Radiohead - Pablo Honey POLL

I like 'Stop Whispering' a lot, and feel that R.E.M. or U2 could have done a really neat cover of it. I love it when Thom emotes on this song. His vocals would only get better after this album, but even at this early stage he's still able to achieve a vocal that gives me goosebumps.

Moby was well into his New Jersey phase. I know he sang on that unsuccessful Animal Rights album, but did he on Play anywhere, at all?

South Side and Porcelain, at least

it's been so long since i heard any of this album. I traded bootlegs of shows by mail in the 90s - the Pablo Honey shows were always the most loose and fun (and screamy... Stop Whispering, holy crap)

Just had a play through. Got to be Creep. Of course. Should be mentioned here that they do play it sometimes now and seem to enjoy it.

It's not a regular fixture in their live set or anything, but in all honesty they've never really stopped playing it. I can recall performances during the OK Computer, Kid A/Amnesiac, Hail to the Thief and In Rainbows eras. I don't think they played it at all during The King of Limbs era, but they've certainly played it since then.

Also, as much as I like 'Creep', it would be kinda neat if there was some discussion regarding the other 11 songs on this album.

voting for "creep," love the part where the guitar goes chugga... chugga chugga

I remember how thrilling that part was at first, but over time its effect has diminished the more I've heard it. There's so many more great moments on this record, though. The way the album begins with those chiming arpeggios before Selway cuts in and 'You' just bursts into life, for one. Superb. 'Blow Out' is great moment after great moment. There's some genuinely beautiful guitar work on the likes of 'Vegetable' and 'Lurgee', and 'Ripcord' remains one of the bands most underrated tracks. Also, also, also, when 'I Can't' drops down to just Colin Greenwood's bass lick and then Selway cuts in announcing the end stretch of the track, it's quite thrilling.

'Prove Yourself' is a fine slab of '90s alternative rock, too. I love how the vocal melody ascends in the verses and particularly how intense the second verse feels in comparison to the first, the solo section, and that neat little guitar lick during the final chorus, and of course, Thom's cry of "WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?" at the end.

"Blow Out" by a mile.

"I'd like to think that we're now at a point in time that people have calmed their tits regarding this band"

"even when morons on the internet during the '90s/early '00s were all like "waaahhh,"

Why stuff like this?

I'm just afraid I'll give the wrong answer.

you belong

voting for "creep," love the part where the guitar goes chugga... chugga chugga

Yes!

"blow out" is as good as anything on the bends, and "stop whispering" isn't far behind.

Add a few reverbed sounds effects or an ondes martenot or something and 'lurgee' could be an ok computer b-side (cf. a reminder, melatonin).

Got to be Blow Out

This is a really good rock album, massively eclipsed by what was to come. But I think I rate about 80% of what's on it.

oh god, the scratching on that Moby cover. The only good thing is that his voice reminds me of Tiny Tim, which would be an actually perfect cover were he still alive.

Not the biggest fan of the Morose Warbles, but not a hater either. I see them as an artsier variation of that 90s angst for angst sake subset that I never could get behind fully.

Had a mix tape of my favorite songs from the first two albums that I enjoyed, and also remember liking 'Hail to the Thief' as an album length listen.

Voted "stop whispering"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1qKy4cMPUI

OK, after a listen to the spiffy 2CD Deluxe Edition I have to go with the consensus view of “crap debut, went on to greatness”. “How Do You” and “Pop Is Dead” are the two worst Radiohead songs of all-time. I do like the U.S. Version of “Stop Whispering” though. And as someone upthread said, it is nice to see them already fucking with strange time signatures in “You”.

"blow out" is as good as anything on the bends, and "stop whispering" isn't far behind.

― J. Sam, Tuesday, June 4, 2019 11:59 AM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yep, I couldn't agree more with this. I'd add 'Ripcord' and 'I Can't' to that list as well.

Add a few reverbed sounds effects or an ondes martenot or something and 'lurgee' could be an ok computer b-side (cf. a reminder, melatonin).

― The Pingularity (ledge), Tuesday, June 4, 2019 12:22 PM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They played 'Lurgee' on the Hail to the Thief tour if I remember, so the band obviously thought it was worth digging out to play ten years after the release of the album. Y'know how 'Lift' was supposed to be the great lost Radiohead song and a studio version of it has come out on the OK Computer reissue recently? Well, 'Lurgee' is better than that, IMO.

“How Do You” and “Pop Is Dead” are the two worst Radiohead songs of all-time.

