Pablo Honey is the debut studio album by English rock band Radiohead. It was released on 22 February 1993 in the United Kingdom by Parlophone and in the United States by Capitol Records. It was produced by Sean Slade and Paul Kolderie and was recorded at Chipping Norton Recording Studios and Courtyard Studio in Oxfordshire, England, from September to November 1992. The album's title comes from a Jerky Boys prank call skit in which the prank caller says to his target, "Pablo, honey? Please come to Florida!".
Pablo Honey received a generally favourable reception from critics, but some criticised its grunge sound as being derivative and found certain songs underdeveloped; it is often held in a negative light in comparison to the band's subsequent albums, though some retrospective reviews have recently become positive toward it. The album produced three charting singles: Anyone Can Play Guitar, Stop Whispering, and perhaps the band's most well-known hit on mainstream radio, Creep. Pablo Honey peaked at number 22 on the UK Albums Chart, and was certified platinum in the UK and other countries.
Recording[]
After a long dormancy while the members attended university, the band On a Friday reconvened in the early 1990s, becoming fixtures on the local Oxford scene with a series of demo recordings and well attended live gigs, finally signing with EMI and changing their name to Radiohead. The band's first official release, the Drill EP, was produced by their managers Chris Hufford and Bryce Edge, and sold poorly. For their debut album, the band sought the production skills of Massachusetts-based Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade, responsible for Dinosaur Jr. and Buffalo Tom albums of which they were fans.
Several months in advance of the album, the band came out with their debut single Creep. According to bassist Colin Greenwood, Creep had been written by singer/rhythm guitarist Thom Yorke sometime in the late 1980s, while he was at Exeter University, and was shared with other members of the band, who were mostly very enthusiastic, citing the song as a reason to continue making music together. However, it was not included on any of their early '90s demo tapes and had not been a part of their live set. At the time, Inside My Head (which would later be released as a b-side to Creep) was considered a good candidate for the band's lead single.
Sometime in 1992, the band began an impromptu performance of Creep at a recording session, referring to it as their "Scott Walker song" because it reminded them of one of their musical idols. Rumour states that Jonny Greenwood's famous guitar crunches in the chorus were supposedly an attempt to ruin a song he did not like. Producer Paul Kolderie stated that "Jonny played the piano at the end of the song and it was gorgeous" (though the piano was mixed in at the wrong time, the band decided to keep the take complete with mistake, not for the last time). "Everyone who heard 'Creep' just started going insane. So that's what got us the job doing the album." As soon as their managers and producers realised the song was an original (not a Walker cover), other plans were put on the back burner, to the band's surprise, and "Creep" was released as a limited single to the public in late 1992. However, the single initially went nowhere. It was even blacklisted from BBC Radio 1 for being too depressing.
In the meantime, the bulk of the album was recorded, in autumn 1992. Recording sessions were completed very quickly, as the band had been playing many of these songs for years. However, what ended up on Pablo Honey represents only a fraction of their On a Friday-era recorded material, with very little overlap with earlier demos. The album was once described by a Radiohead member as "Our greatest hits as an unsigned band", with smooth sonic textures, anthemic vocals, and walls of guitar noise. However, Prove Yourself, which had led off Drill, reappears in a different recording, as do You and Thinking About You in reworked versions.
Reception[]
In the heavy alternative musical climate of 1993, Pablo Honey did not receive particular attention. However, several critics were enthusiastic about the band's forthcoming debut release. NME referred to the band as "one of rock's brightest hopes." In the United States, their debut single, "Creep", prompted industry observers and fans to draw parallels between Radiohead and Nirvana, with some even touting Radiohead as the "British Nirvana".
Pablo Honey would not garner the widespread acclaim of Radiohead's subsequent releases, but received a generally favourable critical reaction. NME awarded the album 7/10, foreshadowing the band's future success by describing it as "one of those flawed but satisfying debuts that suggests Radiohead's talents will really blossom later on." The magazine heavily criticised the track How Do You?, writing that it "breaks the momentum of Pablo Honey horribly, throwing all of Radiohead's tortured sensitivity out of the window and leaving them sounding like beer-gutted losers from the class of '76".
Q magazine, who also drew comparisons with Nirvana, awarded the album 3 out of 5 stars, equating to a "good" album, and wrote: "British teenagerhood has never been grumpier... the best bits rival Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr. and even the mighty Sugar." Record Collector also awarded the album 3 out of 5 stars, describing it as a "promising debut record", and commending its lead single: "It contains their 'biggest' single in 'Creep.' A 12-bar blues jam with added crunch." A consistent theme in British reviews was that the album's first half (where its three singles are placed), with the exception of "How Do You?", outweighed that of the second half, which they felt often descended into "banal post-grunge stylings."
Stateside, several music publications gave the album positive reviews. Rolling Stone wrote in its year-end review that "What elevates them to fab charm is not only the feedback and strumming fury of their guitarwork and the dynamism of their whisper-to-a-scream song structures, which recall the Who by way of the early Jam, but the way their solid melodies and sing-along choruses resonate pop appeal." Billboard said of the album: "This U.K. quintet is primed to blast onto the American scene with initial modern rock track 'Creep,' a tense, guitar-dominated number that appears in unexpurgated form on this debut album. Certain tracks here may remind listeners of U2 (thanks largely to Thom E. Yorke's vocal mannerisms and overall guitar texturing), but lyrics have enough bite to make it on their own. 'Ripcord,' 'I Can't,' and 'Blow Out' all contain excitement enough to heat up at target radio markets."
Entertainment Weekly gave the album a "B" rating, opining that it "mates Smiths-type self-consciousness with dramatic U2-like vocals and guitar, with Cure-style heavy but crunchy pop." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic also drew comparisons with U2, writing: "Radiohead's debut album, Pablo Honey, is a promising collection that blends U2's anthemic rock with long, atmospheric instrumental passages and an enthralling triple-guitar attack that is alternately gentle and bracingly noisy. The group has difficulty writing a set of songs that are as compelling as their sound, but when they do hit the mark – such as on 'Anyone Can Play Guitar,' 'Blow Out,' and the self-loathing breakthrough single 'Creep' – the band achieves a rare power that is both visceral and intelligent." Erlewine named singles "Creep" and "Stop Whispering", along with acoustic ballad "Thinking About You", as the best tracks on the album.
Mario Mundoz of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "This English quintet's debut doesn't really deliver anything you haven't heard before, steering too close to Smiths-like melodies and trying ever so hard to be depressed in the way the Cure popularized. Occasionally, though, it does offer clever lyrics and good hooks." Robert Christgau did not recommend the album, but named "Creep" as a "choice cut".
Track Listing[]
All tracks written, composed and performed by Radiohead.
- You
- Creep
- How Do You?
- Stop Whispering
- Thinking About You
- Anyone Can Play Guitar
- Ripcord
- Vegetable
- Prove Yourself
- I Can't
- Lurgee
- Blow Out