Bend is a whole other story from the band's debut, a better album in every way. The band had shed its influences by this point, as well as the first album's major-label sheen. The songs were significantly stronger both melodically and thematically and the playing much more dynamic. The quartet sounds less reigned in, and, as a result, they were able to let the songs find their own forms and create a considerably more organic and rootsy vibe. In some respects, the music foreshadowed the transition leader Michael Andrews would eventually make to both the acid jazzy Greyboy Allstars and the whimsical pop of Elgin Park (the frisky Yes, I Want, in fact, is a virtual blueprint for the music of that combo). Many of the songs have extended running times but fully redeem their lengths, and there is a tight but loose pocket swing to the whole enterprise that seemed lacking for most of the debut, a far more austere and stilted effort despite the band's penchant for grooves. Certain moments even anticipate the music Jamiroquai would make a year or so later: elastic, funky, vaguely spacey, rhythm heavy, soulful. Bonfires Burning and Racing with the Moon, for instance, are stealthy, acoustic funk-rockers with Andrews' typically intricate guitar work and dark creep-show Hammond organ lines from Daniel Silverman. But the Origin was not a dance band, and the versatility of Bend is ample evidence. The most impressive songs position themselves in a long Golden State lineage, from the Neil Young echoes of Giving It All to the gloomy, epic folk-rock of Candymine and the glimmering, sun-over-the-horizon feel of Never Again. And the title track has a subdued beauty that seems to take an orchestral grandeur from the California landscape. But the ambitious Trapped in a Dream Machine drags, making for a dull ending to an otherwise wonderful album. ~ Stanton Swihart, Rovi

1		Jumping to Fall
2		Bonfires Burning
3		Candymine
4		Racing With the Moon
5		Never Again
6		Waiting
7		Yes, I Want
8		Giving It All
9		Autonomous
10		Bend
11		Trapped in a Dream Machine

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