We start here with Radiohead’s first LP, Pablo Honey. This is the album usually most ignored by the Radiohead fanbase, and there’s good reason for that: it just isn’t anything particularly memorable. Much has been said of their early U2-meets-Seattle sound, but that’s not the problem here; they actually sound pretty good and, more than anything, well-practiced. The problem is that, with the exception of a few songs, everything just kind of floats by. The hooks, when they exist at all, are beyond slight, frequently with the one note per chord melodies typical to the worst of the grunge scene. And the lyrics mostly suck, but that’s not unusual for alt-rock of this time period.
The record starts off well, with the first three songs all being pretty good. “Creep” loses some points for being a rewrite of “The Air That I Breathe,” but it probably deserved to be about as big a hit as it was. But then we come to “Stop Whispering,” a really embarrassing R.E.M. imitation. “Dear Sir, I have a complaint, can’t remember what it is”? It’s also, for some reason, the longest song on the album. (Green Plastic claims “Stop Whispering” is a Pixies tribute – say what? Are we thinking of the same Pixies here?) After this, everything just gets fuzzy. “Anyone Can Play Guitar” is kind of cute, but not really lasting. “Ripcord” is another decent tune in the same vein, but after 4 or 5 listens I could not tell you a single thing about the songs between it and “Blow Out,” a whitebread attempt at rock samba with more self-pitying Thom Yorke lyrics before finally culminating in a cool guitar solo.
In case I’m sounding harsh, I don’t mean to be. This is a solid debut album, but, putting myself into the point of view of a listener in 1993, I can’t imagine Radiohead ever becoming a favorite band. There’s no indication at all of what’s to come, whether you view that as a good thing or not. Pablo Honey is ultimately forgettable, with little to distinguish it from the myriad other “alternative rock” bands around at the time. Even when Radiohead gets loud, there’s little passion or force behind it – more than anything they sound timid here. They take some cues from Sonic Youth, usually on the best tracks, but they do it with none of the Sonik verve. Radiohead’s most “rawk” album isn’t doing much to diminish my perception of them as being bloodless and wimpy. Let’s say 2.5 out of 5 stars for Pablo Honey.
I’ll be looking next at The Bends, usually claimed to be Radiohead’s great leap forward. We’ll see.
