FEATURE:
No Need to Prove Yourself
Radiohead’s Incredible Pablo Honey at Thirty
_________
ALTHOUGH few…
PHOTO CREDIT: Bob Berg/Getty Images
would rank it among their favourite Radiohead albums, the band’s debut, Pablo Honey, is a very important one. It introduced the soon-to-be-legendary band to the world. Even if the likes of Creep (the debut single) outweigh and surpass most of the songs on the album, I think Pablo Honey remains underrated. Gaining mostly three-star reviews, most people highlight strengths but point out that there are weaker tracks – and the fact Radiohead would take a massive leap very soon with their 1995 follow-up, The Bends. Released in the U.K. on 22nd February, 1993, I wanted to mark its upcoming thirtieth anniversary. Released in the U.S. on 20th April, Pablo Honey was produced by Sean Slade, Paul Q. Kolderie and Radiohead's co-manager Chris Hufford. It is an album with an interesting background. Rolling Stone compiled a feature in 2018 that listed ten things that you might not know about Pablo Honey. Radiohead formed whilst they were studying at Abingdon School in Oxfordshire. They signed a record deal with EMI in 1991. A year later, they released their Drill EP. Even if that E.P. did not get a lot of attention, things would change soon enough for the band. Despite the fact Radiohead did not have much recording experience, Pablo Honey was recorded in three weeks at Chipping Norton Recording Studios in Oxfordshire. After Creep received big airplay and gained popularity, other singles like Stop Whispering soon became better known. Determined to get their music heard and stand out, they embarked on seriously hefty promotion across the U.S., supporting PJ Harvey, and Belly in the process.
Pablo Honey reached twenty-two on the U.K. album chart, and it was met with some positivity here and in the U.S. I think one of the things a lot of reviewers noted is that it was not as distinct as the material the band would release for The Bends. Maybe a little underdeveloped or light on standouts, Pablo Honey has gained more love and kindness in retrospective examinations. It seems unlikely the band themselves will mark Pablo Honey’s thirtieth, as they have always felt it is not up there with their best work. Regardless, it is an important album in the history of music. Radiohead would come on leaps and bounds from The Bends onwards. One of the most progressive and influential bands of their generation, you can hear and feel promise and that ambition on their 1993 debut. I think the album is a lot stronger than it gets credit for. At a time when Britpop was exploding and there was this change in the music scene, maybe Radiohead stood outside of that. They seemed more influenced by U.S. bands such as Nirvana. Their influence set would change soon after, and the songwriting and performances strengthened and expanded on The Bends.
Although Radiohead are not massive fans of their debut album, Pablo Honey definitely caught the attention of the press. As a fairly unknown quantity, Rolling Stone found some glimmers that were well worth watching out for:
“FLASHING A SONG called “Creep” as a musical ID takes cheek, but then, everything about these Brits is unabashed. On their debut, the swagger affected by every arch-Anglo since the Kinks is already in full effect. Three guitars (and bass) and a singer whose narcissistic angst rivals Morrissey’s (“I will not control myself!” Thom Yorke screams on “Vegetable,” and on “Prove Yourself” he mourns, “I’m better off dead”), these five Oxford lads come on extreme. 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.
On “Blow Out” they savage a bossa-nova intro with sheer noise; “Thinking About You” is bitter folk with acoustic guitars soundly pummeled; and the rest of “Pablo Honey” is equally surprising. If they don’t implode from attitude overload, Radiohead warrant watching”.
I think about some great British bands who released debuts in the 1990s. Think about Blur and the fact 1991’s Leisure was met with mixed reception. They definitely got more ambitious and improved quickly enough. The debut album is difficult, and it takes a while for bands to establish their identities and get into the groove. Too often ignored or cast aside when it comes to Radiohead’s history and great work, Pablo Honey definitely should be celebrated! It is thirty on 22nd February, and it will be a day when fans can remember where they were when they heard the album for the first time. In their 2021 feature, FAR OUT revisited a lost treasure:
“This brings us to our story today, the strange, debut studio outing by Radiohead — 1993’s Pablo Honey. Just like its successor, it often gets overlooked by fans and critics alike, as there are almost no flecks of the sonic majesty that the band would go on to cultivate throughout their career. However, this is our point exactly. Every artist has to start somewhere. The Beatles didn’t start their career with Sgt. Pepper‘s or Pink Floyd with The Dark Side of the Moon, instead, it was a steady build-up to a period of brilliance (regardless of what Beatles fans may tell you).
Whilst Pablo Honey is certainly dated in retrospect, and it features Radiohead’s most contentious song for both fans and the band as the lead single, it also has moments of sheer brilliance and is a reflection of Radiohead at their rawest, like an ore needing to be refined. For the Hegelian types out there, in the timeline of Radiohead’s existence, it is also important.
Although few and far between, there exist within it sonic indicators of the direction in which the band were travelling and the audio sensibilities that they intended to follow. As if by a smokescreen provided by ‘Creep’, and although unaware of it at the time, the band were able to brilliantly carve out their next massive step towards greatness, The Bends.
Pablo Honey opener ‘You’ is an atmospheric piece of guitar work that was the first example of guitarist Jonny Greenwood‘s virtuosity and penchant for a meaty riff. The song is a meandering piece of music that is highly underrated within the group’s extensive back catalogue. Furthermore, about halfway through when frontman Thom Yorke wails “My”, drenched in melisma, we are provided with the first indication of his incredible vocal range.
‘How Do You?’ is two minutes of ’90s guitar music, there’s not much else to be said about it, apart from the fact that it also contains some of Greenwood’s earworm guitar work. The next track, ‘Stop Whispering’ can be taken as a rudimentary indicator of the ’90s rock balladry that the band would perfect on The Bends with the likes of ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ and ‘High and Dry’. A melodic piece, it could quite easily have fit on the soundtrack for any coming of age movie of the era. ‘Thinking About You’ is more of the same, a take on R.E.M.’s style that is perhaps one of the album’s more forgettable moments.
Then halfway through the album, track six, we get the second single and one of its standouts, ‘Anyone Can Play Guitar’. Whilst unbelievably dated, it is a ’90s alt-rock classic, with one of the most catchy choruses Radiohead have ever penned. The chorus line: “I want to be in a band when I get to heaven” couldn’t be more ’90s if it tried. Additionally, Greenwood and Ed O’Brien brilliantly dovetail on their six-strings, providing another taste of what was in store in the not too distant future.
A mixed bag, Pablo Honey is always worth a revisit, only if just for the highlights. If you want to hear the band at their rawest, this is the album for you. Often overlooked, the highlights are brilliant when taken in the context of the era. It is not a groundbreaking album by any stretch of the imagination, but actually, when you compare it to the work of a lot of the guitar bands today, it contains way more forward-thinking ideas and compositional techniques than we get from the majority of the guitar bands who make it on to the main stage at the likes of the Reading and Leeds Festivals”.
I am excited that we will get to mark thirty years of Radiohead’s debut album, Pablo Honey. Containing some incredible songs, it was a definite steppingstone. They put out the My Iron Lung E.P. in 1994. In such a short time, they released something that was closer to the peaks many associate them with. Perhaps a little inexperience means Pablo Honey will always have to fight for attention, but it has no need to prove itself. It is a fine and historically important album. The start of one of music’s greatest careers. As there are whispers that Radiohead are getting back into the studio to record new material, I hope that they take a moment to look back thirty years to…
THE brilliant Pablo Honey.