I've been friends with lots of people with lazy eyes in my life. For example Steph and I spent a whole summer together being Floyds and watching MTV. The summer of '95 was right before I moved to LA. The 'Just' music video played at least twice every hour, but it seemed like more. That was a clever video, it was great. Fake Plastic Trees, notsomuch. In the FPT video, Thom (pronounced 'Tom') turns the drama up to 11 while imitating a baby in a shopping cart. It was disastrous and didn't do the band any favors. Anyone that watched that immediately hated them, him, Thom (Tom). The album Pablo Honey, was good and an easy listen. The Bends, followed PH and was a logical extension of the first with more angsty, artsy-fartsy undertones thrown in. I liked it. Revisiting this album, it's not groundbreaking, but it's held up okay. This is more like a warm wool sweater that smells like home and you put it on when the leaves turn brown at the end of summer. The Bends is one of the quintessential albums of the 90's, and by those terms it's relatively traditional. There's heavy guitar reverb, song builds, and self-consumed lyrics with a tinge of despair. It is also the last album before the band becomes Radiohead. Before Ok Computer. Perhaps all of that self-introspection is authentic, Thom (Tom) isn't as insufferable as we thought. Maybe he was somehow able to see a future with machine learning, crappy politics, overconsumption, etc. and identify change is coming. Ok Computer, the album after The Bends was truly groundbreaking and set the band off in a new direction with intricate arrangements, new instruments, computers, electronica, etc. It's incredible that this is the same band. All good things come to an end. This album The Bends, marks the closing of an era, the end of summer, the end of Floyd and for me at least, the end of the 90's. It is the closing door that goes unnoticed and time moves on. REFERENCES Floyds = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIA-5l4tRyY Just = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIFLtNYI3Ls Fake Plastic Trees = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5h0qHwNrHk