Review Summary: Maybe?MaybeNot
ORIGINS
The origin of every band is a bands most interesting part of its history. It is the part where their motivations, beginnings, and ideas first come to light. Here, we are given a young band's dreams and desires and we (the consumer) decide whether those dreams shall be met, or thrown to oblivion. For Radiohead, this debut was to be the most forgotten moment of their entire career, and yet they would defy it.
Pablo Honey's Grunge and Alt Rock influences are obvious from the getco, let this be seen in the almost laid back guitar riffs in
Prove Yourself and
Ripcord, where the guitar takes center stage as Thom Yorke sings with an almost odd consistency. One big issue that is evident is in the fact that the volume of the instruments is louder than Thom's voice, which makes his lyrics and singing hard to hear. This can be extremely bothersome, especially for a band whose lyrics are so adored nowadays. Yet one cannot help but admire their technical experience.
Take for example in
Creep. Arguably the best track on the record itself.
Creep begins with a wobbly guitar string play as Thom sings lyrics almost in the style of Pink Floyd. Despite its lazy sounding tone; which was done on purpose,
Creep largely maintains a massive technical proficiency in its guitar work and percussion sequences. This song gives us a clear idea of how good Radiohead actually is, and they are very good indeed. Another example can be seen in
Stop Whispering which has a great guitar flow with some mixed bellowing in the style of Manic Street Preachers. One has to heartily admire Phil Selway for how he maintains such a great rhythm on the drums through the whole album. Hell, I could even say Phil is almost as good as Ringo was back in the 70's, or at least it is the closest anyone has ever got to that level before.
The problem remains, this isn't a strong debut. Other than songs previously mentioned in such a manner, everything else just falls dead in the water. Some songs blatantly conflict with each other in terms of tone and emotion,
Blow Out being the biggest offender. Another issue is that, despite their technical abilities, it was as if Radiohead were trying to purposefully act as if they had zero idea what they were doing. Every time I attempted to admire their craftsmanship, I was bombarded by a muffled guitar section and more vocals mimicking Nirvana. The problem is; these guys are too good for Grunge. Thankfully, they would evolve past this stage, but I can't imagine what I would have thought at the time of this album's release.
