Radiohead - Kid A - VINYL LP

The Bends is the second studio album by Radiohead. In 1995, two years after an incredible debut in Pablo Honey, Radiohead were under tremendous pressure to deliver. Much to the delight of critics and fans the world over, they did more than deliver-they far exceeded expectations. - Building from the sweeping, three-guitar attack that punctuated the best movements of Pablo Honey, The Bends is grand and forceful; it resonates with anguish and despair. Although the influences-R.E.M., the Pixies, and U2-are still there, this is unmistakenly Radiohead maturing and defining their own sound.

Released in 1993, Pablo Honey was the debut studio album from Radiohead. Produced by Sean Slade and Paul Kolderie, the album was recorded at Chipping Norton Recording Studios and Courtyard Studio, Oxfordshire. The album features three charting singles, InchAnyone Can Play GuitarInch, InchStop WhisperingInch, and InchCreepInch. - The standout single InchCreepInch was the international hit that helped propel Radiohead and Pablo Honey to popular acclaim. Released several months before the album itself, InchCreepInch went on to define the band's early career. Also included on Pablo Honey are ethereal rocker InchYouInch, fan favorite InchThinking About YouInch, and InchBlow OutInch, all of which point to the band's future sonic manipulations.

In Rainbows, as a title, implies a sense of comfort and delightfulness. Symbolically, rainbows are more likely to be associated with kittens and warm blankets than the grim and glum circumstances Radiohead is known for soundtracking. There's a slight, if expected, twist at play. The band is more than familiar with the unpleasant moods associated with colors like red, green, and blue - all of which, of course, are colors within a rainbow - all of which are present, and even mentioned, during the album. On a couple levels, then, In Rainbows is not any less fitting as a Radiohead album title than InchMyxomatosisInch as a Radiohead song title. The one aspect of the album that becomes increasingly perceptible with each listen is how romantic it feels, albeit in the way that one might find the bioport scenes in David Cronenberg's to be extremely hot and somewhat unsettling. Surprisingly, some of the album's lyrics are even more personal/universal and straightforward than anything on The Eraser, the album made by singer Thom Yorke and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich. The album is very song-oriented, with each track constantly moving forward and developing. Yet there are also abstract electronic layers and studio-as-instrument elements to prevent it from sounding like a regression. In Rainbows will be remembered as Radiohead's most stimulating synthesis of accessible songs and abstract sounds, rather than the world's first pick-your-price download.