Radiohead-Pablo Honey
Track Listing:
1. You
2. Creep
3. How Do You?
4. Stop Whispering
5. Thinking About You
6. Anyone Can Play Guitar
7. Ripcord
8. Vegetable
9. Prove Yourself
10. I Can't
11. Lurgee
12. Blow Out
Best Track: Creep
Anyone can play guitar apparently, but can THEY play it well...
It's very easy to look at Radiohead's debut album through modern (2011) eyes and think it looks pretty unremakable. Obviously Pablo Honey lacks the arty-experimental rock of the later albums but Thom Yorke and co. do produce quite a decent debut.
You starts off proceedings in a honest fashion, with some slightly heavy but not too heavy guitar-work dominating. Yorke's vocals blend in alright with this playing. Radiohead's first hit Creep is one of the highlights on the album, with the self loathing lyrics really biting down hard. The swearing fits in well with that idea, without coming out as just braindead songwriting ala The Sex Pistols. There is a grungey feel here as well with the quiet-ish verses before the harder chorus. And then appears that falsetto in the middle which, while not as good as what Yorke will do on later albums, is still quite effective. It forms a nice contrast to his singing earlier in the song. How Do You feels very punk (Maybe they were like The Sex Pistols...) but has a slightly depressed note to it at the same time. The start is good but the heavy distortion at the end seems a bit of a pointless and not very pleasing way to end proceedings.
Stop Whispering is weird for the band in that it has a lyrics that make you want to stand up for yourself, instead of wallowing in depression. The drumming here from Selway is quite good as it provides a nice framework for Yorke to deliver a strong hook (Stop whispeeerriinngg...) and the three guitar attack to riff hard. Thinking About You is a very Smiths-like semi acoustic love song, whilst Anyone Can Play Guitar echoes The Smith's melancholic style without Morrissey's emotional delivery. Yorke has a good crack but the hooks here aren't quite as well delivered as the earlier songs. Ripcord again displays Selways good drumrolls but the vocals get drowned out by the just slightly too heavy guitars. And there doesn't seem to be that quiet-loud grungey dynamics that there were on Creep and Stop Whispering. Vegetable addresses this deficiency and has a nice twisted distortion guitar sound over quite strong lyrics that aren't referring to your regular garden greens.
Grungey distorted guitars continue to be the word of the day with Prove Yourself, and I Can't features an attractive slightly choppy guitar based melody that hang around a more subdued but still strong rhythm section. I Can't also taps into that well trodden teen insecuritys/angst theme to a good effect. It's probably a minute too long but that doesn't ruin the song. Lurgee is a touch unremarkable but not horrid. The finale Blow Out goes against the flow of the whole album with it's quite mellow overtones, before entering a siren like section that seems to point towards the sonic exploration of their early 2000's albums. The thumping drums underneath keep it from total white noise though.
Mixing The Smiths with the in style (Grunge) at the time is interesting, but the fact is Radiohead were never a band to hang around with only the limitations of Grunge, and every album after Pablo confirms this. However if you like you're Radiohead distorted guitar-heavy and angsty with a grungey flavour then Pablo fulfills that need. If you've just entered the world of Radiohead through this album however you've still got a long and throughly enjoyable ride to go. And yes, these guy's do know how to play guitar.
11/15