Best song on "The Bends"

Obviously "Planet Telex", the best song of the bunch, but what do YOU guys think?

Bullet Proof

What was that one thread where someone would name a canonical album, and everybody had to take a turn eliminating the least essential song until you got down to one song left which was by defaul the essence of the album? I think the Bends was done in that.

here's part two of that thread. can't find part one anywhere.
the pure essence of an album

Was there a part one? First post is just summarising what went on below, presumably edited after the thread.

that explains things. no bends though.

I love Planet Telex, in fact I love almost all the songs on this album. But I have to go with nice dream (leaving out the brackets coz I don't want ILX to think I'm putting in coding to make the board go all Radiohead.)

Planet Telex gets my vote. But I haven't listened to this album in years, and there are a couple of songs there I can't even remember. Only really listen to Kid A and Amnesiac these days.

Either Planet Telex or Bullet Proof, as per current voting trends. This album sinks in my estimation every day in light of the others.

Dang it, I'm going with PT.

After OK Computer came out I started to think that Planet Telex came across like a demo version of Airbag - but nah. It's still good.

If the thread was Best song on "The Bends" for idiotically histrionic dancing in indie discos then it'd be Just by a country mile.

Still, it's Just.

Black Star

My Iron Lung. I love the jerky awkwardness of it.

Sulk

Just.

Easily "Fake Plastic Trees".

ya i might have to go with that on principle, i've always been in love with it.

"Just" isn't simply the best track on this album, it's the best track in their entire catalog. Great video as well.

I could easily go for one of the singles but lately I've been really into the title track.

One more for The Bends

I wish I'd voted for Just now.

Alex in NYC almost OTM.
Alex in Baltimore also OTM.

This is a great album.

My Iron Lung

I haven't listened in a while but "Street Spirit" all the way.

I'm really surprised more people haven't said Street Spirit actually.

Yeah, I thought that was everyone's favourite.

Street Spirit is one of the few songs I'd take *off* that album. Don't see the point of that or Black Star, really.

Bullet Proof > Black Star > Street Spirit > Fake Plastic Trees and High & Dry > Sulk

Street Spirit is really easy to play on the guitar, and really impressive to people who don't play the guitar. People think I'm awesome, when in reality I suck.

Every other song Radiohead ever wrote, including anything off Pablo Honey >>>>>>>>>>>>> High And Dry

Oh it's not that bad, just 'cause it's popular and more conventional than anything else they've done. It's like a pretty good Keane song. Oops I think I've just damned them with faint praise.

Also there's some great stuff on Pablo Honey.

Gotta be Fake Plastic........the last power ballad?

Wrong, wrong, wrong. It's like an above average Jeff Buckley song. And then every rubbish band in the world decided to do a rubbish version of it. You can't blame Radiohead for that - I mean, if it were the only song they'd ever done, fair enough, but they're redeemed themselves in a thousand other ways. I still love High and Dry. It gets me every time, the way Thom's voice just floats up there. I'm not going to hate a perfectly good song because it inspired terrible imitations. THat's ridiculous.

Hey I'm not blaming them, I said it was not bad. Also I quite like some Keane songs... ok to criticise it on its own terms, I think the guitar solo lets it down for me, the sound is flat and nasal and the tune is play-it-by-numbers.

just 'cause it's popular

DUDE you are WRONG. NO Radiohead fan I've EVER met lists this as their favourite song of theirs. There are SO many others that have gained more airplay/accolades/adulation.

more conventional than anything else they've done

That would be 'How Do You?'. Actually, I quite like a fair bit of Pablo Honey, especially 'Stop Whispering' and the last two or three tracks.

DUDE well MAYBE we just mean different THINGS by "POPULAR". Sure it's not rated down at the obsessive fanboy end of the market, but from people who would call themselves fans of radiohead and coldplay and keane, right down to those to whom it might be the only radiohead song they recognise because it's the only one that gets mainstream radio play - yeah I'd say it's popular.

Thanks to ledge for finding that thread. I guess I was thinking of Pablo Honey getting done on there. Oh well.

Another vote for Nice Dream!

Another vote for "Street Spirit", and this:

Street Spirit is really easy to play on the guitar, and really impressive to people who don't play the guitar. People think I'm awesome, when in reality I suck

is hilariously OTM.

