Public Image: First Issue

El comienzo me ha atrapado, aunque todos los bits de THIS IS RELIGION (x10000) me sacaron un poco. Empiezo a creer que a estos tipos no les hace mucha gracia la religión organizada. Los puntos fuertes son el bajo muy presente en todo el disco y lo que puede que fueran innovaciones técnicas para la época. De alguna forma y sin ninguna base lógica pienso que si hubiese tenido mi edad ahora en el 78 esto me fliparia. Pero ahora es bastante ruidoso y loco, punk anti sistema del de toda la vida. La última canción es, en términos tecnicomusicales, una puta fumada. ¿Lo disfruté? No mucho. ¿Me resultó interesante? Un poco.

First album that i had not heard of. Very odd. Didn't like the style, felt more like spoken word than music. Wouldn't go back to listen again.

The instruments used sound good but also sound the same through out the album. The singer sorta of just sounds he’s yelling lyrics instead of actually singing it; he sounds a bit angry but I guess that is what they were going for.

I like the Sex Pistols, I like PIL, but this album... I didn't know it even existed... hard one to enjoy. Maybe after I listen a few more times... 2/5

Punk is dead. And John Lyndon wanted to resurrect it as a slightly different entity: post-punk. And surprise! It still sucks. The opener, "Theme" is awesome though, despite it's length. Carrying the I-hate-society-slash-myself theme from punk, it has a deep, dark metal sound. The closer "Fodderstomf" has a interesting sound, but 1 minute of whining mouse vocals is enough. the rest is still punkish, or should I say, pukish.

Reading the wiki, this is one of the foundational albums for the post-punk movement/sound. As it turns out, it's not very pleasing to my sensibilities, especially the Religion I and Religion II tracks. The others are better, but if I compare this album to yesterday's, it's definitely lower. 2 stars.

Probably scandalous in it’s time.

Some nice grooves here and there, but they're too camouflaged by noise

This is different. Like a darker Nirvana maybe. Repetitive though and grading at times - especially this barbaric howl from the singer. Super emo - just "wish I could die, blah blah." Religion was solid - I wish these ideas permeated society better. Not a song, but a scathing perfect criticism of religion and how it's been perverted and leveraged to push hypocritical societal and cultural agendas. Annalisa is more of a song. The punk comes through with the solid drums, and primal screams. Decent track.

Some good some not so good. Liked the guitar playing. First song could have been cut down to about :45 seconds. 2.5

Good classic punk, but sadly not something that I listen to much anymore.

Sounded pretty unique and cool when I started listening, my impression from the first song was almost 4 stars…..NOPE. It doesn’t get better. There seems to be no point to the chaos which just meanders and intensifies. Unique creative chaotic dissonance can be cool, I dig it when a band like Ween does this, but this album just falls flat. There seems to be no point to any of it, as it meanders and vamps on with boring bass lines and incessant nonsensical noise. 2 stars for being semi-unique in its time, but honestly wtf is this crap?

I liked the title song, but otherwise this was giving "I'm 14 and this is deep." A rough 40 minutes.

Clearly a black midi influence which is interesting to see but not my thing

A few good moments, but kind of irritating overall.

Not really my style

Some good music but as with most punk, I'm just not into getting yelled at.

If you had told me this album was recorded by Ade Edmondson and Rik Mayall as some weird companion to the show 'Bottom' I would have believed you. It sounds like they are desperately wanting to be taken seriously.

cover art gives me the creeps! im sure thats intended. 40 mins long, nice. oh nice start. haha the screams. look i wont put up with 9 minutes of this. well i just did apparently. he really drove the point home and i get it! it be like that sometimes. didnt hate it cause i love repetition. god hes whiny though*. religion ii was marginally more accessible than religion i LOL but do your protest poetry you little punk. fuck the system! okay so demonic possession and such themes provide cool imagery its just organized religion that they have a problem with. i wish i knew someone called annalisa so i could send them this song lol. i wonder what ppl that checked the album because of the title track thought lol nothing really weird about it just a 3 min accessible as it gets mild rock song. all tracks expect the first three and last one were really samey. love the irony in me unironically loving the last track. doesnt make me like the other songs more but i appreciate their sense of humor. *can i just say, i love when male singers dont sound whiny, its so uncommon with all these rock albums.

Thus is hard work

очень рад, что Роттен нашёл новый способ раздражать нормисов, но это на самом деле близко к неслушабельности. Видимо он забыл, что всем похуй на панк, который не звучит как попс.

Punk schmuck. Pass the lemon jelly

Understand the influence but couldn't get into this - was not a fan of the first song and that kinda colored how I felt about the rest of the album.

Vond vroeger PIL al lastig, onveranderd..

early punkish rock

Nah, het was niet echt een dag voor dat gezever!

