Opening track 'Planet Telex' helps us on our epic journey, and acts as an excellent compliment to the following three tracks, all of which are huge pieces of music. Title track... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Very good music. Inspiring and intellectual lyrics.
Disadvantages: maybe a bit too depressing. Can get a tad abstract for some peoples liking.

...Radiohead never cease to amaze me. I used to occasionally listen to one or two of their songs when they came my way, and loved them, but I never really took them in. Basically I thought they had a few good melodies and lots of incomprehensible singing. Well one day I decided to splash out and get two of their acclaimed albums, "ok computer" and "the bends". I haven’t quite decided which one I prefer but I’m listeing to the bends more so I thought I would write about that one. Radiohead have a fantastic style of music, and if you listen for long enough you can almost feel each album, they both have subtle themes to the titles.The music drifts syou into the twisted world of radiohead and you never want to leave it. It has some absolutley fantastic songs aswell, for instance “high and dry”... Read review

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Advantages: Something worthwhile to spend your money on
Disadvantages: You`ll want to buy more Radiohead

...Radiohead are universally apprecciated for their originality. The bends proved to be breakthrough for the british based band. This album has track after track of quality. A great opening number followed by ` the bends` imediallty will make you able to understand why they are regarded as one of the great bands of the nineties. `High and dry` is one of their best songs, which is procedded by `fake plastic trees` which is one of their biggest hits. This song is only simple but extremely effective. `Just` is a great song with an equally as good video. This being heavier than the rest shows that they are no average push-over boy-band. `Black star` and street spirit are also great tracks.`Spreet Spirit` makes a quiet ending to a great album. This album is actually quite old, compared to the rate of which albums are released nowadays, but it... Read review

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Advantages: a fuuny film
Disadvantages: none

...This is the sort of film you should watch if you like a film like My Big Fat Greek Wedding its got loads of funny scenes and was great to watch. Bend it like Beckham is about a indian girl called Jess (Parminder Nagra) living in london with her parents who wants to play football and loves David Beckham.She wants to play like him proffessionaly though not in this contry.When playing in her local park , another girl played by Keira Knightley approches her telling her that she plays great and she should come along to play in her local footbal club. She does and starts to show her talents of playing . At the beging both of the girls are in love with there coach and everyone else thinks they are lesbians. A trip abroad makes Jess and her friend fight about the coach. Jess has a dilemma that not all english football must face as she... Read review

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Advantages: musical themes, vocals, guitars, everything really.
Disadvantages: nowt.

...How do you start to review an album by such a band? How do you try and adequately convey how much you would urge everyone to get a hold of a copy of this CD or their collection is simply not complete? I actually do not know, but I will try my best here to let you know how and why. Radiohead started its life in the late 1980's, originally calling themselves 'On a Friday' (the only time they could all arrange to meet) but didn't really get any kind of success until after they had finished their respective university courses. They then produced and released their debut which enjoyed great success over the pond and the album actually went gold. The main 'anthem' from this album was the track 'Creep' which, when writing the tracks for The Bends, was at the forefront of their minds. After the success of Pablo Honey, the band had... Read review

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Advantages: Very consistent, excellent tracks
Disadvantages: little depressing at times

...I started listening to Radiohead a few years ago and i have to say, the Bends is their finest album by far. It is incredibly consistent and has some absolutely outstanding tracks such as 'street spirit'and fakePlastic trees. The album is fantastically diverse with some extremely mellow tracks which are incredibly relaxing and soothing. However, the album also has some rather heavier tracks such as 'just' and caters for all rock fans needs. This album will appeal to all rock fans but mainly to hardcore Radiohead fans as this album is all that is typically and uniquely radiohead at their very best. There are however a couple of tracks which are not quite as good as the others, and it is definitely a few good tracks short of a masterpiece.... Read review

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Advantages: Feel-good, funny, suitable for all the family
Disadvantages: None

...I didn't expect a lot from Bend It Like Beckham when my auntie bought me the DVD for Christmas. I knew there was quite a lot of positive reviews about it when it first came out, but a film about football? Didn't seem my kind of thing at all! The storyline: Jess is an 18 year-old girl, with strict Indian parents and a passion for football (and David Beckham). She has a kick-around in the park now and then but that's the extent of it, as her parents disapprove. She meets Jules, who plays for the local women's football team. Jules offers her a place on the team, but Jess is worried what her parents think. They are traditionalists and their strict Indian beliefs are very different to hers. They believe football is not suitable for a girl, and that she should concentrate on school and being accepted for a good university. They forbid... Read review

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Advantages: Fine gossomer touches allied to acute lyrics with firework explosions of guitar
Disadvantages: Unfairly overshadowed now maybe by later releases

...it balanced and complementing the song rather than trying to take it over by forcing our attention onto it. The Bends at times almost dives into heavy metal only to save itself suddenly at the last moment with neat twists in the riffs and shifts back into quiet sections with Thom pleading before the band launches into full scale guitar hero mode. Unlike many tracks it also asks serious questions and allies itself to many peoples confusion to paraphrase where in fact do we go from here ? To High and Dry is the answer. I always find this is one of the songs I quite happily hum along to putting my own spin on the lyrics rather than the dark shadows and meanings that gave birth to it. The music itself, if broken down to its individual parts aren’t that good, the bass is solid and steady, the drums go along for the ride and the lead... Read review

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