I just listened to Radiohead's first album, Pablo Honey.
ALBUM: PABLO HONEY
YEAR RELEASED: 1993
ARTWORK: I'm going to start off discussing the artwork of each album. Some people say that the album cover and insert artwork have nothing to do with the album itself, but I disagree. After all, the cover art is the first thing that you see when you pick up the CD off the shelf (or, I guess the first thing you see when you download it off itunes). Then you bring the CD home, unwrap it, and sit there staring at the cover for forty five minutes while you listen to the songs. The artwork on the cover will be forever linked to the music in your mind.
The most obvious adjective that I can use to describe the cover of Pablo Honey is 'pretty'. It's an attractive cover, the bright yellow whatever-they-ares (some sort of flower?), and the bright, multi-colored candies. Then comes the mystery: the black and white baby photo in the middle. Is it Thom Yorke? Is it Jonny Greenwood's dad when he was a baby? Is this Pablo? Who knows. The baby is not credited in the liner notes. Perhaps this is a nod to the Nevermind baby?
In the bottom right corner, the album's title is written in what looks like a child's scrawl. Some of the letters in "Pablo" are capitalized, some are not, again suggesting that a child was in charge of the cover layout. The baby in the photo doesn't look very happy, though; he actually looks somewhat anxious. There he is, the center of attention, surrounded by bright yellow (what are those things?) and brightly colored candy, and yet he is in black and white, and not looking very happy to be the Radiohead Baby.
The CD insert doesn't have much of interest: one black and white photo of the band wearing blank expressions, another photo of the band playing their instruments while looking in every direction except at the camera, and lastly a photo of a toy alligator and a live lizard. Not sure why the alligator and lizard were invited to the album photo shoot, but they make for the most interesting photo in the insert, so they're okay by me.
The back cover is a bit of a mystery. We see a nighttime cityscape; look closer and you'll see that this photo was either taken during a meeting of antique car collectors or it was taken during the 1920's or 30's when such antique cars could be found driving down the street. The signs appear to be in English but it's unclear what they are advertising, and we are unsure whether this is England or the US or anywhere else in the world. Take yet another step back and you'll see that we're looking at this photograph through another photograph; the border of the photo is actually the outline of a man with perhaps another man standing directly behind him. I can't make out anything other than the man's arms. This is easier to see if you turn the CD case sideways.
NOTABLE SONGS: The centerpiece of the album is Creep, which is not surprising since this is the song that brought the band fame and fortune. My understanding is that they soon tired of playing their hit song over and over again, and I can certainly understand why. It's a very well written song with a good arrangement, and worth all the attention and praise that was heaped upon it, but it is a bit of a downer. "Whatever makes you happy," Thom Yorke sings, "whatever you want." It's clear that the narrator of this song is tired of making this other person happy, having reached that point where there is no more sense of self, just the need to make this other person stop haranguing him and leave him alone. "You're so fucking special... I wish I were special... but I'm a creep."
This was the first time that I heard the f-bomb get dropped on this song. For all these years, I was unaware that I was actually listening to the 'clean' version of the song. The version they play on the radio has Thom sing, "You're so very special," which I actually think conveys the sarcasm better. It turns out that the CD I bought includes the clean version as a mystery 13th track, just in case I want to play the CD while my mom is around.
That's only a joke, I do not share an address with mom and dad anymore.
I need to take a second to say that I'm really happy with the selection of the word 'creep' for the title and chorus. The song would not be as cool if it were called "Jerk" or "Asshole" or "Dweeb". Okay, maybe 'dweeb' would have been funny. It's also worth noting that this song is a bit like the British cousin of Beck's "Loser", a song about someone who has given up on themselves and is ready to accept the fact that they suck as a person. Beck sings, "I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me?", and I think that the Loser and the Creep would have a big debate over who deserved the first bullet.
Musically, this track is simple but impressive. The sparse arrangement tells us more than the lyrics do about the mood of the song's antagonist. And man, that distorted electric guitar that kicks in right before the chorus still sounds amazing. It must be one of the best guitar tones of the decade. The story is that lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood hated the song Thom Yorke brought to the table, and was determined to mess it up. He ended up unintentionally adding the punch and fury that the song needed to be a hit. Such sweet and delicious irony. I also give kudos to Thom for delivering the awesome falsetto bridge that turns into a howl; such great contrast to his low-key approach to the rest of the song.
ALBUM REVIEW: Before I hit 'play', I thought about how I didn't know what to expect from this album. I knew Creep from hearing it on the radio (albeit the censored version), but didn't know what kind of tone or feel the rest of the album would have. I know that Radiohead's later stuff can be a bit more ethereal and even challenging to listen to, so I was surprised by the album's pop influences.
Most of the songs were in a major key, and very pleasant. Pleasant isn't quite the right word, but it's more accessible than I was expecting. This is not a bad thing. I was also surprised by how short most of the songs were. Most of the songs were right around 3 minutes long, and a few were less than 2 minutes 20 seconds. Since we all know that Radiohead soon branched out into different directions, it's difficult to separate the music from the band's legacy, in the same way that I might listen to With The Beatles today and enjoy it but not enjoy it nearly as much as listening to Revolver or Abbey Road; I'm only listening to get 'the full story' of the band rather than enjoy that Beatles version of "Til There Was You".
I was also surprised by Pablo Honey being such a guitar-heavy record. I don't think there was any synth or keyboards besides the piano outro on Creep. Although, I might have detected a bit of synth in the background of the album's final track, "Blow Out". That song was more like what I was expecting the rest of the album to sound like, and I think that the band intentionally put that song last (if it was even the band's decision to make, and not the record's producer during the sequencing). Blow Out hints towards the noisy, risk taking band that Radiohead soon became.
I liked Pablo Honey. I think that if I had bought this CD when it was new, I would have really loved it. I'll be listening to it a lot this week to try and get as familiar with it as possible before moving on to The Bends.
Overall, I was also surprised by how very early 90's this record sounds. There were more than a few touches of Blur, and you can definitely hear the band's 80's influences. It's fun to hear a band being influenced by other bands before Radiohead became the influential art rock band.
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