“As a junior-millennial rock fan, hearing The Bends felt tantamount to digging up the first fish who grew legs”: We got a 28-year-old music journalist to review a 30-year-old Radiohead album and this is what he wrote

Cropped album art of Radiohead’s The Bends.

I was born on October 19, 1996, which means I was released 19 months after The Bends was. It’s not an album I’m nostalgic for: I grew up in households where New Wave Of British Heavy Metal bands and 70s prog rock were near-constant soundtracks. I started discovering the modern acts in those genres and, as my tastes started expanding towards their more avant-garde fringes, I noticed more and more of my favourites citing influence from Radiohead.

I’d heard of Radiohead before, but only via the memes. I knew the jokes about their fan-base being pretentious adult virgins long before I knew even one of their lyrics. Eventually, though, this mysterious band’s impact on the music I loved – acknowledged by everyone from Leprous to Loathe – became too intense to ignore.