In the case of 'Pop is Dead', it's not really relevant to the discussion as it's not on Pablo Honey to begin with, but I'll agree that neither of these songs are great. However, I'd argue there are worse songs than these two amongst the Pablo Honey b-sides. The other 11 songs on Pablo Honey are, of course, head and shoulders above these tracks.

Lurgee is great, and I was lucky to be at one of those hail to the thief shows where they played it. (I think they only played it once or twice on that tour?)

Is "How To You" generally hated by fans? I think it's a great Sex Pistols mock-up.

chorus of "anyone can play guitar" is terrible imo

thom also a distinctly less controlled singer here to the album's detriment ("vegetable")

Not listened to this for aeons, and am not going to now, but I'll let teenage angsty LBI pick here and he says without hesitation "Thinking about you".

last two songs on this feel like them entering the headspace for the bends, imo they're the best things here besides chugga chugga chugga

this record is not terrible but i don't think it's much more than fine

Is "How To You" generally hated by fans? I think it's a great Sex Pistols mock-up.

― Herman Woke (cryptosicko), Tuesday, June 4, 2019 7:19 PM (forty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I've seldom seen or heard anything positive written or said about it by either fan or critic. It's my least favourite track on the album, but even with that in mind I think some of the B-sides from this era are far worse!

The part of 'Vegetable' where Thom passionately sings "I'M NOOOOT A VEGETAAAABLE" is one of the high points of the record, IMO.

It's not.

Urgh, no.

i forgot that they opened their first album with a weird time signature song, guess the art rock signs were there all along

Lurgee is great, and I was lucky to be at one of those hail to the thief shows where they played it. (I think they only played it once or twice on that tour?)

― i will never make a typo ever again (Karl Malone), Tuesday, June 4, 2019 7:13 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, it wasn't a regular fixture in the set, but they did play it a handful of times. There's some great sounding bootlegs of it floating around, and it fits in rather well with the rest of the set.

Does anybody have that photo of Britney Spears buying Pablo Honey?

Absolute mess of an album. Most of the songs poor to mediocre. As for the chorus of "Anyone Can Play Guitar": I think that's one of the *better* melodies on the album (it's the rest of the song that's terrible) - it (the chorus) reminds me of "Where I Find My Heaven" by Gigolo Aunts, though it's not as good as that of course. I remember borrowing the album back in 1993 and editing it down to a 6-song mini album to fill one side of a C60 cassette, but I can't imagine more than three songs actually being worth it. The one true gem on Pablo Honey is "Stop Whispering", which reminds me slightly of James's "How Was It For You?", though it's not as good as that of course.

Does anybody have that photo of Britney Spears buying Pablo Honey?

― Mr. Snrub, Tuesday, 4 June 2019 22:33 (twenty-two seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i forgot that they opened their first album with a weird time signature song, guess the art rock signs were there all along

― ciderpress, Tuesday, June 4, 2019 8:31 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yup, and it's yet another one of the tracks from this album that's been given a live airing post-Kid A.

Absolute mess of an album. Most of the songs poor to mediocre.

You're going to have to elaborate further on this.

I listened through Pablo Honey yesterday and my impression was better than the first time I listened to it so many years ago but the only things on the album that grabbed/interested me were "Creep", "Anyone Can Play Guitar", and the time signature of "You". Everything else was a big 🤷‍♂️

It's rather clear 'Pablo Honey' is a terribly mediocre debut album, at best (and is exactly as hit-and-miss as debut albums from bands who transitioned into something way better should be).

I listened through Pablo Honey yesterday and my impression was better than the first time I listened to it so many years ago but the only things on the album that grabbed/interested me were "Creep", "Anyone Can Play Guitar", and the time signature of "You". Everything else was a big 🤷‍♂️

― Arugula Raccoon (DJP), Tuesday, June 4, 2019 8:40 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ah, that's fair enough. I know that you've never really been a big fan of this album, so I take it as a positive thing that it left you with a better impression this time around.

For me, the vocal melodies on 'Stop Whispering', 'Prove Yourself' and 'I Can't' are R.E.M. level beautiful. 'I Can't' actually feels to me like a bit of a forerunner to 'Black Star', actually.

In fact, 'I Can't' might just be the one that secures my vote, just for all the reasons I've said above: I think the vocal melody is beautiful, and I love the part where it drops down to Colin's bass before coming thundering back in. I would have chosen it as a single over 'Anyone Can Play Guitar' any day of the week.

Absolute mess of an album. Most of the songs poor to mediocre.

