Public Image: First Issue

The Cure-ish

Actually totally fine to die without listening to this pretentious noise

Off to a bad start. This is such a boring album and I just can't enjoy it no matter how hard I try. Sex Pistols are better

Punk popish with some techno that sounds like filler

Overall: 1/10 I'm usually open to experimental music but this is straight up garbage of the highest degree. Fav Song: N/A Least Fav Song: All of them quite honestly I can't even stand a second of this trash

Oh Cliff / Sometimes it must be difficult not to feel as if / You really are a cliff / when fascists keep trying to push you over it / Are they the lemmings / Or are you, Cliff

I have a very low tolerance for the butter boy sell out that is John Lydon. As a result have not really delved into his PIL back catalogue - I do really like "Rise" despite John Lydon and I had therefore expected to enjoy this album despite my reservations. I am therefore a bit disappointed (but also pleased) to find that I thought the album was bullshit with no real redeeming songs/tunes/hooks.

The scariest thing about listening to this album is that I know they have another entry on the list... lurking in the shadows... waiting to strike the moment I let my guard down... and I'm going to force myself to listen to it all the way through.

God - what a dull album.

Iconic. Innovative. Possibly important... still unlistenable.

p406. 1978. 1 star. Puerile, angry 6th form lyrics offset by decent stripped down drum and bass. The only one worth listening to is the title track. And as for the 9+ minute opener - i's like punk never happened, eh John?

This isn’t completely without merit but it feels like it’s being all dissonant and difficult for the sake of it. Smacks of Jonny Rotten railing against the immediacy of the Sex Pistols to prove he’s such an artiste. Nowt wrong with sick riffs mate, chill out. When you’ve got a spoken word piece called ‘Religion I’, you’ve officially disappeared up your own arse. The only thing that saves this from scoring a 1 is the track PiL, which is actually decent and a good example of post-punk. The last track is so fucking shit. So bad in fact, it drags this back down to a 1 again. Fuck ‘em. Best tracks: PiL

I tried to listen, honest. But just no.

The track "Public Image" is a 4/5 for me, but I just don't think anything else works. The rest of the album grates between grating sounds, egotism, and annoying whines. A pity, the album art is kind of cool.

The wailing in the first track is just the worst. I'll take Yoko over this. When the interview started in Apple Music I actually thought it was part of the album. Is this just more English crap? 1*

Not a good public image.

Awful

John Lydon trying to prove his relevance after the dissolution of The Sex Pistols, but just providing a noisy, incoherent footnote.

Not for me. Lyrics good but the music behind them is just too basic for my tastes

John Lydon is a talentless fuck and a waste of my time.

Atonal, weird, caught up in the performers' local issues, and punk. Not as horrible as death metal, but did not enjoy.

bitter angry album without much of a musical context at all. I don't like it and I don't see how anyone else could either

I really don't understand why so many albums from PiL are on this list.... They're just not that good, and I couldn't even force myself to listen to this one all the way through.

God, wat haaaaaaat ik punk muziek toch.. Het is gewoon schreeuwen over matige muziek. Dit album is ook nog eens een soort blauwdruk voor de meest 'edgy' shit die je maar kan bedenken. "Ik HAAAAAAAAAT DE WERELD IK HAAT RELIGIE FUCK ALLES blablabla" Ik haat punk. Echt gewoon niet mijn ding. Ook vervelend, nu al een paar nummers hier gehad waarbij ik oprecht benieuwd was, klonk de muziek best wel prima, maar dan begon die 'zanger' erover heen te janken alsof er iemand over zn voet heen was gereden. Enig voordeel: Punk albums zijn wel altijd lekker kort, kan ik weer iets beters met mn dag gaan doen.

I dont even know what to cassify this album as. The messages in the songs seems very punk and the time period in britain seems right for it but the sound doesnt really match that energy for me. The album as a whole is way to stranger for me. Perhaps I needed to hear it when it came out or maybe I needed to live it.

Not for me.

