Ranking 'The Bends' tracklist from Worst to Best

I'm yet to have indulged on my love of Radiohead on this blog, and I really need to get back into the habit of posting stuff I actually enjoy instead of complaining about Royal Blood. So without further ado, here is my attempt to rank all 12 songs on Radiohead's 1995 album 'The Bends'. (List is based on personal enjoyment, so keep that in mind).

12. Bullet Proof... I wish I was

Something has to be last place, and while it's by no means a bad song, 'bullet proof...' is easily the most passable effort on the album. It's a minimalist, hazy acoustic number, and after 'High and dry', 'Fake Plastic Trees' and '(Nice dream)' it wasn't really necessary for another. It also breaks the flow of more upbeat numbers, stopping them having a greater cumulative effect. It's still better than nearly everything on 'Pablo Honey' though.

11. High and Dry

Radiohead is generally a bleak band (Other than 'In Rainbows' and 'the King of Limbs'), and this is possibly their most popular bleak song. It's also one of my personal least favourite Radiohead creations, even though I still think it's good by alt-rock standards. It's a very calm, almost sleepy song that sounds utterly defeated. The problem with that, at least for me, is that Radiohead have made much, much better songs that fulfil the exact same qualities, namely 'No Surprises' and even 'Fake Plastic Trees' just a track later - which might be my biggest problem, as it also makes this stretch of the album feel dreary and unending.

10. Black Star

A fairly enjoyable alt-rock song that has been massively overshadowed recently by the David Bowie album of the same name. The best aspect is probably the unbelievably catchy post-chorus riff that strangely enough sounds like something from 'The Rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust'.

9. The Bends

Easily the most upbeat song on the album, and also arguably the most rock-radio-friendly song here (Despite the fact it was never one of the albums 6 singles.). Despite - or maybe because of - it's fairly dated 90s rock aesthetic, it has a surprisingly large amount of fans, and I personally know two people who hold it as their favourite Radiohead song. Perhaps this is because it's immediately catchy and doesn't contain most of qualities that non-fans usually attack Radiohead for - the sadness and slow-pace of the songs, and the 'whininess' of Yorke's voice. It's also one of the few Radiohead songs where the lyrics suggest a positive relationship with a woman (At least until 'In Rainbows'), so maybe people appreciate that too? 

8. Bones

If we're looking at upbeat alt-rock numbers from the album, 'Bones' is IMO a far greater experience than 'The Bends'. The song is positively roaring for it's 3 minute run-time, and the chorus is one of the biggest ear-worms on the album. It's also a notable wake-up after the (Brilliant) dreariness of 'Fake Plastic Trees', and doesn't stick around long enough for it's melodrama or repetition to become annoying.

7. (Nice dream)

This song can tend to feel like an interlude to me, mainly thanks to the parenthesis given to it's title, but it's one of Radiohead's prettiest tunes, with calming strings on the chorus and Thom Yorke giving one of his most minor performances, at least until the song explodes at 2 and a half minutes into a tone-ruining but awesome breakdown of screaming guitars. 

6. Sulk

This song has risen above at least two others simply through the power of the way Yorke sings 'Sometimes you SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUlk' in the chorus of this song, which is also one of the most uplifting, although not necessarily upbeat Radiohead songs. The breakdown even reminds me a bit of the first Foo Fighter's album, which is no bad thing. The first classic song here.

5. My Iron Lung

The meaty bass on this immediately gives it an uncomfortable chugging rhythm like a strained heartbeat that fits well with the lyrics about failing body parts. The song is a response to 'Creep', and as such borrows the same smoky, nocturnal atmosphere, and improves on it vastly with a 'chorus' that is essentially a freak out of screaming guitar and screaming Yorke. The 'If you're frightened' bridge is also one of the most-attention grabbing moments on the album. Overall, it's a great piece of music, and I'm surprised it doesn't get brought up more than it does. 

4. Planet Telex

The track that opens your album is the most important for world-building, and Radiohead realised this for the first time with 'Planet Telex', a song which feels distinctly otherworldly thanks to the howl of wind at the beginning and then the tremolo guitar line which goes atomic once the vocals begin. It sets up the lyrical themes of the album through the chorus of 'Everything/everyone is broken', and in all is the first sign that Radiohead could produce a killer opening track (See also: 'Everything in it's Right Place', '2+2=5', '15 Step' and of course 'Airbag').

3. Just

My favourite of the more alt-rock leaning songs on the album, this has everything you could want - memorable lyrics, one of the best music videos of all-time, a cool chord sequence and of course completely insane solos. I also love the way the song plays with atmosphere, feeling at once catchy and upbeat, but also feeling like something horrible is happening, helped by Yorke's saliva-drenched delivery of the final chorus and the weirdly unsettling breakdown.

2. Fake Plastic Trees

This is maybe Radiohead's all-time most depressing song, at least for the first 2 and a half minutes, and perhaps because of this it took a long time to grow on me. I was initially turned off by just how downtrodden it is, especially coming right after 'High and Dry', but all it took was a single deep listen on a long bus ride and everything came together. The climax is perfect, a crescendo of despair, almost anger so strong that when the song recedes back to the acoustic sound of the first half you really do feel as 'worn out' as Thom sounds. The lyrics are also some of the best on any song in the 90s, creating an ultra-depressing world version of the world where everyone is old and decaying, yet still obsessed with looking shiny and perfect.