After our group convo, every time a Post-punk album comes on I get a trainwreck like excitement. I know what I am about to witness is terrible but I cannot look away. Public Image is actually not bad and you can tell the people involved can put out pleasing music but choose not to

Yeeeah Johnny Rotten is an asshole and he got us good by making us listen to this album. Really grating throughout, and you never really can warm up to Rotten's nihilistic sentiments. So hard to get through the "Religions," not because I'm religious but just because its so high school and pretentious to think we want to listen to that same terrible poem twice. The biggest disappointment for me was "Fodderstompf." It started out with such a cool groove that I thought they might actually have a banger on their hands. Then they absolutely phoned in those lyrics. "I just wanted to be loved" over and over again. Even singing "We only wanted to finish the album with the minimum amount of effort. Which we are now doing very successfully." If they actually tried on that song I feel like it could've been cool. The only decent track was, "Public Image," which was a solid punk song.

Woof. The first track coupled with most of the record are trying really hard to drag down to a 1. Religion 1, 2, and Fodderstompf successfully pull this up at to a 2. There are better Post Punk projects.

I really didn’t get it, maybe i’m just not smart enough or i don’t have a deep enough understanding of the criticisms he’s making about society. Or maybe it’s just not good. Still not really sure.

Aggressively mid. 4/10

Entiendo la parte de experimentar y hacer anti-rock pero en realidad no me llama. Los gritos, los acordes disonantes, las cosas 'fuera de lugar' seguro fueron revolucionarios en su momento y les reconozco eso, pero no me despiertan nada al escucharlos. No soy su público objetivo y tienen algunas cosas interesantes pero nada que me vuele la cabeza. Songs: Annalisa, Public Image

Es demasiado extravagante, tiene punk, post, funk Siento que está plano y en algunas rolas atascado, no me desagrada pero difícilmente lo vuelvo a poner Fodderstompf es algo interesante

De pronto me sonó como a banda de preparatorianos, fans de Daria y descubriendo que la iglesia es mala. Y luego haciendo un poema beatnik al respecto. Y luego musicalizándolo “muy transgresivo, muy fuerte”. No fue terrible pero no me parece que sea el mejor resultado que pudo tener la evolución del punk que querían lograr. Se pasa de repetitivo e incluso siendo corto, se siente cansado porque los coros son de unas pocas palabras repetidas ad nauseam. Para ser un disco de 1978, la última rola tiene un fondo musical sorprendente moderno.

I listened to about half, wasn't something I immediately said hey, this is good.

Not my thing

1978. Key Songs: Public Image, Annalisa

Que carajo es esto??.... No entiendo como estos discos extraños y sin ritmo estan dentro de una lista de los mejores álbumes.

The songwriting here is staggeringly bad. Unimaginative, annoying, and repetitive. Speaking of repetitive, there was a track where he spoke words and then the next track he’s saying those same words. Also, dashing religion, has been done to death. If you’re going to do that, you’ll have to be creative.

Never listened to this before, which is surprising. By all accounts this is my genre, this is IMPORTANT in the history of MY music. But now that I have begun to listen I understand. It’s actually… bad isn’t it? Very bad. Jonny Rotten indeed. John Lydon is worse than a little brother you have to look after given access to recording equipment and… a budget? How the hell did he get a budget? A studio? My god what drugs WERE these people doing? THIS is a SEMINAL work in post-punk? You’ve got to be kidding me. It actually gets worse as it goes on… which is impressive. It starts so badly. I want to give it 2 for punk rock, but I just can’t. It’s utter crap. 1 Boolean: True - ha! Now here’s a case where one SHOULD listen to a very, very bad album because they need to know how bad and how the genre actually began

punk!

Pas compris ce qu'il fait dans cette liste.

Maybe I'm not the target audience for this but it's kind of just noise and yelling.

Awful

Lol

I wanted to like this album more than i did. I quite like Lydon’s delivery and enjoy the music, but it just didn’t connect. The spoken word Religion I felt like something that should have existed as s live ranty poem and not committed to record, although i did enjoy some of yhe laboured rhyming (done……..relig(i)on). ‘Fodderstompf’ is just annoying and goes on forever

This was horrid, and I’m pretty sure gave me a headache.

My biggest issue with the Sex Pistols has always been Johnny Rotten's voice, and my only PiL knowledge is based on the single Rise (which I like.... but which isn't on this album), so this was a record I approached with caution. There seemed to be an awfully large amount of him repeating the same words again and again and again in most songs. He did put a twist on the theme during Fodderstompf, by repeating "We only wanted to be loved" again and again and again, but this time in a silly voice that recalled the Monty Python pepperpot characters of middle aged ladies with screechy voices. This was not enjoyable for me. 1/5

This album dares to ask: what if punk was boring? All the political grandstanding with none of the driving dynamism. "Religion" is tiresome and feels juvenile, though maybe I just roll my eyes inherently at these RaDiCaL aNtI-ReLiGiOn screeds—they seem passé and low-hanging fruit. Maybe I'm not being fair. Fodderstompf is possibly one of the worst songs I've ever heard.

*Whoopie cushion noises while a fire alarm goes off during a hail storm* 1/10

Man there are so many terrible British post-punk albums in this list. This album doesn't seem to want to sound good. Very punk of it. I hated it.

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." - Mark Twain. Tossing aside conventions is the simple part. Finding something to replace them with is the heavy lifting of the artistic process. Lydon has always struck me as a guy who was overly proud of himself for doing the easy part, and had no capacity and/or motivation for, or interest in the important work. For example, the band hits on something interesting on Public Image / Low Life. But Lydon seems to have been too busy shouting utter nonsense to have noticed. It took their contemporaries (Echo & the Bunnymen, Cure, Joy Division) to craft a sound from it.

