Radiohead - The Bends (CD)

CD in Jewel Case

XL Recordings took over Radiohead's EMI-era catalog in April 2016, and this compact disc of The Bends followed that May under catalog number XLCD780. It is a single disc in a standard jewel case, manufactured in North America by The ADS Group, holding all twelve songs in their original order at 48 minutes and 36 seconds. The disc's copyright line dates the recordings to 1995, with one exception: "My Iron Lung," which first appeared in 1994.

That exception has a story. Unhappy with the versions of "My Iron Lung" cut at RAK Studios, the band used a live recording from the London Astoria, replaced Thom Yorke's vocal and removed the audience. Elsewhere on the disc, "Fake Plastic Trees" drew on the commercial development of Canary Wharf and on a Jeff Buckley performance that led Yorke to sing in falsetto, and on "Just," Jonny Greenwood plays octatonic scales that extend over four octaves.

The Bends was the first Radiohead album with artwork by Stanley Donwood. He and Yorke took a video camera into the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford to film an iron lung, found it visually boring and filmed a CPR mannequin instead, then photographed the footage off a television screen and stretched the image to exaggerate the expression.

According to the journalist Tim Footman, Capitol almost declined to release the album in the United States, feeling it lacked hit singles. It entered the Billboard 200 at the bottom of the chart in May 1995 and climbed slowly, peaking at number 88 in April 1996, while Radiohead toured as the support act for Soul Asylum and then R.E.M. The Bends was nominated for Best British Album at the 1996 Brit Awards. The video above is "High and Dry," the third song here.

Tracklist

1. Planet Telex (4:18)
2. The Bends (4:06)
3. High and Dry (4:18)
4. Fake Plastic Trees (4:50)
5. Bones (3:09)
6. (Nice Dream) (3:53)
7. Just (3:55)
8. My Iron Lung (4:36)
9. Bullet Proof..I Wish I Was (3:29)
10. Black Star (4:07)
11. Sulk (3:43)
12. Street Spirit (Fade Out) (4:12)

Complete the Collection

Radiohead albums in the shop, 11 counting this one:

• Pablo Honey
• The Bends (this pressing)
• OK Computer
• Kid A
• Amnesiac
• I Might Be Wrong - Live Recordings
• In Rainbows
• The King Of Limbs
• A Moon Shaped Pool
• Kid A Mnesia
• Hail To The Thief (Live Recordings 2003-2009)