Mediocre. 1001 albums et comment cette bouse a pu passer?

john lydon's shtick is as always very tiresome, but Fodderstompf deserves some recognition as perhaps the worst album closer of all time

What an utterly dreadful album. Just have a cry alone mate, it's easier.

I heard these at Beautiful Days quite a few years ago. The people in the tent next door said they had never known what a drove was until they saw people leaving in them when this lot hit the stage. This album shows why. It's class one shite. 1 because there is nothing lower.

So desperately bad at the start that I nearly gave up but thankfully stuck it out until ‘Annalisa’ which was a banging track. Musically so much better with awesome bass guitar. The next couple of tracks were ok but as an overall album, absolutely dreadful.

Hope it's the last issue also.

This was rough. I wanted to shut it off so many times. Slightly better than rap, but only slightly. 1.5/5

This is awful. Sounds like an angry 15-year-old in their father's garage.

This album was a struggle. I'm pretty confident there was never any chord progressions or any dynamic harmonics in the entire thing. It's basically very, very aggressive drumming, combined with a half-screaming vocalist, and some overly repetitive guitar.

I dont like Sex Pistols, but their songs at least doesnt go on and on, and on with no real purpose. Bookending your record with two of the most annoying tracks in this whole project so far doesnt help either.

BAD BAD BAD This man got Elmo to come sing on the last song 1/5, sorry

absolute garbage all the way through

Just dreadful. No reason to ever listen to this.

Immature ignorant ramblings screamed into the void. Trashy is the best I can come up with.

I wasn't really digging this album, and then 'Fodderstompf' came on as the closer. FUCK that might be the single most annoying song I have ever had to sit through. I know that is the intention, but that doesn't make it more tolerable.

This was a “nope” even before “Fodderstompf”. Easily one of the worst songs on this list so far.

This album straight up sucks. I wish I could unhear.

Do this band have any actual albums or are they all variations of "John Lydon yells at cloud"? I don't even disagree with the rants against religion on here, but it's not music just because there are backing instrumentals. I didn't start this book to listen to slam poetry

2.5/10

BUNK.

This is straight up garbage and John Lydon is a piece of shit.

I haven't given a 1 out yet but it's finally time. That was truly fucking terrible. Whoever put it on this list... why???

Everything about The Sex Pistols that is terrible without the (very) few redeeming qualities. Absolutely dreadful.

This is not for me. DNF

Tough listen

I did not care for this, like, at all.

I did not like this at all. If I could give this 0 stars I would. I’m sorry.

Such garbage

Pretty trash noise rock

Hated it

Forgot that I listened to this and then had a refresher. Not a good album

Hated it on first listen but forgot to log. Upon re-listen, yup I still hate it. Not going to subject myself to listening to this entire album again

So much noise in an absolutely terrible way. This is all of the same exact things I said about their album Metal Box only way worse.