1. Street Spirit

Whenever Halloween rolls around the same goofy songs come up that relate to the event through having the name of some horror movie cliche in the title ('Monster' by the automatic) or by having a spooky video ('Thriller'). But if you want to soundtrack your Halloween with a legitimately unsettling, spine-chilling playlist, just listen to 'Street Spirit (Fade Out)'. Strangely this was the first Radiohead song I ever heard, and I initially avoided it due to how unsettling it was straight from the intro, where greenwood's guitar sounds like a strange piano leading the listener down the steps of a never ending spiral staircase. Then the lyrics begin and you're transported onto a dark suburban street, which starts pouring with rain when the drums begin. Apologies for the pretentious description, but that is what I picture when I listen to this masterpiece. It also works incredibly well as an album closer, maybe as their best album closer (Which is saying something.), because it serves as the most complete realisation of the album's themes of paranoia and loneliness. 

Green Day - Dookie Review

1994 is famously a year where alt-rock ruled - Many of the best albums released in that year game-changing and inspirational alt-rock classics. Weezer's self titled debut, Nine Inch Nails' 'Downward Spiral' and the album that kicked punk-pop into the mainstream - Green Day's 'Dookie'.

Despite the trio of Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool being labelled as sell-outs by a large chunk of their fans for signing to a major label for the release of the album, there is no obvious change in sound from their previous 1991 effort 'Kerplunk', as demonstrated by the explosive first 3 tracks. 'Burnout' opens the album with the message that Armstrong is "Not growing up, just burning out", under power chords and pounding drums that certainly don't sound as exhausted and tired as the narrator. 'Having a Blast' tackles one boy's fantasies of going out in a suicide-bomb where he kills all of his enemies, perfectly demonstrating the frustrated humour that the lyrics hold on every track. This trio is completed with 'Chump', an short angry punk track that is the first of several on the LP to function as a hate-track towards an enemy of the narrator - although in this case the rival hasn't even met the fuming vocalist.

The outro to 'Chump' starts to show glimmers of Mike Dirnt's fantastic bass-work, which is showcased in his best ever bassline on the song that this outo transitions smoothly into - the legendary 'Longview'. Other than having the most well known rock bassline of the 90s other than maybe 'Come as You Are', the song has lyrics musing over masturbation with an explosive, headbanging chorus; pretty much the perfect Green Day song. 'Welcome to Paradise' is a marginally improved version of the 'Kerplunk' song, which would doubtlessly be great for the vast majority of new fans who hadn't heard it before (It's still a great song.), but it doesn't really feel as fresh as the rest of 'Dookie', if only for me personally.

'Pulling Teeth' is a sugary breather between 'Paradise' and before the emblem-of-the-90s itself: 'Basket Case'. This was the song that made Green Day a force to be reckoned with, it was a radio smash in the US and was their first top 10 hit in the UK. Even today, it is still considered by most to be their signature song. With it's instant vocal hook of "Do you have the time... To listen to me whine", and subsequent 3 minutes of accessible pop-punk perfection and with the biggest sing along chorus they created until at least 2005 it's clear to see why it defined it's genre.

'She' manages to avoid being overshadowed through it's quiet verse/ loud chorus dynamic and triumphant backing vocals from Mike Dirnt that even overtake  Armstrong's on the hook. 'Sassafras Roots' is a smaller scale track written by Dirnt and is the closest thing to a love song on the album. Then the final monolith of the album, 'When I Come Around', which bursts through it's simple but iconic guitar riff and bassline. In terms of pure melody it's the highlight of the disc and even has a cool little solo. The song was another huge hit, peaking at number 1 of the US Alternative singles chart.

The next 3 songs are short and vicious, showcasing Tre Cool's breathless drumming. 'Coming Clean' is a study on Armstrong's sexual confusion, 'Emenius Sleepus' is one of the aforementioned hate-tracks, as is 'In The End' - the latter also having an awesome moment of instrumental silence that is the musical equivalent of a-car-shooting-off-a-ramp-and-hanging-in-the-air-for-a-second-before-crashing-back-to-the-road-at-breakneck-speed in the chorus. The closing track 'F.O.D' is the most hateful of all the tracks, although it certainly doesn't initially seem like that from it's quiet, acoustic guitar and lyrics that sound like typical sad-but-polite breakup speak BUT THEN the distortion pedal drops and the gang vocals start and Cool's machine gun percussion kicks off, and it ends the album perfectly in an outburst of long held angst. ('All by Myself' is also tacked onto the end and is really quite charming but also a joke song sung in a silly voice by Cool.)

It seems crazy that an album named after diarrhea could ever bring punk back into the mainstream, but just a single listen to 'Dookie' shows why it was so successful - It's catchy, cohesive and full of energy, as well as huge singles that have maintained popularity up to the present. A true classic.

10/10