Well, I gave it a try and I feel like I can't find any artist value in this record. I agree with the reviewer who said that they can fast forward during any song and the new section sounds exactly the same. The only song I didn't mind was "Public Image". It was the only single from this album, and I think that it's the only song that could possibly had been a single because everything else sucks.

Another unlistenable punk rock record

Really? What new ground did PIL ever break? Johnny could never sing, he's just plain annoying to listen to. Who opens an album with a 9 min song that sounds like a lunatic raving from his padded room? This is pure crap. Who did this band ever appeal to? Luckily, I guess, I was never angry enough or displeased with everything in my life to get into this opus of negativity. No reason this should have been included other than shock factor. Not a decent song on the album, retched vocals, horrible instrumentation (see "Religion II" with the 2 yr old on piano) Who TF would sit around and listen to this? Only a criminal mind or someone hell bent on self destruction. I hated every minute of it. There must be a slew of twisted British kids now in prison who's parents let them listen to this during their informative years. 1 star because there is no 0.

Yelling, yelling and yelling …

This album should be against the Geneva convention. Why is he yelling

The Wikipedia article said this was one of the most influential albums of the post punk genre. The only way I can see this being influential is if it was an example of what not to do. The first song starts with rambling garbage and I figure it can’t get worse. Then it goes it slam poetry and I realize it can. At no point does it getter better. This album is bad and should have been nowhere near a list like this. One final point. Stop 👏 making 👏 8 👏 minute 👏 songs 👏 Favorite song: absolutely not

It's amazing how the Brits manage to make both the some of the best and some of the worst music. This was bad. There was a song or two that was somewhat listenable, but overall hard to get through.

I wish this was a way shorter record. "I wish I could die" Harsh man, but I get it. Have you considered... changing job position? I'm not sure singing is really for you. I get the experimental, I get the art work, but cut it after a while. If you have nothing to say, you don't need nine-minute songs with a couple of lines on repeat.

One of my first ever DNFs...I got through 3 songs and couldn't take it That's a lie it was 2.75

My ears started crying

This is another terrible album in what is becoming a long string of terrible albums from this list. Here's hoping the next one is better.

Johnny Rotten, post-Sex Pistols, has decided that music is the problem and sets about fixing it. The solution: remove the music, add beats, and talk complainingly over the top in a voice like a kettle that's given up on boiling. Bonus points for being anti-religion in 1978, which was very brave. I respect the artistic intent. I do not respect my ears enough to sit through this again. 1/5 — avant-garde, which is French for "I don't get it, but I'm also not sure I'm wrong."

I can see the influence this had on post-punk, so I guess in that regard it's cool to listen to. But other than that each song is a loop of drums, bass and guitar with the singer screaming random stuff that he's been thinking about lately. It gets repetitive and tiring very quickly

Very tough to get past the first three tracks. Followed by a track that's marginally less work for the listener. "Public Image" could maybe have been a Sex Pistols song, "Low Life" is probably a Joy Division outtake Lydon stole and decided to scream over. Pete Silverton was on the money right after this album's release, calling it "morbid directionless sounds with Rotten's poetry running just behind it." I.e.it's a testament to the level of self-indulgence some people are capable off. Definitely belongs on the list "1001 self-indulgent musical wank-offs you should stay clear off".

I get the idea, now fuck off. 1 star or F+.

Edge lord dog shit, man shut the fuck UP

Wow...first 1 star from me. I feel bad handing out 1 stars as I like to believe that any album can have its merits. But this deserves it. I'm baffled by this tbh, really couldn't wait for it to be over. Only highlight moment was as the next track played I actually went 'omg finally, something good' before checking the name of the track and realizing that the album had ended and a different band had autoplayed. Fav Track: ???????

I hate to give this a 1 cuz it's bringing my average down, but: -it's pretty damn long and a bit pretentious, for starters a 9 minute screamfest with mega loud and loose playing isn't really for me. Then follow up with some poetry that's kinda iffy? -I read a review like, 4 down in the top rated on this album. Long ass review from some former 1980s algebra teacher that is just as, if not more pretentious than anything on this record. I agree that the guy singing and whoever is writing have their heads up their ass in regards to taking issue with someone else's beliefs as opposed to focusing on their own. The solution, though, can't be to stick your own head up your ass. But that's what happened. That pmo and now I'm just in a worse mood. -I don't like the way it sounds

Ugh

Ist mir zu experimentell

This is garbage. 1/10

1 out of 5. Influential? Maybe but goodness this was a tough listen, and that's from someone who enjoys most post-punk I've come across.

punk vaag engels

Fuck, this is hard work.

Actually ghastly. The opening 9 minute track of screaming and discordant guitars sets the tone well.

What is this fucking nonsense? A bunch of nobodies release a piece of shit that even the critics can recognize is a piece of shit, but decades later we retrospectively declare its greatness because - wait for it - it’s a UK band. Fucking hell, this list is a giant attempt to make the UK music scene appear to be the 1960s forever when in fact it hasn’t been that good since the 1970s at best.