You're going to have to elaborate further on this.

i'm more of a pablo honey fan than most, but i think the burden of proof would fall on those arguing that the songs are NOT poor to mediocre, since that's been the consensus on it for at least 20 years now.

my friend's old band used to do a pretty good cover of You which made me like the original more, so I'd probably pick that one. not a massive Radiohead fan though. I have 3 of their albums but I never listen to them. possibly due to massive overexposure in the 90s by the same friend, although he mostly listened to OK Computer, not this one

Hmm. Nah, I'm not sure I agree with that given that I've yet to hear a convincing argument as to why this album is supposed to be poor to mediocre. It feels to me that while there is a consensus surrounding this record, it's a consensus opinion founded on very little.

(x-post)

my friend's old band used to do a pretty good cover of You which made me like the original more, so I'd probably pick that one. not a massive Radiohead fan though. I have 3 of their albums but I never listen to them. possibly due to massive overexposure in the 90s by the same friend, although he mostly listened to OK Computer, not this one

― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, June 4, 2019 9:21 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Radiohead fans have always been a notoriously rabid bunch, some of them even astoundingly obnoxious in their fandom, although I feel that people are beginning to - thankfully - calm down regarding them in recent years, particularly after the last couple of albums.

I think Pablo Honey is pathologically hook-averse aside from "Creep", which is probably why everyone latched onto it.

By the time The Bends came out, the band's songwriting had moved on to a level where each song, for good or ill, was an earworm. They then took that sensibility and dragged it through all sorts of permutations, causing the subsequent albums to tower over the debut (at least up until In Rainbows, which I feel hits the same anonymous buttons as Pablo Honey and is where I get off the Radiohead train).

Projecting my experience as a listener, Pablo Honey feels like a band writing music for themselves; The Bends through Hail To The Thief feels like a band writing music for themselves and other people, and In Rainbows on goes back to being introverted just-for-themselves, only with the context/good will generated by the run of extroverted albums. (And I will repeat that this is me projecting my experience as a listener onto their albums, not my assumption of what they were trying to do.)

(I realize the idea of Amnesiac as an extroverted album may bemuse people but the fact that large swathes of it are very weird doesn't necessarily mean it's introverted)

and not singing during the rest of the chorus. that is the idea we are dealing with here.

He really wants to be Jim Morrison. He says so in the song.

Wait, I thought Sufjan was talking about "Prove Yourself"?

I voted for 'Everyone Can Play Guitar' (*ducks*).

Mainly for nostalgia reasons though - it was on an early 90's compilation called Loaded (sandwiched between the Auteurs 'Showgirl' and FNM's cover of Easy iirc) which was one of my entry points to discovering indie / alternative beyond Nirvana and whatever was on radio back when I was 12, and I wore the tape out in the absence of more pocket money to buy more music. In retrospect it is a dire lyric but great when you have no reference points to compare to.

I was trying to remember which compilation I first heard it on. Maybe that was it.

The "grow my hair/I want to be Jim Morrison" stuff is what everyone hates, then? I don't think it's genius or anything but I find it kind of cute/funny in its self-consciousness, especially the way "I am Jim Morrison" is followed by the deflating "I want to be, wannabe, wannabe Jim Morrison".

zig-a-zig ahhh

xxp my friend had that compilation when I was at school, I taped some songs off it, possibly including Anyone Can Play Guitar, but definitely including Start Choppin by Dinosaur Jr, having looked at the tracklisting

LOL, Willl, this is the compilation that got me into indie/alt music. Came free with Donkey Kong Country for the SNES. To this day, I've no idea what the music's got to do with Donkey Kong but I played it to death

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Go-Ape/release/1481263

and yes, Creep was on it

https://i.redd.it/w25zxt912u131.jpg

xxp I'd love to know the story of how that tracklist got approved :o

'We need to put together a CD to give away free with our new SNES game. Its ESRB rating is 'Universal' so its got to be suitable for all ages.
Any suggestions for suitable tunes?'

...

"Dealers keep dealin'
,Thieves keep thievin'
,Whores keep whorin'
,Junkies keep scorin'
,Trade is on the meat rack
,Strip joints full of hunchbacks
,Bitches keep bitchin'
,Clap just keeps a-itchin'"

'Yes that is perfect'

Also, Leaves & Sand is a totally bonkers tune to give away to 13 year olds.

Vegetable and Prove Yourself both totally robbed

Coming on with Blow Out, in 2018. First time they’d played it in ten years supposedly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s60nLTuz4k