music.wikisort.org - Composition

Pablo Honey is the debut studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 22 February 1993 in the UK by Parlophone and on 20 April in the US by Capitol Records. It was produced by Sean Slade, Paul Q. Kolderie and Radiohead's co-manager Chris Hufford.

Pablo Honey
Studio album by Radiohead
Released	22 February 1993 (1993-02-22)
Recorded	September–November 1992
Studio	Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire Courtyard Studios, Oxfordshire
Genre	Alternative rock grunge[1][2] post-grunge[3]
Length	42:11
Label	Parlophone Capitol
Producer	Sean Slade Paul Q. Kolderie Chris Hufford
Radiohead chronology
Drill (1992) Pablo Honey (1993) My Iron Lung (1994)
Singles from Pablo Honey
"Creep" Released: 21 September 1992 "Anyone Can Play Guitar" Released: 1 February 1993 "Stop Whispering" Released: 5 October 1993

Radiohead formed at Abingdon School in Abingdon, Oxforshire, and signed a recording contract with EMI in 1991. Their debut release, the Drill EP (1992), achieved little success. Pablo Honey was recorded in three weeks at Chipping Norton Recording Studios in Oxfordshire from September to November 1992. The recording was difficult due to Radiohead's lack of studio experience.

The singles "Creep", "Anyone Can Play Guitar" and "Stop Whispering" made little impact. However, "Creep" gradually gained international radio play, reaching number seven on the UK Singles Chart after it was reissued in 1993. Radiohead embarked on an aggressive promotional tour in the US supporting Belly and PJ Harvey, followed by a European tour supporting James. In May 1995, a live video featuring performances of many Pablo Honey songs, Live at the Astoria (1995), was released on VHS.

Pablo Honey reached number 22 on the UK Albums Chart. It was certified gold in the UK in 1994 and triple platinum in 2013. In the US, it was certified platinum in 1995. It received generally favourable reviews, but some found it underdeveloped or derivative. It is less acclaimed than Radiohead's later work, though some retrospective reviews have been positive. The members of Radiohead have criticised it, saying it has weaker songwriting and was hampered by their inexperience. "Creep" remains Radiohead's most successful single.

Background

The members of Radiohead met while attending Abingdon School in Abingdon, Oxforshire.[4] In 1985, they formed On a Friday, the name referring to their usual rehearsal day in the school's music room.[5] They recorded demo tapes, including Manic Hedgehog, which featured versions of the future Pablo Honey tracks "You", "I Can't" and "Thinking About You".[6] In late 1991, On a Friday signed a six-album recording contract with EMI[7] and changed their name at EMI's request. Their name was taken from the Talking Heads song "Radio Head" from True Stories (1986).[7]

Radiohead released their debut EP, Drill, in 1992. It was produced by their co-manager, Chris Hufford, in Courtyard Studios, Oxfordshire. It reached number 101 on the UK Singles Chart; the Guardian later described it as an "inauspicious start" that drew little attention.[8] Around this time, the American producers Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade, who had worked with bands including the Pixies and Dinosaur Jr,[5] were in the UK looking for work.[9]^{[page needed]} The EMI A&R director, Nick Gatfield, gave them a selection of acts to consider. They agreed to produce Radiohead after he played them "Stop Whispering".[9] Steve Albini, another producer who had worked with the Pixies, was also considered, but EMI felt he was too risky; he had not yet worked with major acts such as Nirvana.[9]^{[page needed]}

Kolderie was more impressed by Radiohead's managers than the band, calling them "crafty mothers ... I don't think I've ever met two guys who had more of a plan."[9]^{[page needed]} As it was difficult for major labels such as EMI to promote bands in the UK, where independent labels dominated the indie charts, Radiohead's managers planned to have Radiohead use American producers and tour aggressively in America, then return to build a following in the UK.[9]^{[page needed]}

Recording

Radiohead recorded Pablo Honey at Chipping Norton Studios in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.[6] They first attempted to record two songs that EMI was considering for Radiohead's debut single, "Inside My Head" and "Lurgee".[10] They made little progress; Kolderie described Radiohead as "desperately inexperienced", and neither they nor the producers liked the choice of songs for the single. Kolderie said: "'Inside My Head' was not very melodic, didn't have any of the stuff we thought the others had, so we were rather disappointed."[10] Hufford described the results as "overblown bombastic rock".[10]

