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.

However, "Creep" gradually gained international radio play, reaching number seven on the UK singles chart after it was reissued in 1993.

[2] 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".

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.

"[8] 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.

[17] 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?

[27] The Radiohead guitarist Ed 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".

[2] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described it as a blend of the anthemic rock of U2 with "atmospheric" instrumental passages.

[29] 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".

[30] "Blow Out" combines elements of bossa nova and krautrock; it starts with "tense, jazzy" drumming and raked chords and concludes with a shoegaze section.

[28][29][30] Zaleski said the Pablo Honey lyrics express anger at the status quo, the feeling of being an outsider, and worry for the future.

[28] 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".

[36] Around the same time, "Creep" rose to number two on the US Modern Rock chart,[37] and Pablo Honey was selling well on import.

"[8] 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".

[42] 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!

[43][44][45] 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.

[49] EMI's American arm, Capitol, wanted to continue promoting Pablo Honey and build on the momentum.

[8] The band members appeared in promotional material they later regretted, such as fashion shoots for Iceberg jeans and the magazine Interview.

[57] Q wrote that "British teenagerhood has never been grumpier" and described Pablo Honey as a good album with moments that rivalled Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr. and Sugar.

[59] Rolling Stone wrote that the album's charm originates from its guitar work, song structures, melodies, and choruses that invoke a "pop appeal".

The musician and journalist Phil Witmer wrote that "Pablo Honey is endearing because we now know the band that made it would become something extraordinary not even five years later".

[30] According to Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic, the songwriting does not always match Radiohead's sound, but when it does, it achieves "a rare power that is both visceral and intelligent".

[21] Kenny EG Perry of NME described the album as "the sound of one of the best bands of this or any other generation playing the music that taught them all their good early lessons".

[71] In a 2008 review, Al Spicer of BBC Music described Pablo Honey as Radiohead's "exploration of suburban, adolescent self-awareness" and "one of rock's most impressive debuts".

[8] The album title, a term for decompression sickness, references Radiohead's rapid rise to fame; Yorke said "we just came up too fast".

[75] Based on their work on Pablo Honey, the American band Hole hired Slade and Kolderie to produce their 1994 album Live Through This.

[76] In 2007, Pitchfork wrote that, with Pablo Honey, "Radiohead didn't so much ride the coattails of grunge to mass success as stumble over them, and they've been apologising for it ever since.

"[77] In 1996, the bassist, Colin Greenwood, said, "I'd give [Pablo Honey] a seven out of 10 – not bad for an album recorded in just two and a half weeks.

[88] In 2009, EMI reissued Pablo Honey in a "Collector's Edition" with the Drill EP tracks, B-sides and alternative takes.

[91] In April 2016, as a result of an agreement with the trade group Impala, WMG transferred Radiohead's back catalogue to XL Recordings.