YMMV / The Bends

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is "Planet Telex" a song about a person suffering from depression? Or a song about the government suppressing thoughts and ideas even if they persist? The former seems more of what a clinically depressed person can think.
• Americans Hate Tingle: While the album was critically acclaimed upon release in the UK, American critics were more tepid towards it at first, with many declaring it shallow and pretentious. It would take the much greater American acclaim of OK Computer for reviewer opinions west of the Atlantic to start turning around.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: One of the most popular tracks among fans associated with The Bends isn't even on the album— it's "Talk Show Host", one of the B-sides to "Street Spirit (Fade Out)". Among some crowds, "Talk Show Host" manages to eclipse The Bends itself in terms of recognition.
• Epic Riff: The Magazine-inspired ascending riff on "Just" remains an iconic and oft-praised element of the song to this day.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: "High and Dry" includes the lyrics "flying on your motorcycle". Two years later came the release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone with Hagrid on a flying motorcycle.
• Once Original, Now Common: When the album was first released in 1995, its melancholy tone, introspective lyrics, and eclectic influences were a radical deviation from Britpop's generally upbeat and rockist template. Alongside its follow-up, OK Computer, it instigated a shift away from the genre and directly influenced its successor movement, post-Britpop. However, while OK Computer is still regarded as standing apart from the artists it influenced, the initial novelty of The Bends is hard to see decades later, when its style became the new basic standard among British Alternative Rock; Radiohead themselves were aware of this, motivating their shift to more Genre-Busting material in the 2000's.
• Refrain from Assuming:
  • "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" is often shortened to "Fade Out" due to it being the phrase in the title that appears in the chorus.
  • "Just" is sometimes appended with "(You Do It to Yourself)".
• Retroactive Recognition: The guy in a trenchcoat playing with a shopping cart and a cardboard box in the "Fake Plastic Trees" video is future The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: While an initial critical success, Pablo Honey was roundly criticized by listeners as derivative of Nirvana, and critics would go on to look back on the album less favorably over time as well. The Bends, meanwhile, was hailed as a significant improvement over its direct predecessor, allowing the band to craft a more unique niche for themselves and setting the stage for their further critical and commercial success over the following decades.
• Sweet Dreams Fuel: Despite having its own darker undercurrents, "(Nice Dream)" is often considered a very mellow and relaxing song by fans, especially given that it's sandwiched within an otherwise bleak, melancholic record.
• Tear Jerker: The Bends has much more sad and dark songwriting than to that of Pablo Honey.
• Vindicated by History: While critically acclaimed from the outset in its native UK, American critics considered it hollow and self-absorbed. In the decades since then, however, Stateside press would grow more favorable towards the album, joining their British counterparts in considering it one of the greatest albums of the 90's (if not all time).

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