During rehearsals, Radiohead played another song, "Creep", which impressed the producers. At Kolderie's suggestion, they recorded a take, after which everyone in the studio burst into applause. EMI were persuaded to make "Creep" Radiohead's debut single. According to Kolderie, "everyone [at EMI] who heard Creep just started going insane" and he and Slade were hired to produce the entire album.[10] Radiohead took elements of "Creep" from the 1972 song "The Air That I Breathe" and shared the songwriting credits and royalties after the publisher, Rondor Music, took legal action.[11]

Pablo Honey was recorded in three weeks. Kolderie described it as a struggle, and said: "It was their first record and they wanted to be the Beatles, and the mix had to have no reverb, and they had all the ideas they'd ever come up with in 20 years of listening to records."[10] He cited Radiohead's songwriting and Thom Yorke's vocals as strengths, but said they had not yet learned to finish work or play tightly together.[9]^{[page needed]} The guitarist Ed O'Brien later described the album as "a collection of our greatest hits as an unsigned band".[12] He felt it was a "hedonistic" album that "you might put on in an open-top car on a Saturday night going to a party".[5]

For the introduction to "Anyone Can Play Guitar", Kolderie had everyone in the studio, including the cook, create sounds on guitar. "The idea was to live up to the title: anyone can play guitar," he said.[6] The guitarist Jonny Greenwood used a paintbrush for his part.[6] Radiohead did not like the version of "Lurgee" they recorded with Kolderie and Slade, and used an earlier version, recorded with Hufford at Courtyard, for the album.[9]^{[page needed]}

The album title comes from a prank call sketch by the Jerky Boys in which the caller poses as the victim's mother and says: "Pablo, honey? Please come to Florida." Yorke said it was appropriate as the band were "mothers' boys".[6] A sample of the sketch appears during the guitar solo on "How Do You".[6] Kolderie said Pablo Honey was "not cheap", and estimated that it had cost more than £100,000 to record.[9]^{[page needed]}

Release and promotion

"Creep" was released as the lead Pablo Honey single on 21 September 1992.[10][13] It initially received little airplay and sold around 6,000 copies, reaching number 78 in the UK Singles Chart.[10] The singles "Anyone Can Play Guitar" and "Stop Whispering", and the non-album single "Pop Is Dead", were also unsuccessful.[9]^{[page needed]} Radiohead rerecorded "Stop Whispering" for the US single as they were not happy with the album version; O'Brien said the new version was "more atmospheric", likening it to Joy Division.[6]

In late 1992, Radiohead toured the UK as the support act for Kingmaker and performed at the UK EMI conference in September. They impressed the EMI promoter Carol Baxter, who said: "This funny little band came on and they obviously had something. This was a hideous record company do but Thom gave it everything."[10] That Christmas, NME published a review of a Radiohead performance that dismissed them as "a pitiful, lily-livered excuse for a rock 'n' roll group".[10]

Pablo Honey was released in February 1993 and received little press;[10] it reached number 22 in the UK Albums Chart.[9]^{[page needed]} However, "Creep" became a hit in Israel, where it was played frequently by the radio DJ Yoav Kutner. In March, Radiohead were invited to Tel Aviv for their first overseas show.[14] Around the same time, "Creep" began receiving airplay on US radio stations and rose to number two on the US Modern Rock chart. By the time Radiohead began their first North American tour in June 1993, the music video for "Creep" was in heavy rotation on MTV.[15] The single reached number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart,[16] and reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart when EMI rereleased it in September 1993.[17] That month, Radiohead performed "Creep" on the British music programme Top of the Pops[18][19] and as the first musical guests on the American talk show Late Night with Conan O'Brien.[20]

EMI's American arm Capitol wanted to continue promoting Pablo Honey and build on the momentum. Radiohead declined an offer to tour the US in support of Duran Duran; their managers felt they could earn more credibility by supporting Belly.[10] They also opened for PJ Harvey in New York City and Los Angeles.[21] The band struggled with the tour; Yorke disliked dealing with American music journalists and had tired of the songs. Radiohead appeared in promotional material they later regretted, such as fashion shoots for Iceberg jeans and the magazine Interview.[10] According to Radiohead's agent, the promotional work triggered "a lot of soul-searching about why they were in a group at all".[10] Jonny Greenwood said they "spent a year being jukeboxes ... We felt in a creative stasis because we couldn't release anything new."[10] Kolderie credited Radiohead's Pablo Honey tours for "turning them into a tight band".[9]^{[page needed]}

