I once suggested to an old friend in college that Radiohead, specifically The Bends and OK Computer, was the best music for studying. I was overjoyed a few weeks later when he texted back in agreement from his campus a hundred miles away. Radiohead is a bit difficult to pin down or describe in a sound bite, so most people don’t get it. Everybody knows, “I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo, what the hell am I doing here?” but it’s only a music lover who gets to call themselves a Radiohead fan.

While the single, “Creep” from their debut album Pablo Honey will always be their most famous song, in music circles you will get somewhere around four different answers for best album, and none of them are Pablo Honey. 1995’s Radiohead masterpiece The Bends represents a more matured sound that separated them from the crowd of loud rock bands of the era. They weren’t Brit-pop and they weren’t grunge, however they were fantastic. This would be proven out over the aforementioned releases that followed such as OK Computer, Kid A, and In Rainbows.

The first single from the album was picked for the fans, and lacked commercial radio appeal. “My Iron Lung” can be interpreted as the band loathing the success of, “Creep” but that’s not to say the album didn’t have viable mass appeal. The album sold over two million copies worldwide by the end of 1996 on the strength of the band’s top to bottom talent. Lead singer Thom Yorke really shines on the dystopian love song, “Fake Plastic Trees” as well as providing soaring vocals throughout the rest of the album.

Haunting is the first word that comes to mind for album ending track, “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” from start to finish awash in beautiful anxiety. The guitar line that repeats throughout creates the texture for the equally stressed lyrics, “This machine will, will not communicate these thoughts and the strain I am under.” It would go on the become Radiohead’s first top five on the UK singles charts, dissuading the notion of the band being a one hit wonder. The song’s fixture at the end is a wonderful cleansing release to this album of guitar panic.

Radiohead are in the pantheon of the great bands of all time, but the music is not for everyone. There aren’t sing-along songs, and one wouldn’t be advised to put on Radiohead at the bar jukebox. The Bends is my favorite Radiohead album because it is more guitar focused than the others I mentioned and listening to it is a meditative experience. The quality is there from start to finish, and if you compare it to bubble gum pop nonsense, this is New York strip versus Skittles.