Utter garbage.

ngl me costó demasiado escuchar este disco. 1 estrella :/ no creo que escuche la entrevista completa pero la verdad es que me llamó más la atención que la música.

It starts with 9 minutes of screaming. It doesn't get much better from there. I think this album wants to make you hate it, and it succeeds.

Wow that was stupid

very annoying to listen to

Call it post-punk if you want, but mostly it’s John Lydon discovering that freedom from the Sex Pistols means nobody telling him “no.” Result: indulgence masquerading as experimentation, with grooves that flirt with coherence before wandering off into the weeds. “Public Image” earns its keep—taut, wiry, almost like a real song—but “Theme” is a blown speaker with Lydon howling into the void, “Religion I/II” doubles down on the same half-idea twice, and “Fodderstompf” rides a decent groove straight into novelty-voice hell. Anti-rock posture is fine; anti-listenability less so.

yeah last issue bojo, goodbye

sucks right from the start.

I never do this, but this thing was an immediate 1 star once the second track was a spoken word poem and track three was the same poem as song lyrics. It demonstrates either a profound lack of faith in the music or a WILD overestimation of the quality of the poem. Anyway, that put this thing into a hole that the remainder of it wasn't nearly good enough to crawl out of.

absolutely dreadful. Predictably so. Deserves a zero

Not for me 1/5

Ahead of its time does not always equal good or foundational.

Actual shite this one. Repetitive, irritating noise. There's truly some great albums out there that were ignored by this book and trash like this slipped in, really wish I never heard this before I died

This actually sounds like I'm listening to a magazine on a coffee table at some tax/accounting business in the late 70's. Boring mindless mumbling over ciclical, endless post punk grooves. No thank you. 1.3/5 -> 1/5

Not my favorite, I didnt really like the vocals. Nothing special in my opinion.

Опять в психушке музыкальные инструменты раздавали

#372 / 1089 Heard before? ✅ Revisit? ❌ I'm here for music, the message this album is delivering means nothing to me. The historical value of this release has no meaning, I'm here for music. I've never liked PIL, nor Mr. Lydon/Rotten's vocal endeavours. I find him very irritating to listen to, even with the message he is delivering. You know, I'd rather watch a 12 hours set of harsh noise artist smearing feces on themselves that listen to this is shite. 1/5 stars

There’s much to say about this album and very few are complimentary. This album is what the stereotypical person who doesn’t like punk thinks punk sounds like, skipped basically the first half of the album and nothing really grabbed me. The vocals aren’t great, the music never develops both in the songs and over the course of the album. Apparently this album is important in developing the sound of the post punk movement, I’m happy that other bands like joy division didn’t stay or sound like this

A fine selection of the worst noises that can be produced using these instruments. Vocals are so cheesy and trying way too hard. It almost sounds like a joke.

No There is often a fine line between honesty and just being an asshole. I’ve always somewhat respected Johnny rotten for dancing around that line playfully to make political points. John Lyon, however somewhere along the line seems to have decided that being an asshole is pushing that boundary and I do not agree. More often than not he comes off as Boris and just an overall prick. In this case, if this record was released under the name, Sex Pistols, it likely would have been panned. If any unknown artist released it, it would’ve been laughed at. Because it was lighten it got a record deal. It’s shit, plain and simple. No, thanks.

Noch weiter kann es nicht runtergehen. Einfach nur unterirdisch!

una tremenda basura, lo siento

So awful

Niet van genoten…

dit vond ik toch maar raar, een beetje te veel klanken 1.5

Hearing this how atrocious this album is has only reinforced my theism

The title track and Annalisa, not bad. John: the rest of it... fuck you too.

I wanted to stop listening to this half way through the first song. I persisted but it just got worse. I'm unsure why I decided to torture myself like that. Instead of yet another post pink album I would have happily listened to Tibetan throat singing.

maybe if the vocals matched the music it could have been tolerable

Not my cup of tea. I did not enjoy listening to any of the songs. This is something I appreciate from the 1001 Albums Challenge because it also helps me name what genres and styles I do not like.

The first time I tried to listen to this, I thought I just wasn't in the mood. Having now listened all the way through, can confirm, will never be in the mood for this, because I do not like it.

This has nothing to recommend it. A failed attempt at refined punk)

I honestly couldn’t tell why anyone would want to listen to this. It was noisy punk without any type of message or even edge. While some punk feels raw, this just felt pretentious and completely missed the mark. I was wondering why this was even a thing before I realized that it was a project from John Lyndon who was in the Sex Pistols. Without his name attached to this I doubt this would be a thing. Real edge-lord shit.

1/5

no escuché aún, mis expectativas son algo similar a the police o a genesis, un sonido maa energético o fiestero pero sin ser pesado rock de re mierda es el hijo down de sex pistols, me hizo doler la cabeza, la mejor canción del album es un 5 pts y es analissa, definitivamente no lo volveria a escuchar y ni 1 solo tema va a la playlist

I didn't know people unironically made songs as bad as fodderstompf

This album was very ambitious and creative but it turned out to be a terrible creation. It’s just terrible to listen to.