Sure it's not rated down at the obsessive fanboy end of the market

I'm not an obsessive fanboy. Most people who like decent music agree with me that High And Dry is whiny sucky bullshit.

people who would call themselves fans of radiohead and coldplay and keane

I don't really talk to these people about music; we would bore one another. These are the people who think OK Computer is "a bit too ecclectic (sic) for me".

it might be the only radiohead song they recognise

I can imagine no scenario in which H&D is the only Radiohead song any one person knows.

because it's the only one that gets mainstream radio play

C'mon, this is bollocks, and you know it! Creep! Just! Paranoid Android! Fake Plastic Trees! Dollars And Cents! OK, I may have been joking about one of those. But you catch my drift, I hope.

bones

Wait, I thought you guys were arguing about "Fake Plastic Trees," not "High and Dry"?

Fake Plastic Trees > High and Dry

I couldn't decide on my favorite song, though, so I listened to 10-second clips of each song on shuffle (so as not to be biased at all) and liked Black Star the most tonight.

Is Sulk their most boring song? I rarely ever hear anyone mentioning it. I just know that it's the one Radiohead song that I skip every single time. I can't even remember how it goes, which is weird since this is probably one of the first CDs I bought on my own and listened to obsessively.

Sulk's only good point is the amazing vocal. Song itself is bleh.

"Sulk" and "Bones" are quite close together in my mind as being sort of unexceptional musically but having really head-sticky hooks and me not knowing any of the words despite listening to this album on tape all through the first half of this summer. Just now I didn't recognize the name "Bones," looked it up on Google, and still had no idea what song it was until I realized that the line I was always hearing as "I say we get to feel like idiot bones" was...not that.

"My Iron Lung" sounds like these songs but doesn't have any head-sticky moments to speak of and so that's got to be the worst thing on the album for me. I voted "Bulletproof" for reasons I cannot articulate although I hesitated before leaving "Planet Telex" and "Just" behind.

Yeah I think it is Thom's voice that makes me like Sulk so much. I loved this album so much when it came out, I played it to death. At the beginning I might've skipped Sulk, so I think now, 13 years later, it's the only one I'm not slightly bored of. Any one of these songs has been my favourite at some point in the last 13 years, apart from My Iron Lung. That's always been bleh.

many xposts to louis...

I don't really talk to these people about music;

Right. Ok. So their opinions don't count towards the popularity of a song. Sure. I'll go tell the people who compile the charts to discount sales from people you don't talk to.

Creep! Just! Paranoid Android! Fake Plastic Trees! Dollars And Cents!

Out of those I would say FPT is the only one likely to get daytime radio play on, say, Heart or Virgin.

My Iron Lung

'my iron lung' or 'planet telex'

For some stupid reason this is the only Radiohead I don't own a physical copy of right now. I keep meaning to buy another one but they only ever seem to have the last three at the shop. I even have a cassette of fucking Pablo Honey.

Fake Plastic Trees is magnificent.

an album that's half shit, and half ok. then they went on to expand on the shit half.

when you get to feel it in your bones

i've been there, done that w/ 'kid a' and 'amnesiac' and even 'ok computer', and 'the bends' still sounds the least dated to me. i'd make the half-shit-half-ok accusation toward everything after... with 'hail to the thief' harboring the most amazing 'ok' and the worst 'shit.'

this is a fantastic album because it knows what it is and accomplishes that so well. bones = the bends = just = black star > my iron lung > bulletproof > planet telex > nice dream > sulk > fake plastic trees > high and dry, blahblahblah. still the best 'album' they've done.

when you get to feel it in your bones

I always thought this was "when you're kept at sea like idiot boys" which I liked much better coz I thought it was about pirates and lost boys.

It's all about "My Iron Lung" - especially the chimey key riff.

when you get to feel it in your bones

I always thought this was "when you're kept at sea like idiot boys" which I liked much better coz I thought it was about pirates and lost boys.

Similarly - "And I used to fly like Peter Pan", I always heard as "And I used to fly like a piece of piss".

xposts to ledge: Well, then, our debate is locked in a stalemate. The only tiebreaker will be proof that H&D is the most-played RH song on commercial radio. As we're not going to get hold of that proof, I'll just accept that a load of musically uninterested people will have heard and liked the song without ever having had the slightest motivation to investigate further. Should these people figure in ILX popularity debates? Possibly.

How about last.fm?

http://www.last.fm/music/Radiohead?q=radiohead

H&D just outside the top ten, not too shabby considering it's surely a more discerning demographic than commerical radio listeners.

discerning != exhibitionist

Signing up for and using something like last.fm is pretty good evidence that for one reason or another you care about what music you listen to.

I saw a sort of jazz-singer who performed Sulk live once, and it was BRILLIANT. Sort of an Aretha Franklin voice just wailing that SOMETIMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES YOU SUUUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLKKKKKKKKKK..... changed my perception of the song. I had to vote for Black Star though, there's just something about the delivery that I love.