Have you ever been to a basement show, and after a set, you go outside for a smoke and, by chance, run into the singer of like, the second band, and to avoid an awkward situation, you casually say, “Hey man, nice set,” even though it wasn’t really that great of a set, but instead of responding, “Thanks, dude,” like a normal person and walking away to leave you alone, he instead starts telling you all about how it wasn’t their best set because they really wanted to hand out flyers about how taxation is theft and about how it’s our God-given right as Americans to be able to own a semi-automatic, but when his dipshit bassist (his words, not yours) went to print said flyers at the library, which is only a block away from the basement you’re currently at, he bumped into some old lady, who was printing flyers about how her 12 year old tabby is missing and there’s a $100 reward to anyone who finds this cat alive, and now they have 200 flyers about this fucking cat, and so then this guy (the singer, not the bassist) starts to tell you his theory about how guys who owns a cat are all beta males and about how real men only own reptiles, and in fact he has a picture of his snake on his phone, and now he’s showing you this fucking snake, even though you’ve already finished your Camel Crush and the next band is already on stage, and now you can’t escape, even though it’s the only thing you want to do, second only to maybe leaving and trying to find that tabby? Well, John Lydon was the first one of those guys. First Issue – and I assume PiL in general, based off this rancid debut – is like a stupider version of The Sex Pistols, which isn’t saying much, but at least that band had songs that evolved and sounded listenable. From a musical standpoint, none of these songs ever really evolve; PiL hands you a single riff, and that’s as much as they’re willing to give you on each song. And I’d almost be fine with that, if it didn’t go on for 8 fucking minutes! Then, on top of that, you not only have to deal with Lydon’s obnoxious, infantile insights, but you also have to deal with these random sonic non sequiturs like the chimes on “Religion II” (what a ridiculous, obvious metaphor) or the mismatched drum beats on “Annalisa.” The closest this record gets to ✨tolerable✨ is “Public Image,” which is still just a bad Sex Pistols song that would sound deep to a 12 year old who spikes his hair, but pseudo-intellectual to anyone who at least graduated middle school. The next best song on this record is “Low Life,” which isn’t even a compliment, because there are blatantly flubbed notes on that simple ass song that’s basically Part A (a single chord for 3 bars and a simple fill), and a 2-chord Part B that’s just quarter note strums that anyone could do after a single guitar lesson. Every other part of this record is as close to “unlistenable” as you can get. Not because it’s actively trying to be unlistenable – although at times it is, but those songs are unlistenable not because they’re *too* avant-garde, but rather because they’re unsuccessful at being avant-garde and are therefore annoying. No, First Issue is unlistenable because it’s banal, trite, and pseudo-intellectual to a degree that is almost unfathomable. It is unfathomable that anyone would make music this goddamn shallow, especially someone who already had a successful career as the frontman of a band that had something to say. And sure, it’s not like The Sex Pistols were deep, but at least they said SOMETHING! PiL, which is basically just Lydon’s solo project, has absolutely nothing to say at all!! Sonically. Lyrically. Aesthetically. All empty, all the way down. But what makes it obnoxious, damn near insufferable, is that Lydon and company clearly think this album is the deepest, most thoughtful, most inventive album ever committed to wax. I hate First Issue. I hate it sonically, lyrically, and aesthetically. I hate it on principle, and I hate it in practice. I hate every choice made to create this album, and I hate every note played to record this album. I even hate that there’s a saving grace in one of those songs, and I hate that it’s not even like, a song I would classify as being at least okay, but instead it’s a song that I would label as passable, and actively shit on if this was any other album. This record doesn’t deserve any sort of praise, to any degree. It’s obnoxious and gets under my skin – no, under my soul. I loathe this record. Fuck you, John Lydon. Fuck you.

I get it, I can see it's influence, I appreciate it's place in history. That said, it is not for me.

Johnny Rotten is too whiney

абсолютно хаотичная гитара пропущенная через столько фильтров что звучит как какофония. Вместо вокала истошный крик. Это я слушать не собираюсь, спасибо.

80s punk rock.

Noisy instrumentals devoid of melody, screamy vocals, and lyrics that feel like they were written by an edgy teenager. Actively bad

Track 1 hit, SKIP! Track 2, SKIP! Track 3, SKIP! Track 4 started and I just gave up and moved on. Unlistenable for me

it's a wonder there was ever a second issue

UK punk. Not my thing. Sounded like a very mediocre version of Sex Pistols.

No. I considered adding a star for it supposedly being an inspiration for some of the post punk bands that I do enjoy. But it doesn't deserve it. Feels like the lyrics were written by a thirteen year old who was trying to be edgy after being grounded by their parents.

What a load of shite

There's little more dangerous than someone convinced that they and they alone have uncovered a universal truth, and are able to speak it plainly for the people who wouldn't "get it". John Lydon has always struck that to me, juvenile but so convinced of his own intelligence (not by any phony god's blessing!) I like post-punk and I guess I can appreciate that people liked the formula here, or maybe just even the bare bones, but man, is this thing a full-on chore to listen to. It sounds loose, and I mean that derogatorily: three practices later, mostly made up of loose jamming, and they must have thought, "Yep, let's record it." It's long, and way too convinced it's "something". A big shout out to the terribly named Jah Wobble, who has the distinction of being the first artist on my list with two entries in the graveyard. You truly fucking earned it, maaaaan.