An assault on the senses (and sensibility)

I don’t like it, like at all in any way possible. My ears were bleeding and I couldn’t wait for it to end. I had faith I could find some liking in there somewhere but it never came

drug addict/ alcoholic making noises and complaining about religion

patience test challenge (impossible)

Subpar punk

What's the only thing worse than a bad album? A really fucking boring one

Giving the same rating as the other album from this band. Flabbergasted they showed up on this list twice. 1.25/5

1,3/5

Echt mijn ding niet. Ik word er nerveus van

Unlistenable trash from future butter salesman and Tory John Lydon

1.5

Starts off absolutely wretchedly with that 2nd track monologue being the pits. Has a small oasis of not-as-wretched like mainly with the eponymous single. Then goes back to being fully wretched. The only essential work from Johnny Rotten as it stands is Never Mind The Bollocks and Country Life butter adverts. Oh, and Open Up with Leftfield to be fair. 1.5 stars.

My rating 1.2 This is a bunch of self important pretentious crap. Even he can’t believe people bought this con.

Punk

Unintelligible caterwauling noise. Some people like the idea of the punk ethos where anyone can pick up instruments and play their little hearts out. A completely open right to expression and rebellion. I am all for the ethos, but I don't want to listen to it.

I'm into punk and Avant Garde, but this is just not my thing. Barely 1 decent song on the whole album, the rest is just angry noisy nonsense. Maybe that's the point, and maybe I'm missing the point, but I didn't enjoy it at all

not my sound

No, never heard anything by PIL that I wanted to hear once say again and the 1st album doesn’t change that. Unlike the album or Mr L in particular who appears to set out to antagonise I won’t, so that means I have nothing to say about this. 1 Star

I feel like they are just randomly playing the instruments.

Didn’t care for these guys generally 4 decades ago and nothing has changed since.

Fucking garbage!!!!!!!!

Complete garbage

Unenjoyable.

Hated it!

This book’s love for angry British 70s punk just does not make sense to me. Fodderstompf is hell on earth

Biggest pile of shit I’ve ever heard in my life

Ki zbi 7achek

Nope, that's just noise

What the fuck. This is definitely up there for worst album of the entire list.

I'm so mad that they're being annoying on purpose, because critiquing it feels pointless from the start. It's anti-music. It goes completely against everything I look for in music. As it played, I honestly and truly tried to self-reflect, to understand why someone would enjoy this, what value this constant abrasiveness has, what they were attempting to say with their art (not like THIS IS RELIGION THIS IS RELIGION THIS IS RELIGION is very subtle)..... All of this, as John Lydon on the cover art kept annoyingly staring me down, taunting me with his bad music. But then, when the artist straight up tells you "we only wanted to finish the record with a minimal amount of effort which we are doing successfullyyyy 🤪🤪🤪" (Fodderstompf), what's even left to analyze? It's clear contempt is its whole purpose, and I don't see that as interesting or much worth engaging with at all.

This is soo bad - just sounds like someone copying sex pistols with no good songs Don’t think I minded the public image song

🥇public image 🥈low life 🥉annalisa

I like shitty music but this just sucked.

Favorite Song: Theme Least Favorite Song: Religion I Went in thinking I’d hate this and I did, in fact, hate it.

3/10

British punk is the worst punk

wtf

I couldn't listen to this with my ear buds in. I put it on speakers across the room. Never has anyone achieved so little with so little talent. Dreadful.

Horror. En serio dos discos de Public Image en esta lista??. Insoportable.

Another strange alternative/punk band. Some ok music, nothing memorable.

WTF - although it's short, I didn't make it through.

I don’t even know what this was

Actually had to stop, just didn't enjoy the roaring and talking

Neil Young wrote a song that was literally all about how it’s better to die than to make garbage like this. I kind of get it.

This album was pretty damn obnoxious. It represented all of the worst qualities of punk rock, in my opinion. It all sounded roughly the same, too. I definitely wasn't into this.

Discordant, atonal. Religion I and II are some real early-teenage level philosophy. The first few tracks were a trial to listen to, the middle pulled it up a bit, then the final Fodderstompf was (presumably deliberately) extremely annoying. Almost no enjoyment to be found in this album for me.

My God that was unpleasant

I want to give three stars just for the ambition of the album. (One of the defining albums of post-punk). Opening track is 9 minutes and last track is 7 minutes!!! However the lead singer/vocals ruined it for me . I get that it is likely the point but the vocals range is from the vocals that people use to make fun of pretension singers who take themselves to seriously to just downright awful. Will only be 1 or 2 stars.

Your public image sucks. You suck. 0 stars.

Sometimes during this journey you just have to give a 1 and move on with your life.

I guess there is a reason I've never heard of these guys before. Very hard to listen to.

always beware the albums that are only known for potentially being inspiration for better albums

I dont like John Lydon, im not a fan of post punk particularly and for that reason i did not like this. I dont understand why this type of music considers the ability to actually sing not important. You wouldn't have a really good band and then have one person who could barely play their instrument with their volume turned up loud.

