Pablo Honey [CD, Import, from US]

RadioheadがPavementやDr.Dre以来の批評家絶賛グループになる以前は、このグループは緩いインディーズの結束をもった前オアシス的ブリティッシュ・バンドで、位置をかためようとがんばっていた。このJerky Boysお決まりの曲をそのまま題名にするには、あまりにもクレイジーな、この気まぐれでガンガンのデビューアルバムだが、サウンドスケープという言葉と出会う前の彼らはもっと面白いものをつくっていたと思う。無惨にも堂々たるシングルCreepによって、ほとんど自分達は破滅したと彼らは主張するが、このアルバムでのベストの曲とは思えない。むしろAnyone Can Play Guitarがいい。ことが起こる前のリバー・フェニックスへの墓碑銘である。

It's that old story: unknown British band gets an American hit single, gets huge off the back of that one song, and the success ends up destroying them. Fortunately, Oxford quintet Radiohead were the exception that proves the rule. Radiohead's albatross was "Creep"--a titanic anthem to paranoia, self-hatred and self-obsession, utterly huge in every way. Pablo Honey, though, is much more than filler. "Anyone Can Play Guitar" is certainly as good as "Creep"; swathed in walls of feedback, it races blindly into a apocalyptic chorus, frontman Thom Yorke singing "As the world turns and as London burns, I'll be standing on the beach with my guitar." Certainly, indie-rock seldom got better than this, and elsewhere "Vegetable" and "Prove Yourself" pulled similar pyrotechnical tricks. Pablo Honey was later superseded by first The Bends, and later OK Computer, but it's certainly much more than a curious debut. --Louis Pattison

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