The American tour was followed by a European tour supporting James.[10] Afterwards, Radiohead cancelled an appearance at Reading Festival after Yorke became ill; he told NME, "Physically I'm completely fucked and mentally I've had enough."[22] According to some reports, EMI gave Radiohead six months to "get sorted" or be dropped. EMI's A&R head Keith Wozencroft later denied this, saying: "Experimental rock music was getting played and had commercial potential. People voice different paranoias, but for the label [Radiohead] were developing brilliantly from Pablo Honey."[22] Radiohead's frustration with "Creep" and Pablo Honey influenced their second album, The Bends (1995).[10] The album title, a term for decompression sickness, references Radiohead's rapid rise to fame; Yorke said "we just came up too fast".[23]

Pablo Honey was certified gold in the UK in April 1994. It was certified platinum in June 1997 and triple platinum in July 2013.[10] In the US, it was certified gold in September 1993 and platinum in September 1995.[24] On 13 May 1995, a live video featuring performances of many Pablo Honey and Bends songs, Live at the Astoria (1995), was released on VHS.[25]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Contemporary reviews
Review scores
Source	Rating
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[26][page needed]
Entertainment Weekly	B[27]
Los Angeles Times	[28]
NME	7/10[29]
Q	[30]
Select	3/5[31]

Pablo Honey failed to make a critical impact upon its initial release.[32] However, several publications were enthusiastic about the band's forthcoming debut release, with NME referring to Radiohead as "one of rock's brightest hopes".[29] Remarking that "British teenagerhood has never been grumpier," Q felt that it was a "good" album with moments that rivalled Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr. and Sugar.[30] NME's John Harris criticised some "forgettable" tracks, finding that "How Do You?" "breaks the momentum... horribly", but called Pablo Honey "one of those flawed but satisfying debuts that suggests Radiohead's talents will really blossom later on".[29] NME named it the 35th-best album of the year, describing it as "a throwback to a homegrown tradition of great guitar-band albums".[33]

In the United States, "Creep" drew parallels with Nirvana, with some describing Radiohead as the "British Nirvana".[34] Billboard wrote that the guitar sounds and Yorke's vocals were reminiscent of U2, but that the lyrics "have enough bite to make it on their own".[35] Marisa Fox of Entertainment Weekly said that the album "mates Smiths-type self-consciousness with dramatic U2-like vocals and guitar, with Cure-style heavy but crunchy pop".[27] In a mixed review, Mario Mundoz of the Los Angeles Times wrote that it "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."[28] Robert Christgau of The Village Voice did not recommend the album, but named "Creep" a "choice cut".[36] 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".[37]

Legacy

Professional ratings

Retrospective reviews
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[38]
The A.V. Club	B−[39]
Blender	[40]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[41]
The Irish Times	[42]
Pitchfork	5.4/10[43]
Q	[44]
Rolling Stone	[45]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[46]
Uncut	[47]

Although Pablo Honey was not met with the critical fervour of Radiohead's later albums, it has received praise in retrospective coverage. In 1998, a Virgin poll saw Pablo Honey voted 100th in the all-time top 1000 albums,[48] while Q readers voted it the 61st greatest album of all time.[49] In 2004, Q included "Lurgee" and "Blow Out" in a list of 20 essential lesser-known Radiohead songs as part of their "1010 Songs You Must Own" feature.[50] In 2006, Classic Rock and its sister publication Metal Hammer named Pablo Honey one of the 20 greatest albums of 1993.[51] In 2008, Blender placed it 82nd in its list of "100 Albums You Must Own", writing: "Self-hate couldn't have found a better British exemplification with this band's debut single, which hit the world as part of an album that constructed walls of crunchy guitar tones amidst the dark lyrical content."[52] It was voted number 301 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).[53]

Retrospectively, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called Pablo Honey "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... the band achieves a rare power that is both visceral and intelligent."[38] Kenny EG Perry of NME described the album as "the sound of one of the best bands of this or any other generation playing the music that taught them all their good early lessons".[54] Clash said that it "points towards everything that [Radiohead] would go on to be".[55]

In a 2008 review, Al Spicer of BBC Music described the album as Radiohead's "exploration of suburban, adolescent self-awareness", concluding: "It all resulted in a stunning blend that combined the best aspects of prog rock... with the plaintiveness of bedsit singer songwriting and the sound of expensive equipment thrashed at by experts. Though later albums were better received, this remains one of rock's most impressive debuts."[56] In 2009, PopMatters' Mehan Jahasuriya criticised the album as "a hodgepodge of half-baked grunge, jangle-pop and stadium-ready alternative rock ... nearly indistinguishable from other early '90s college rock throwaways, save for a few hints of greatness".[57]