Well, that was an experience I will not be repeating. If the goal was to make friends, this wasn't the way to do it. This is pure headache fuel. Spins: 1 Playlist Additions Public Image

Not for me

bad album generator, naughty!!!!!!!

Started annoying, stayed annoying in the middle, finished annoying. Couldn't wait for it to be over.

Didn’t like it

Pretentious and irritating

Uff

Þetta var erfiður dagur, það að hlusta á þessa.

How many god awful Public Image albums does the twat who made this list think we need to hear before we die? I was ready for the grave about 5 minutes in 😒

I liked 'Metal Box' or 'Second Edition' much more than this....and still gave that a low rating. The last song on this album pushed this from a 1.5 down to a 1.

I was feeling a solid 2 stars - it isn't really my thing but I can expect what it did for the time, even if some of the lyrics are edgy cringe - then I got to the last song. And it was so grating that I have no choice but to one star it.

Way too shouty

This album is not easy to listen to. Track one is over 9 minutes of loud, static guitars with a voice that sounds like someone’s screaming in a cold basement; Religion 1 and Religion 2 have the same lyrics, one’s just acapella and two has music; the final track is nearly an hour long radio show. Just not very appealing at all. But you do get raw music with loud guitars, funky bass lines, and vocals that are very anti-establishment. Though, I thought the vocals were off putting and I couldn’t vibe with it…I couldn’t vibe with this album in general. I just don’t think I’m much of a punk fan.

What a waste of 39 minutes. Not one protruding edge, just a stream of uninteresting noise.

Nope. I've lost too much time in my life to John Lydon, and I should never have started the BBC interview at the end of this album. Repetitive, tiresome, and just mean.

Like nails on a chalkboard, hated this

2/10. I just don't like Public Image Ltd. This album was a drag for me to listen to.

This came from the SEX PISTOLS?!?! Yikes. Not into this even a little bit, and I have enjoyed songs by this band before.

Hahahahha! Go Johnny go.

The late 70s has been blowing my mind on this list, so when I saw this came out in November 1977, I immediately got excited. The band name and album cover were intriguing, so I rushed to listen to it Let me tell you that my excitement died about as quickly as it came. Good Lord there was nothing interesting about that first track. Noise rock, no chorus, no melody, whiny vocals, crappy lyrics (we get it, you wish you could die") for nine horrid minutes. GTFO Alright sometimes opening tracks set a vibe that just isn't for me but the rest of the album is good to great (Black Sabbath's self-titled debut comes to mind). Onto track 2. Some weird rant about Christianity in verse. Oh man, this is even worse than I thought. At least it's short... oh wait, they just keep going with it in track 3 but now it's set to "music" At least the next song "Annalisa" kicks off with some drum and bass that I'm digging, but at this point I hate this band, which is just reaffirmed when that turd starts singing. The album gets better after this and feels more like a post-punk album as it's described. Still, the first half is so bad --I mean literally one of the worst albums I've listened to on this site--that it made me not care that the latter half was decent.

What a mess. Johnny sounds more obnoxious than ever. I’d much rather listen to Sex Pistols than this dumpster fire of a record.

This is genuinely awful.

Someone tell them that it's possible to have their punk energy and also not write songs that are so annoying

I did not enjoy this one much. The singing is more like talking/yelling and the music is very noisy and grating. I struggled to even listen through the entire first song but I did persevere until the end of the album. The weirdness of Fodderstompf somehow ended up being the best part of this album for me. 2/10.

Honestly not a fan of any track i did not get the concept of it

Mostly hard to listen to. Enjoyed some of the music and style of rock, however British shouting just does not do it for me.

This sucks. Noise of the annoying variety. If they were going for a brash, annoying endurance test, they succeeded: "How long can you listen before the annoying sounds just get too much?" It's almost worse that there is some accessible, and good moments on this record. The back half has some good things, but their choices to deliberately shuck conventions make so much of the music suck on this album. His voice is annoying--maybe that's the point. But that's like a chef making food that tastes bad, or a director making a film that looks bad. The bass is the most prominent instrument; they've made it the lead. Then why is it so repetitive and stagnant? I regret the time I spent listening to this. Sounds like a bad joke. 1.5/10

9/30/25. Didn't really feel this one on the initial listen. Sounded a bit repetitive to me and songs didn't pan out the way I thought they would. Don't think it's terrible, but perhaps not my cup of tea.

I needed to hear this before I died.

Заболя ме главата

*1978. English post-punk. *Not the worst thing ever, but this was a chore. *Excessive guitar wailing. *Combo of some good stuff with some annoying noises overlaid. RATING - 4/10

I am angered by this choice.

Garbage! If I made a list “1001 albums I’d rather die than listen to again” this would be #1. Noise pollution! Johnny Rotten called the album noise and he was right! “Fodderstompf” on repeat could replace waterboarding as torture! Some music doesn’t age well but this def. Sucked right when it came out! I will give it 1 star only because I can’t give it ZERO!

About as bad as it gets

did not like, sorry. just noises

Annalisa stood out

Post Punk, 1978 -> 1

This is just the same antagonistic shit that the Sex Pistols threw up except longer and without the Shangri-Las-esque pop swing.

No thank you.

Pretty repetitive at times, and I did not really enjoy this.