Baby’s first criticism of religion and society. Not a fun or interesting listen. Innovative for the time, sure, but it was not that good. I get the idea that it’s trying to say, but when the music is dogshit, it gets held back. It’s not even that it’s unlistenable, more that it was insulting because it felt low brow. No standouts.

It surprised me there are a couple tracks there of commentary instead of singing. Still, not much that attracted me in the songs here.

tlw. nicht anhörbar bzw. nicht zu Ende gehört

Imagine writing poetry this bad and then being so pretentious that you feel it's worthwhile to ask people to listen to it twice in a row.

The positive is they are better than Korn, but that is about it.

Let’s just say I am glad it’s over and it should be listed as controversial due to his rather interesting thoughts on religion

once again-i just don't get it. the lyrics amount to shouting or speaking the same line over, and over, and over, and over....... sometimes for only a minute or two, other times for 7 minutes or more. 1.5 stars

Could not finish it - not for me

I've always thought that punk was more than being anti-social and shouting obnoxiously... Public Image Ltd I'd working hard to prove me wrong. Maybe a 2 star album, but giving it 1 star because it's annoying this list contains 2 albums by them.

The first track is what I imagine they played to Al Qaeda suspects at Guantanamo Bay. Irritatingly it continues bring terrible, with the post-punk giving way to some ludicrously over the top pedal work, making it sound like some kind of proto-shoegaze torture. Fodderstompf takes a relatively interesting loop and overlays it with vocals that manage to be both incredibly repetitive and exceptionally annoying. If the brief was to take the anger and rebellion of punk and remove anything that's fun, likeable or catchy, then Public Image ltd have managed it with aplomb. Which is weird, because I've genuinely loved other PIL stuff.

Rotten.

Þetta hreyfir ekki við mér.

Trash post punk synth pop

Genuinely sounds like they made an album to be deliberately annoying I agree with the anti-religion message but during the last track even I was praying for the end

Nicht so mein Geschmack, insbesondere der Gesang (1*)

What a horrible sad thing to put out into the world. Of course the last song made it almost worth the effort of suffering through this mercifully short album. It was pretty funny.

Just a bunch of noise.

Public Image Ltd’s Public Image: First Issue is really weird. It was highly influential in its part for building the post-punk genre, and introducing the genre to the world, but I don’t sonically see the appeal. I’m also not taking any tracks out of this album. For the upsides, Public Image is mostly alright, but the weird screeches and yelling from the vocalist ruins it, and its the same case for every song. All in all, Public Image: First Issue is a horrible album. Best Song: Public Image Worst Song: Religion II

Couldn’t get past the first track. Nearly an hour and forty minutes of this junk? No thank you.

Again never been a huge fan of Punk. However, this album in particular doesn't even work for shooting bugs. I hesitate to call the first three tracks songs, and I couldn't bring myself to enjoy a single moment of the others. Disappointing. Annoying. Get out of my ears.

Not great like most of Johnny Rotten’s work. Felt like the kind of album a 19 year old would create and think was deep and then be embarrassed by it 5 years later.

How did this group get a second album? It was bad and barely listenable. I managed to not skip any songs, but I should have.

Nah.

I really enjoyed this listen, because these guys are laughably bad. Terrible poetry confidently stated over boring, unskilled punk rock. John Lydon thinks he has something profound to say, but his ravings are offensively mediocre and bland. This record is grating and horrible in none of the ways the artist intended, with anti-establishment lyrics at home in a teenager's diary and stupid hooks played by tween-level guitar skill. Inexcusably repetitive and derivative, influential only in that later bands unfortunately learned they didn't have to be good to be popular, thus founding the post-punk genre. How anyone can think this music is anything but unskilled swill is beyond me. Also, another reviewer compared Lydon's voice on the last song to Carl Wheezer from Jimmy Neutron, which sent me in stiches for the entire track. Stand out tracks include "Religion I", and "Fodderstompf".

