Pablo Honey

Any album with Creep on it is a must listen. But don’t tell Thom Yorke!

I rarely bought anything new from 2000 onwards, being happy with my large music collection amassed over the previous 30 years+ and especially as little 'new' really enticed me.However, some 10 years after my last Radiohead acquisition, the astounding and utterly memorable 'OK Computer', I was enticed into getting the Radiohead album 'In Rainbows' album and recently, after hearing about a 20th anniversary release for 'OK Computer', I was provoked into trying out earlier albums of theirs.So, after a VERY disappointing listen to 'Kid A' the next I got was their debut 1993 album, 'Pablo Honey'.What a revelation this album was, which shows that the band initially performed almost 'normal' types of music (especially when compared to some of the 'sound-effect' type music on 'OK Computer' and 'In Rainbows' !), with wonderfully rhythmical music and prominent vocals/guitar contributions.The album opens with a strong track, 'You', which has all the notable Radiohead elements and for me bares some resemblance to the equally excellent 'Mansun' song, 'Wide Open Space', but 'You' pre-dates it by some 4 years....Then we have 'Creep', which is apparently the song which catapulted Radiohead into the musical popularity arena and was the basis for their 'challenge' to do as well with their follow-on album to continue the roll...Those and the remaining tracks are all accomplished and, for me, in many ways belie the fact that the group was just starting their commercial musical career.Happily, the quality of this album didn't prove to be a 'one-off' as I then got their next album, 'The Bends', which for me is even better than 'Pablo Honey' and showed Radiohead rose to 'that' challenge.So, I recommended that you consider not only getting 'Pablo Honey', but also 'The Bends' and then (if it has somehow passed you by, to complete my Radiohead 'set') 'OK Computer', either with the original album or the recent 20th anniversary release.

For anyone who's first taste of Radiohead has been via OK Computer, Kid A and the like, they could be forgiven for thinking the debut album Pablo Honey is a rather turgid affair, and indeed some fans would rather this one be brushed under the carpet and never spoken of again.However, having been there from the start, I can appreciate it for what was, and is. It holds many a fond memory for me, my life during the superb early to mid 90s of British music, and played all these years later it is still a cracking good album. Creep obviously, is the one song everyone agrees is the best of the bunch, but there is so much more to it than that. Ripcord, Thinking about You, Lurgee, Stop Whispering - they're all great.Staring up at the shelves in my local Our Price store in 1993 (yikes, where have those 20 years gone!) I bought three CDs that day. Everybody else is doing it... by The Cranberries, Duran Duran's Wedding album, and Pablo Honey. All decent in their own right, but it is Pablo Honey that has been with me through thick and thin, and the one which started my life-long love of their music.It is very different to the Radiohead of today, but is it any worse? I'd say not - it's still Radiohead at the end of the day. If you're a fan of Radiohead but have been put off buying this due to the poor reviews, you are missing out.

Funny how everyone despises this album - Radiohead themselves included - but this is because of the magnificent albums that they put out later on. This is a rock/guitar-oriented debut album with nothing of the electronic sounds of the following works, but it stands its own. Of course, being a first album, their influences are still very noticeable - some Johnny Rotten vocals here, some Bono there - but other than that, you already have some of the crude guitar elements and emotional vocal delivery that would mark the work of RH in following years. I am giving it a 4 because I had to spare another star to albums such as OK Computer, Hail to the Thief and In Rainbows. Give this album a try and LISTEN WITHOUT PREJUDICE (i.e., without comparing it to the other RH albums). After a week it will have grown on you.

CD as described, good, played just fine and the jewel case was intact. Enjoying listening to some old tunes without using a streaming service!!

Debut album by this band from Oxford And what a debut young fresh original Indie songs from a band who where new to the scene but about to gatecrash it with a blistering set of guitar driven anthems with catchy choruses and introspective musical interludes that where highly innotive This was the beginning of a long carer for the band and boy what a start buy and enjoy

Great to hear the first album from Radiohead.Just dont have young children around when you play it there is a bit of swearingNot for the young one's Great album never the less

I'm late to the Radiohead party but what a cracking album