Look if you're just going to be noise, at least have the audacity to change the noise so it all just doesn't sound the same.

I hated all of this except for Annalisa. I am beginning to believe that maybe post-punk is just... not a genre for me.

No redeeming features with these repetitive, simple songs.

no.

That brash British sound that I don't really love. Guy kinda just shouts a lot, often not on the right note. The fodderstompf song killed it for me

I didn't enjoy this one. I guess that makes it good punk because it's pretty inaccessible to me and I think that's the point. So I guess that from a certain point of view that makes it a great album that achieves what it sets out to do. But from a point of view of whether I think it's enjoyable or not it's a poor album Standouts - 1/5

music is obviously very subjective so saying something is terrible is only correct for me, but my ears have been in pain for the first 9 minutes of the album. i even turned the 2.5k channel down. public image the song itself was really nice tbh. first song i even remotely liked. i can def hear the post punk sounds in that song. reminds me of joy division and the likes. low life has a good sound to it. also post punkey. last song is very “what on earth” 😆 very fun haha difficult one to rate for me. it’s more a 1.5/5 😅

About as bad as Brexit butter boy thinks he is. He’s just not bright.

If I could give it no stars, i would. Seriously awful.

Rather horrible.

First song is discordant, rambling, screamy Then a rant about religion Then a discordant song with the same rant The only song that is any different from the rest of the album had horrendously annoying Cockney voices speaking and screeching over the top

# 540 : Public Image: First Issue by Public Image Ltd. Noisy, thrashy, and trashy—and that’s just the first 30 seconds. I knew I was in trouble when my ears started negotiating a ceasefire with my brain. Is post-punk even a thing, or just a dare someone took too far? This album didn’t age—it fossilized. It’s like someone recorded a tantrum in a tin shed and called it art. If this is what survival sounds like after punk, maybe extinction wasn’t such a bad idea. Another entry in the ever-growing list of Albums You Don’t Really Need to Hear Before You Die. Or ever. Seriously. If you have to listen to this, look out for: Annalisa Listened : 06/08/2025

pretty bad

This is the most discordant, obnoxious music this list has inflicted on me. I really dislike it. From doing a little bit of reading about it, it seems like this was what Johnny Rotten created when he decided the Sex Pistols were too commercial. It is very bad.

This is the 179th album I’m rating. Cool album cover but he looks kinda creepy. Adding to my Playlist - Nothing. Not Adding to my Playlist - Theme, Religion I, Religion II, Annalisa, Public Image, Low Life, Attack, and Fodderstompf. All in all I liked 0/8 songs. Virgin record.

I didn’t listen but fuck johnny rotton

Nah nothing special...

Not my speed

It just felt a little bit on the side of very average to poor punk, that.

I think this album’s worst sin is that for all its aggressive posturing it’s just really dull.

It started horrendous and got a bit better. But overall I would probably leave the room if this came on.

I really don't like punk

sucks balls

2/10

The main thing I’ve always hated about the Sex Pistols is John Lydon’s horrible, nasally squealing. Despite the instruments being better than the Sex Pistols (who couldn’t play their damn instruments), I can’t like this record with his vocal style all over it. On top of the horrendous vocal performance, the instrumentals are all meandering or just uninteresting to me. Theres barely any riff changes in the 5-7 minute long songs, and the shorter songs on the record just fall flat in songwriting. There’s final nail in the coffin is the production. It’s all hard panned left or right, similar to the Beatle’s 2009 stereo remixes, but this is worse because it’ll randomly go to a normal stereo sound for 4 bars and then go back to hard panning. I just can’t like this album. I hate punk, bad mixing, and monotonous songs. This contains all 3 in a major way.

With this image, I would rather be blind

This is some ass

This really sucked. I had 1 minute left on Religion II and skipped onto the next song because at that point I thought the point had been truly hammered home. I can normally tolerate albums I don’t like but for the first time on this project I had to fast forward on some tracks after a couple minutes of listening to them.

It's good if you like punk or post punk

listened to first 3 tracks before giving up basslines were the only redeeming feature bit shit really

Dear lord this sucked. Ive never understood the hype around Sex Pistols, and this was just even worse.

Lots of sounds. Sounds with little purpose.

Jedinica iz principa. // Bila bi jedinica jer mrzim ovog cmizdravog krembila i svu njegovu muziku osim one pjesme Rise koju više nikad ne želim da čujem u životu a nije na ovom albumu.

Obviously I didn't know enough about PiL. I was initially delighted to find one (of two) albums by them in the project. The disappointment is great. I only liked Public Image. I quickly skipped the rest. 1/5

Maybe this is high art. It’s barely organized enough to call music. Mostly just sounds

Inge mer PiL nu tack.

Just … nothing … noise. That’s all

Utter slop garbage. I would rather listen to a third grader playing the recorder.

Migrainous

Track 1. Long winded, experimental Track 2. John attempt at poetry Track 3. “Musical” version of track 2 Track 4. Awful, giving up at this point!

Just a guy screaming repetitive lyrics over a repetitive instrumental. Just do it for each song and you have this album.

One decent song. Don't bother listen to fond out which.