To put it in their terms, "a bunch of wankers."

ugh. just bad. a true chore to sit through.

I was listening to “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong” and realized… oh I haven’t checked out today’s album! Can’t believe I turned off The Spin Doctors for this. Alternate review: To quote Billy Madison “Here’s a nice piece of shit”

Again, my least favourite band in one of my favourite genre's of music

Awful

So this is what Johnny Rotten did after the Sex Pistols. ..... not good. And by "not good" I mean it fucking sucks.

This is just, pretty terrible. If you only wanted to be loved, that last song isn’t helping your cause.

D Theme 2 Religion I 1 Religion II 2 Annalisa 1 Public Image 1 Low Life 2 Attack 1 Fodderstompf 1 How does Public Image earn two albums? I don't even want to check if they have more.

The two Religion songs were some of the worst I have ever listened to. It just felt like an edgy 12 year old explaining why religion is bad. The rest of the album was similarly terrible.

Terrible, 1*. I don't get why people like this random screaming of the same sentence, and absolutely weird monologues. Don't want to ever listen to this again.

Noise by a guy I don't like.

guitar sounds like ass 1

Won’t ever listen to this one again, just a load of rambling, especially the last track, 7 minutes of waffle!

Hated it!! I was born in 1981, so I don't really understand the impact of this record in punk music, but it did absolutely nothing for me. There wasn't a single song that I enjoyed, no melody, no voice, etc.

Not for me.

Odd. Very odd.

I'm going to put the same review I wrote for Metal Box, because I have nothing new to add. They may as well be the same album. Even the opening tracks of both albums are both horrendous slogs to get through before the slightly more palatable later tracks. Music, quite by definition, decorates time (much how art decorates space). This album is the music equivalent of sprawling mass of mud and rocks heaving slowly down a long mountainside. Even though it technically decorates the landscape, most people could only watch it with boredom or discomfort, and it would be a stretch to call it art. The instruments, individually, are played well, but when put together as a band, they feel incongruent and without passion. The vocal is consistently, uncomfortably out of tune, which might be a staple of the genre but isn't working for this album. I'll give the album some credit, though: The riff in Religion II is good, if a bit poorly mixed. The title track, Annalisa, and Low Life are passable for their nicer texturing and guitar work. Unfortunately, the mixing (throughout the album) makes the nearly-droning cymbal and bass sound so harsh that it's difficult to genuinely enjoy the highlights of these tracks. Another reviewer stated it best: "Fair play for abandoning the Sex Pistols' sound and exploring new and interesting sonic textures, but this seems like a case of PiL crawling in a slow, ungainly manner so other post-punks could run."

Esto parece música punk. No me gusta. Me recuerda a alguien torturando gatos.

Noise... Not a fan

Pretty trash, i do not like. Public image is the only track that's okayish

Horrible

Let's call a spade a spade. No, wait. Let's call a spade a shovel. And let's be honest about this album, about this band. The only reason multiple albums from this band is because the music press couldn't get enough of sucking John Lydon off. They exalted him as some modern day Bowie, or punk ass Dylan. But when was the last time you went and listened to Public Image LTD on purpose? For enjoyment? When's the last time you heard Public Image LTD out in the wild. No one cares. Maybe Johnny Lydon was just a dick.

Oh God, it was absolutely awful! The album's a gagbag full of petulant, untalented shouts and overlong, unchanging chug-a-lug riffery. I hate it very much. But really, it's probably intentionally meant to be unpleasant to people like me who opine that punk sucks.

Nope

Once is enough for me - Brophy Not the biggest fan of punk-W

Terrible crap

Terrible

Horrendous

There wasn't a single song from this album that I would play ever again.

This is a rough listen. I can see how this was ahead of its time musically, but I do not really find it interesting. I dislike most spoken word albums, especially when they are this grating. I’m sure the poetry is great, but this is not for me.

