PABLO HONEY

The debut album from Radiohead was released in 1993 and it made quite an impact. Radiohead and bands like Blur, Suede and Pulp was soon put into the category called Brit Pop/ rock and allthough I agree to some extent that Pablo Honey does have a similar sound to albums released by some of the other mentioned bands but it does have it´s own trademarks. Radiohead would later make music far removed from that particular sub-genre and fortunately so as Pablo Honey isn´t the best album in the whole world.

The music is very simply structured all the way through the album. There aren´t many surprises when it comes to the form and structure of the songs. The Vers/ Chorus formula isn´t challenged much on Pablo Honey. A typical song on this album will have a quit vers and a noisy rocking chorus. I think there are way too many fillers on this album, it just seems to be too long ( and it´s only 42:11). Creep was a big hit at the time and it´s easy to hear why with that hook. I never liked Creep though. A song like You is much more to my liking. I also enjoy Blow Out, but that´s about it. The rest of the songs are very forgettable.

The musicians play with conviction, but the things that are played doesn´t really need a very trained musician to be executed to perfection. Thom Yorke has a unique voice that needs to be mentioned even though he would develop it further on later releases. He has the skill to sound pathetic and depressed without sounding forced. This is him and he wears his emotions on the sleeve. This is something I don´t always enjoy, but if I´m in the right mood this is good.

The sound could have been better, but as I remember most debut albums from Brit pop/ rock bands sounded a bit raw and unpolished.

The conclusion is that Pablo Honey is a below average rock album and it really doesn´t have the slightest to do with prog rock. It´s not all bad though and I´ll rate it 2 stars.