Honestly, I hated this record. The vocals are like nails on a chalkboard, there’s nothing interesting about the beats or melodies, and it is filled with noise. This was a tough listen.

Meh...

There was nothing here for me and I didn't make it completely through a single song. I'll give it 1.25/5 stars because it barely escaped inspiring anger at being included on this list.

what are we doing

Fuck this piece of shit album. I thought I liked some PiL songs but after this I will never listen to them or even the Sex Pistols again. Absolute garbage. 1/5

Wtf am I listening to?

This is performance art meant to annoy. Except for the bass line, it succeeded.

Awful punk (post punk)

Never been a fan of

no

never going to listen again , except for the final track fodderstompf which comes out of nowhere 1

0/really can not get into punk, it's got no rhythm or rhyme or reason to me

Largely unimpressed. Just kinda meh

This feels like a test to see what they could get away with by just selling Johnny Rotten. The title track is alright melodically. There are a 2 or 3 very tiny seeds of good ideas buried in it.

Unsurprisingly I really hated this. I could not get through the final track. My God.

Can't stand it. Turned off after three songs. 1 star.

I don’t wanna hear about how this album was a pioneering bastion for post-punk as a whole. If that’s the case, then the best thing I can say about First Issue is the quote from moneyball, “the first one through the wall always gets bloody”. Because this is a bloody mess at times. While the songs “Religion 1 & 2” are true to the spirit of punk music, it’s about as shallow of a criticism of organized religion as I can think of. So many songs have made more tactful, interesting criticisms than these ones. Even the rhyme scheme and delivery is clunky. The shouting toward the end of “Annalisa” isn’t raw or cool, it’s grading and doesn’t reward the listener for getting through a very humdrum track thats mostly comprised of one melodic loop. Is “Fodderstompf” a parody of more popular music of its time? I genuinely couldn’t tell or come up with another reason why the album ended that way. Hard to find anything good to say about this album other than I’m glad that post-punk developed into much more than the sounds of this project

Wowee what a struggle. If I never have to listen to a single track of this album it'll be to soon. As I was suffering through the random screeching into the microphone that is the 1st track, I thought 'well it can only get better' Little did I know that by the end of it I'd be longing for the first track. Fodderstompf was particularly terrible, and I could not make it through. 0/5

Yeah, just not the genre for me... oh well

Wilde een 2 geven, maar toen ik het laatste nummer hoorde was ik snel om

Repetitive and not in a pleasant listenable way

I'm 6 minutes into the first song (which is 9 minutes long) and I'm genuinely considering skipping through the whole thing. It's noisy and screechy and just not a good kind of music (for me)

I didn't like it when it came out. I still don't like it. Self indulgent tuneless crap

WHAT AN AWFUL THING THIS IS! It starts with a song in which he repeats "I wish I could die" a million times while sounding like he put a cloth over the microphone he's yelling into. Or like he's yelling into a megaphone instead of a microphone. And you die of boredom with him and you think that even though he wishes he could die, you'll die before him. And at the end of the song he says: "Terminal boredom" and it perfectly describes what just happened! This is radioactive shit, you can get cancer from it. TO BE AVOIDED BY ALL MEANS. The epitome of horror. If you want to know what horror sounds like - this is what!

This is the type of bad experimental I was talking about in the Atomizer review. I know it’s an important post-punk album, but there are other important post-punk albums with the distinction of actually being good - it’s like John Lyon is allergic to actually singing here. In his rant against religion, he mentions that God spelled backwards is dog. He really acts like he’s better than all the people in religions when he saying things like that. Shut up. (Also Metal Box is fine so I don’t see the reason this needed to be included in the first place)

Hot garbage.

Not so much Never Mind The Bollocks, this is bollocks!

Nope.

1.5

I liked nothing about this album.

1. theme - 1 2. religion - 1.5 3. religion - 1 4. analiza - 1 5. public - 1.5 6. life - 1 7. attack - 1 8. fodder - 1

Ok

Noped out about halfway through. This was probably very fun live, but very much not the vibe my Friday night needed. I guess I understand the term post-punk now, but I want to put this back into the punk bucket.

He most unpleasant album that I've listened to so far. Makes me question why people would even want to listen to something like this.

Nopety nope nope nope

I kept wishing I could die while listening to this, so I feel you, John Lydon.

nope

GTFO dude. I'm rattling my brain trying to figure out why we needed MULTIPLE Public Image albums on this list. This may be the first time in almost 700 albums I have two 1-stars in a row. Yeesh.

fabulous album if you like the way that elmo sounds

Did not like this at all. Found it annoying actually.

1 intolerable

This stinks.

is this good? no

Weird, sounds experimental. It won't make my Top 100.

I don’t like this album.

Nope. Couldnt do it. Johnni Rotten wailing on the first track, couldnt get passed it.

Ouch. Not sure why anybody would find this enjoyable. And it doesn’t even feel all that aggressive for angry types. Just annoying. The vocals on the last track did catch the attention of my cats. I think they thought one of their own had been injured.

1.3 - Really struggled with this. Having a sense of relief when it finished really sums it up

I'm sure it was important and did lots of clever things, but it just sounded like noise to me.

Really had to get through this