Nope

Awful album. Didn't enjoy at all.

A bunch of noise w/stupid lyrics. If I could give it a 0 I would. 1

Ähm, nein. Was sollen die Texte zu Religion, wildes Geschrei usw.

God save the queen! A real shitty version of the Sex Pistols!

I was not into this.

one one one one ONE ONE ONe... ONE!

Never been that big on the Sex Pistols but at least their songs were catchy and they brought an energy and attitude that I can admire. This side project however was a disaster

An album that slowly chips away at your soul and leaves with nothing in the end other than looking like the guy on the album cover.

En deze keer is het wél (ongeveer) 1980, bestaat de tekst (voor zover verstaanbaar) slechts uit drie woorden, zijn de instrumenten niet gestemd, hebben de muzikanten niet geoefend (echt niet, ziet Wikipedia) en heeft de productie plaatsgevonden door domweg op 'rec' van de cassetterecorder te drukken (ook niet door mij verzonnen). En verder wat zeikmonologen. Ik word er moedeloos van dat we telkens weer dit soort aperte bagger moeten doorploegen. Ik ga nu even wat ABBA luisteren om bij te komen...

Theme 1.5/5

Very hard for me to listen to this, could not enjoy it.

John Lydon is a magaT shill. Not giving him listens for royalties.

Blind album and artist. Never have I watched the clock tick down at the very end of the last track. Constantly hearing an awful vocal track that sounds like gibberish on repeat at the very end. This sucked

Schwierig anzuhören. Fällt nicht in meinen Geschmack! 2.5/10

That opening track was definitely something. I get that this was probably put on here because of its revolutionary views on religion etc (in fact it was apparently banned in Malta when it came out), but most songs were just ... noise? The screaming even sounded demonic at times. Yeah no. I listen to music to relax and have a good time. Genuinely curious to read other reviews now, like are there people out there who listen to this out of choice?

The juvenile anti-religion lyrics don't offend me, but the god awful music and vocals do. John Lydon should stick to flogging margarine and failing to qualify for Eurovision. Rating: 1/5 Playlist track: Public Image Date listened: 29/11/23

Ugh...

The opening song sounds like the soundtrack to a horror movie. My husband’s response was “make it stop!” I listened to the rest of it through headphones, which is a much more intimate experience and much harder to escape, though I desperately wanted to. Religion was interesting, as a vitriolic spoken piece. Religion II is the same thing with a drumbeat?? Come on. Public Image is a decent song, but it doesn’t save this mess of an album.

Wikipedia says the lead vocalist left the Sex Pistols to pursue a more "experimental sound." That's the nicest description I can think of for this noise. Boy was this a rough listen.

wow

I am a fan of some old punk music, and I'll be honest I didn't know who Public Image was until this review and yeah I can say, I'm a fan. This album was pretty sick but it wasn't the easiest listen.. As I've aged, my anxst and punk youth has moved on with it and I find it harder to listen/relate to punk music, that being said I tried to really listen to this album and of course, this thing focuses on government, religion, the chains of society and feeling lost in our world. I enjoyed this album for the barely living punk youth left in me, but I don't think I'd be listening to it frequently, and I'll be pretty shocked at myself if I find myself revisiting it. I just have to be honest here. My favorite track on this thing.. Eh I don't really have one.. Least favorite god.. I really didn't like the opening track, it drug on for way too long and the religion tracks after.. I needed to listen to this album when I was 16 lol I don't know.. Overall: 1.6/5

joo erittäin huono albumi. punk on jo valmiiksi mitä on ja tämä askel sen historiassa ei auta. tarvi saatana töllöttää Iso-Britannian kansalainen tollattiin.. tuonnäköiset juipit valloitti kolmasosan koko maailmasta, mitä vittua. jos suomen urhot olisi pistetty galeassin kyytiin ei tarvisi translaattoria käyttää olisi selvät sävelet arvostelut. suomea puhuisi maailma, save the language, dying language.... french is dying...... public image

Do not like his singing style, the band sounds ok

Absolutely not.

