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 1993 in the US by Capitol Records. It was produced by Sean Slade, Paul Q. Kolderie and Radiohead's co-manager Chris Hufford.
Radiohead formed in 1985 at Abingdon School in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, and signed a recording contract with EMI in 1991. Their debut EP, Drill (1992), achieved little success. For their debut album, Radiohead's management targeted the American market and chose American producers. Pablo Honey was recorded in three weeks at Chipping Norton Recording Studios in Oxfordshire in 1992. The recording was hampered by Radiohead's lack of studio experience.
The singles "Creep", "Anyone Can Play Guitar" and "Stop Whispering" initially 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, 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 double platinum in 2013. In the US, it was certified platinum in 1995. Pablo Honey received generally favourable reviews, but some found it underdeveloped or derivative. Though it is less acclaimed than Radiohead's later work, some retrospective reviews have been positive and it has appeared in lists of the greatest albums. The members of Radiohead have criticised it, citing weaker songwriting and their studio inexperience. "Creep" remains Radiohead's most successful single.
Background
The members of Radiohead met while attending Abingdon School in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. In 1985, they formed , the name referring to their usual rehearsal day in the school's music room. They recorded demo tapes, including a cassette unofficially titled Manic Hedgehog, which featured versions of the future Pablo Honey tracks "You", "I Can't" and "Thinking About You".
One demo attracted the attention of a local producer, Chris Hufford. He and his business partner, Bryce Edge, became the band's managers after attending a concert at the Jericho Tavern, Oxford. In late 1991, On a Friday signed a six-album recording contract with EMI and changed their name at EMI's request. Their name was taken from the Talking Heads song "Radio Head" from the 1986 album True Stories.
Radiohead released their debut EP, Drill, in 1992. It was produced by Hufford in his studio, Courtyard Studios, in Oxfordshire. It reached number 101 on the UK singles chart; the Guardian later described it as an "inauspicious start" that drew little attention. Hufford said producing the EP himself was a mistake, as it created a conflict of interest and generated friction in the studio.
Hufford and Edge resolved to find different producers for Radiohead's next recording. Independent labels dominated the indie charts in the UK, but EMI was a major label. Hufford and Edge therefore planned to have Radiohead use American producers and tour aggressively in America, then return to build a following in the UK. They considered hiring Steve Albini, but he had not yet worked with major acts and EMI felt it was too risky.
Around this time, the American producers Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade, who had worked with bands including the Pixies and Dinosaur Jr, were in the UK looking for work. 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". Kolderie was particularly impressed by Thom Yorke's vocals. Upon meeting the band, Kolderie was struck by their youth, unity and closeness, and described "a seriousness of purpose and a seriousness of trying to create music that was a little different". He was initially more impressed by Hufford and Edge than by Radiohead, calling them "crafty mothers ... I don't think I've ever met two guys who had more of a plan."
Recording
Radiohead recorded Pablo Honey at Chipping Norton Studios in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. They first attempted to record two songs that EMI was considering for Radiohead's debut single, "Inside My Head" and "Lurgee". They made little progress; Kolderie described Radiohead as "desperately inexperienced", and neither they nor the producers liked the choice of songs. Kolderie said "Inside My Head" was "not very melodic" and lacked the power of Radiohead's other songs. Hufford described the results as "overblown bombastic rock".
During rehearsals, Radiohead unexpectedly played another song, "Creep". They considered it a "throwaway" track, but it 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 album.
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." Kolderie noted the band's studio inexperience and difficulty in finishing tracks, but said he enjoyed the work due to the small group and joking atmosphere. He said Pablo Honey was "not cheap", and estimated that it had cost more than £100,000 to record.
Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien overdubbed the same guitar parts multiple times to create a distorted "wall of sound". 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. Greenwood used a paintbrush for his part. 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.
The album title comes from a prank call sketch by the American comedy act 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". A sample of the sketch appears during the guitar solo on "How Do You?"
Music and lyrics Pablo Honey has been described as alternative rock and grunge, but also stadium rock, progressive rock, college rock, post-grunge, and jangle pop. The album drew comparisons to Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr., Sugar, U2, the Smiths, the Cure, the Who and the Jam.
O'Brien later described Pablo Honey as a "hedonistic" album that "you might put on in an open-top car on a Saturday night going to a party". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described it as a blend of the anthemic rock of U2 with "atmospheric" instrumental passages. The Salon journalist Annie Zaleski said it featured "distortion-blurred guitar lines that twisted like a kite in the wind". Gary Walker, writing for Guitar.com, described it as "nakedly naive and unguarded" compared to Radiohead's more complex later work. He wrote that it captured the "embryonic dynamic" between the three guitarists and described Greenwood's guitar work as an "exhilarating melange of tremolo-picked soundscapes, chunky octaves, screaming high-register runs and killswitch antics". The opening track, "You", moves between major and minor chords and alternating time signatures. "Blow Out" combines elements of bossa nova and krautrock; it starts with "tense, jazzy" drumming and raked chords and concludes with a shoegaze section.
Zaleski said the Pablo Honey lyrics express anger at the status quo, the feeling of being an outsider, and worry for the future. "Creep" features a quiet verse and a loud chorus, with "blasts" of guitar noise from Greenwood. Yorke described it as a "self-destruct song". The lyrics were inspired by a woman that Yorke followed around who unexpectedly attended a Radiohead performance. The lyrics of "Stop Whispering" are about oppression, and the frustration from failing to explain it. Yorke wrote the line "Grow my hair, I wanna be Jim Morrison", from "Anyone Can Play Guitar", in response to people in the music business who "think they have to act like fucking prats in order to live up to the legend". According to Zaleski, "Ripcord" is about the "experience of hurtling into the unknown". "Lurgee" ends with a "meandering" solo.
Release "Creep" was released as the lead Pablo Honey single on 21 September 1992. It initially received little airplay and sold around 6,000 copies, reaching number 78 on the UK singles chart. The 1993 singles "Anyone Can Play Guitar" and "Stop Whispering", plus the non-album single "Pop Is Dead", were unsuccessful. Only "Anyone Can Play Guitar" and "Pop Is Dead" charted in the UK. 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.
Pablo Honey was released in February 1993 and received little press. It reached number 25 in 1993's UK Albums Chart. 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. Around the same time, "Creep" rose to number two on the US Modern Rock chart, and Pablo Honey was selling well on import. "Creep" reached number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and reached number seven on the UK singles chart when EMI rereleased it in September 1993. In the UK, Pablo Honey was certified silver in February 1994, gold in April 1994, platinum in June 1997, and double platinum in July 2013. In the US, it was certified gold in September 1993 and platinum in September 1995. Tour In late 1992, Radiohead toured the UK with Kingmaker and the Frank and Walters. That September, they performed at the UK EMI conference. 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." 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".
In June 1993, Radiohead began their first North American tour. In July, they gave a performance of "Anyone Can Play Guitar" live on MTV Beach House in which Yorke screamed the improvised lyrics "fat, ugly, dead!", before breaking down on camera and jumping into a pool. Yorke was holding a live microphone and narrowly avoided electrocuting himself.
Radiohead cancelled an appearance at the 1993 Reading Festival after Yorke became ill; he told NME, "Physically I'm completely fucked and mentally I've had enough." According to some reports, EMI gave Radiohead six months to "get sorted" or be dropped. EMI's A&R head, Keith Wozencroft, 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."