In 1996, Radiohead's bassist Colin Greenwood said: "I'd give it a seven out of 10 – not bad for an album recorded in just two and a half weeks."[58] O'Brien said in 1997 that the album was derivative of Dinosaur Jr. and the Pixies,[59] and said in 2020: "That first album was pretty shit ... We weren't that good but we worked hard and became good. That's one of the things I've held onto: you don't have to have all the answers straight away."[60] Jonny Greenwood said in 1998 that it "lacked freedom", and was hindered by the band's fear and inexperience.[5] In 2007, Pitchfork wrote that, with Pablo Honey, "Radiohead didn't so much ride the coattails of grunge to mass success as stumble over them, and they've been apologising for it ever since."[61] Though Radiohead achieved greater commercial and critical success with later albums, "Creep" remains their most successful single.[62]

Reissues

On 31 August 2009, EMI reissued Pablo Honey in a "Collector's Edition" with the Drill EP tracks, B-sides and alternative takes.[63][64] Radiohead had no input into the reissue and the music was not remastered.[64] In February 2013, Parlophone was bought by Warner Music Group (WMG).[65] In April 2016, as a result of an agreement with the trade group Impala, WMG transferred Radiohead's back catalogue to XL Recordings. The "Collector's Editions" of Radiohead albums, issued without Radiohead's approval, were removed from streaming services.[66] In May 2016, XL reissued Radiohead's back catalogue on vinyl, including Pablo Honey.[67]

Track listing

Personnel

Radiohead

• Colin Greenwood – bass guitar
• Jonny Greenwood – lead guitar, piano, organ
• Ed O'Brien – guitar, backing vocals
• Philip Selway – drums
• Thom Yorke – vocals, guitar

Production

• Chris Blair – mastering
• Chris Hufford – production, engineering (tracks 10, 11)
• Paul Q. Kolderie – production, engineering (tracks 1–9, 12), mixing
• Sean Slade – production, engineering (tracks 1–9, 12), mixing

Design

• Icon – design
• Lisa Bunny Jones – paintings
• Tom Sheehan – photography

Charts

Certifications and sales

Sales certifications for Pablo Honey

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Argentina (CAPIF)[81]	Gold	30,000^
Australia (ARIA)[82]	Gold	35,000^
Belgium (BEA)[83]	Platinum	50,000*
Canada (Music Canada)[84]	2× Platinum	200,000^
Netherlands (NVPI)[85]	Gold	50,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[86]	2× Platinum	600,000^
United States (RIAA)[87]	Platinum	1,520,000[88]
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

Bibliography

• Christgau, Robert (2000). "Radiohead: Pablo Honey". Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-24560-2. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
• Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
• Randall, Mac (2011). Exit Music: The Radiohead Story. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1849384575.
• Randall, Mac (2012). Exit Music: The Radiohead Story Updated Edition. ISBN 9781617130472.

External links

• Pablo Honey at Discogs (list of releases)

На других языках

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[de] Pablo Honey

Pablo Honey ist das im Winter 1993 erschienene Debütalbum der britischen Band Radiohead. Es enthält den Song Creep, der zum bekanntesten Stück der Band wurde und für deren Aufstieg sorgte. Der Albumtitel entstammt einem Sketch der Jerky Boys, in dem ein Anrufer seinem Opfer “Pablo honey, please come to Florida!” zurief.

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- [en] Pablo Honey

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[es] Pablo Honey

Pablo Honey es el nombre del álbum debut de la banda británica de rock alternativo Radiohead. Fue lanzado al mercado por EMI, Parlophone y Capitol Records el 22 de febrero de 1993. Su gran éxito fue el sencillo "Creep". La versión estadounidense del álbum tiene una versión especial de "Creep", en la cual el fuckin pronunciado antes del coro es reemplazado por very. El tema "Creep" surgió accidentalmente ya que era una canción que Jonny Greenwood odiaba y trataba de arruinar con ruidos discordantes, así nació el acorde distorsionado, que cambia el ritmo y clima del tema. El mismo llegó al puesto 27 de la Billboard. Las versiones japonesas en cambio tienen un total de 17 pistas, siendo las nuevas: "Pop Is Dead", "Inside my Head", "Million Dollar Question" y dos versiones en directo de "Creep" y "Ripcord".

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[ru] Pablo Honey

Pablo Honey — дебютный студийный альбом английской рок-группы Radiohead, увидевший свет в начале 1993 года. В число композиций альбома входит первый всемирно известный хит Radiohead «Creep», вышедший на сингле немного ранее — в сентябре 1992-го. Уже после выпуска Pablo Honey, «Creep» поднялся на 71-ю строчку в британском чарте, заняв в итоге седьмое место. Группа также выпустила два других сингла к альбому: «Anyone Can Play Guitar» и «Stop Whispering».

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