Not for me 1*

A bit rough around the edges.

Not a huge fan

Really not for me

Terrible except for first track

No, just no

- dude doesn’t like religion - we only wanted to be loved! - I really didn’t enjoy much of this at all, not one redeeming quality

I think I understand some of the ideas of the songs, but man, I really did not like listening to this. Fodderstompf made me want to claw my eyes out of my head.

Mostly insufferably boring.

This is honestly just bad. Just don’t get it. Essential Tracks: None Added to Playlist: Annalisa

Oh god I just had these guys like 5 albums ago and it was absolute garbage. This one's only 7 songs....maybe it's a bit better? Nope, still hate it.

Listening to an early maker of punk rock is neat on paper. But this album goes to show that just because you're early at something new doesn't automatically mean it's good. The only positive thing I can say about this album is that it's mercifully short overall, despite the dreadfully long song lengths. Otherwise this was an excruciating listen

I listened to album as much as I could.

Not to my taste

Ummmmm, hmmmmmm, was really open to liking this album....but....it's shit.

Never heard this album in full before, so an interesting listen considering it was made only months after sex pistols broke up. Probably wont listen to it agaon though. One for the music history books, not my ears. Had one good song though

C'est un 1 tranquille, on a vu pire mais je suis obligé de sévir

Angry white british music

Nope, fuck off.

This is the worst album we've had in quite some time, I think. Opening track is a 9 minute mess - seems like they've tried to marry punk and prog, and forgotten that the two didn't really get on. Then we have a spoken poem about religion that is about as subtle as being hit over the head by a brick, and track 3 is the same poem set to music and elongated to 3x the length. Track four would be a passable punky type song if it was half of its 6 minutes. Then 5/6/7 are all reasonable punk album tracks (the title track being the best of the bunch) before we get to a final track that has a simple hip hop style beat with some weird quiet half screaming set to it. For eight minutes. At least the album is over in 40. 1/5, title track almost gets it to a 2 but it is just unlistenable for the most part.

Ho lee hell. This first song ("Theme") is one of the worst album openers I've ever had the pleasure of enduring. Was tempted to stop the review right there... ...and so while I truly appreciate the (any) anti-religious sentiments, there's more than a bit of me that harkens back to my Leonard Cohen reviews - "oh he's a poet" yeah ok great give me the book instead - can you put some thought into the gd music? I like a lot of late 70s British alt/post-punk but this is noise for the sake of ...what? sounding aggrieved? There's almost no structure or effort or point - it's just not good. Only/notable exception is the track "Public Image" which - vocals a major aside - sounds like it could almost have fit on the Pretenders' debut; I almost actually like it. Not enough to ever listen to this again tho. 2/10 1 star.

Fome.

I can't do it, John Lydon might be a ledge, but he's no singer or musician

Shouty wanky preachy bollocks!

I'm sure it was important to the genre but yuck

I really like New Wave music from this era but this was just terrible.

Not for me.

This was made to be bad, right?

I’ve always thought John Lydon was a bit of a chancer and so this record proves. Devoid of anything worth listening to, the smartest this gets is Lydon figuring out GOD spells DOG backwards. Nice one, John.

Grating yet somehow boring. Later albums are 2 stars

Like a 6th form band trying way too hard to be arty

Awful. Unlistenable.

First song was kind of interesting until singing starts. Then hard to listen to until the end of album.

No

Lydon can fuck right off with this

Let's be honest, it's Shit really.

guy has a great voice for metal but this album was not metal

I don't really get this genre; did not finish.

Not for me!

This album is a mess and feels like an experiment that doesn't work. It's probably not helpful that I think John Lydon can go pound sand. Zero interest in this all the way down.

