Radiohead - The Bends/In Rainbows/Amnesiac

I just returned from a wonderful study trip visiting urbanistic and architectural projects in the wealthy heart of Europe. Start of the journey was the Luxemburg Kirchberg plateau, with the new Philharmonie by De Portzamparc and the Musée d'Art Moderne by Pei. Then onwards to Karlsruhe, Zürich, Luzern, Basel, Mulhouse, Strasbourg, Nancy to finish at the new, extravagant Centre Pompidou by Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines. All in all a wonderful sequence of public spaces, housing projects, light rail infrastructures, bridges, places of worship and museums, spanning Bauhaus to the present day. The journey was made extra pleasant by a spell of unbelievably balmy weather, a friendly and multicultural group of passionate students and a very smooth ride through serene, spring-blessed landscapes.

Musically I gravitated to a kind of easy listening that felt naturally in tune with the nomadic, ever-shifting perspectives of the journey. Radiohead's The Bends (1995) is a wonderful album, exuding a kind of raw, grungy power at first hearing that gives way to a quite rapturous lyricism after some sustained listening. There is not a weak track in the whole album. But I have a special affection for the title track, Fake Plastic Trees, Nice Dream and Sulk.

I came fairly late to Radiohead, somewhere in the late Nineties, with OK Computer. At that time it was immediately obvious that it was in some way a defining sound - adventurous and clever, but not at all gimmicky  - and ever since they have been for me the yardstick against which I measure anything potentially worthwhile that surfaces in pop music. The Bends I discovered much later, just a few years ago. As often I had convinced myself that anything that came before my entry point in their trajectory was likely not worthwhile. But I'm glad I caught up as this is certainly one of the best things they have done so far. The album in no way shows its age. Later they evolved to a drier, more stylised, techno-inspired sound (which they seem to have extrapolated in their latest King of Limbs, of which I heard only snippets on YouTube). This is also interesting but requires a different frame of mind.

I also spent some time with two other albums. In Rainbows (2007) and Amnesiac (2001). The latter left me oddly unaffected but the predecessor to King of Limbs continues to be a great, intriguing piece.