I like "Bones" too. Like me a pop song where you don't know which air instrument to play. That tune keeps it pretty simple but it rocks. One of their "Fuck Art, Let's Dance" tunes.

LAST.FM STATS FOR 'THE BENDS' (with the numbers on Nice Dream and Bullet Proof clearly fucked because of tagging errors on both songs)

Track / Song / Listeners

1 Planet Telex 109,385

2 The Bends 122,525

3 High and Dry 138,122

4 Fake Plastic Trees 156,537

5 Bones 111,807

6 (Nice Dream) 43,827

7 Just 115,083

8 My Iron Lung 119,060

9 Bullet Proof ... I Wish I Was 1,185

10 Black Star 110,518

11 Sulk 99,618

12 Street Spirit (Fade Out) 97,310

every time this album comes up, I'm shocked by the number of people who like "Planet Telex". the vocal is so annoying and whiny! that's like, the one song I would play for someone if I wanted to make them hate Radiohead.

btw I probably wouldn't have voted for "High and Dry" (though it's in my top 3) but I'm going to now just to piss off Lou1s J@gger

it's war

gotta be FAKE

Yeah, I never really saw Planet Telex as a highlight, more an intro of what's to come.

I would have expected "Street Spirit" to have more last.fm points.

NO Radiohead fan I've EVER met lists this as their favourite song of theirs.

Most devout Radiohead fans would go for something off "OK Computer" I would guess.

High and Dry is one of the least favorite Radiohead songs. I can't think of a song I like less, from the Bends on at least.

I went with Planet Telex, but Street Spirit, Bulletproof and Nice Dream are all great. The songs that really used to melt my butter (Fake Plastic Trees, Just, My Iron Lung) haven't held up as well. I'm with whoever said way above that The Bends seems less impressive every year.

is there anyone who likes "Planet Telex" and doesn't hate "High and Dry"?

I would have expected "Street Spirit" to have more last.fm points.

-- Geir Hongro, Saturday, August 18, 2007 7:53 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Link

i'd blame crap tagging for that too

i still don't get radiohead

is there anyone who likes "Planet Telex" and doesn't hate "High and Dry"?

Inconceivable! Why the very idea!

While finding "High and Dry" quite boring, I think "Planet Telex" is a near-perfect pop song, among my absolute favorite of all-time. I've always thought of it as a touchstone of sorts: the song is somewhat basic and simple and not very 'crazy' or experimental, but it's so absolutely exceptional and perfect at what it does that it could almost serve as a model to which other songs aspire. Simple chord progression (E-A--E7-Am), basic construction (intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridgey thing-outro), passionate (albeit drunk) vocals, etc. The "outro" bit I've always found especially brilliant, with the tremoloed piano from the intro and a guitar strumming a riff from an open E-A-D-Am chord progression on top of it, and rumbling feedback oscillating in and out of the foreground, creating an absolutely heavenly passage of music. I've always thought of it as the last thing I want to hear before I die.

I love "Sulk" as well, but recognize it's mediocrity. But there's something about the keychange at the end and Thom wailing the "SOMETIMES YOU SUUUUULKK" at what sounds like the threshhold of his vocal range (my suspicion why they haven't played it in over 10 years is that he can't even sing that high anymore. Or, you know, because the band absolutely hates it) that gets me every time.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i think if you were to switch "Street Spirit" with "Just" in this poll, the results would make 100% sense -- and otherwise, they do.

Fake Plastic Trees is BORING, The Bends (song) was never any good, since reading this thread I really have no idea about the relative merits of any of these songs anymore.

holy shit, 100+ people voted on this

...and went for Fake Plastic Trees. Must be a lot of mid-tempo ballad fans here.

sorry.

Yeah - not getting it - Really? 'Fake Plastic Trees?' ...

'My Iron Lung' was issued as a single - nice vid - seemed to be a song that turned on folks to being fans ... and it was the moment that they sound alive and having fun and really grabbing a moment by the balls ... it made you want to hear what was coming next ... I'll stop griping - nice to see so much participation ... (for such a middling band at this point?) ...

bones is good, tho!

stupid peter pan lyric & all

haha i'm pleased and amazed at the fpt love. such a great song. in fact i think the poll results are pretty otm (with sulk higher and everything else higher than high or dry teehee). i love this album to pieces. (hugz!)

oh and bones at 1

swap 'sulk' and 'high & dry' and this makes much more sense

17 Radiohead High And Dry / Planet Telex
20 Radiohead Fake Plastic Trees
19 Radiohead Just
5 Radiohead Street Spirit (Fade Out)

So, not such a big surprise Street Spirit beat Just.