Best Song: Annalisa. It almost resembled something poignant or grungy. Worst Song: Religion II. I thought Religion I was bad, and then for this song they decided to play different, equally shitty, songs to each ear. Overall: This is fucking awful. Musically this obviously sounds like shit, but maybe more embarrassing is how you can tell the artists really thought they were making something politically/socially/artistically meaningful, but they came up with this grade school garbage.

It’s possible to be both angry AND tuneful. Unfortunately Johnny forgets this for the most part, rendering the majority of the album unlistenable.

John Lydon kann original nix, ausser gehörig nerven. Die Welt braucht kein einziges Tonerzeugnis mit seiner Beteiligung. Diese Platte nicht gehört zu haben, ist ein Gewinn.

~~Reviewer Pete Silverton (Sounds) said that the single is the "Only wholly worthwhile track on the album." ~~~ Well, "Low Life" isn't bad. And the bassline in "Fodderstompf" is pretty decent. But yeah, what an unrewarding listen. I've ranked a couple albums pretty low that actually have something to say. I just don't think that's any substitute for musical cunning, or melody February 19 2023

Found it more annoying than anything else.

435 albums into this and this is easily one of my least favorites so far.

Not sure what drugs this man was on when he wrote this album but judging by the album cover it’s some sort of tranquiliser. My advice to him would be stop taking it because this music is utter shite

Punk is still the worst. The music absolutely blows, but I like the theme in this one; "I wish I could die." 1 And "fuck christianity." It just gets better.

This is described as post-punk. All I can think of is that all the good ideas in punk were already done and Public Image tried this. Then the punk community decided they needed to distance themselves from the album so everyone relabeled it as it post-punk. I had to check. Yes this is in the bottom 20 rated albums. I dread the days I have to hear the ones worse than this. Scale: 5 - My absolute favorites. 4 - Albums I like. 3 - I enjoyed listening to it but wouldn't seek it out. 2 - Didn't like. 1 - Absolute shit.

I couldn't stand John Lydon in The Sex Pistols - I thought that he was a talent free fraud and poser then. Lets see how he does here. It couldn't start any worse - a dirge like rhythm with discordant guitars and random screaming - for nearly ten minutes. Next you get awful poetry that tries to be provocative but just comes over as stupid. Can it go downhill from here? - I seriously doubt it, but one never knows. They managed it - by repeating the bad poetry partly screamed, over a flat and uninspired rhythm track. At his point I gave up - it is not possible to give negative stars but if I could I would.

Putrid.

Couldn't finish it

A pretty typical British punk album in that it’s annoying and tries to be edgy but comes off lame. Don’t plan on revisiting this one. The singer sounded pretty full of himself. I don’t know the pint of including an interview in the album either. A load of bullocks. 2.1/10

A bunch of experimental music that comes off as mostly annoying noise. The title track is a departure from this and is a decent pop song in the midst of a flaming garbage dump.

5th October 2022 Listened during the day while working from home. Chilled evening. John Lydon’s band following the pistols. Not got the swagger of the pistols I’m afraid.

Could not ge through it, to screamy and talky for me.

REALLY not my thing

Not a fan, Metal Box was better.

Self indulgent shite. And I say that as a fan of JR.

Awful

Rotten

The previous album was also a post-punk that I rated 3 stars and there have also been post-punk albums I've rated 4-5 stars. Turns out, the simple rule of thumb is, the closer to punk rock a post-punk album sounds, the less I like it. This one is very close to punk rock, and I hate it.

Empty repetitive jams. Boring. "No future" for John Lydon after the Pistols.

No le doy second chance ever

Words fail me.

Q. Shit, what am I listening to? A. Nothing good. Scream or pontificate all you want, John Lydon, it won't make the album impactful or decent in any way.

Well sex pistols is decent so I hope this is too… The album opens with theme a 9 minute long sludgy epic, I mean it’s alright but I just don’t like long overblown songs at the start of albums especially with the wired screaming too. It’s just way too long if it were like 2 minutes I think I would enjoy this as an opener. Religion I is just a spoken piece it’s alright but a bit wired for the sake of it, it’s similar to the intro to you took the words right out of my mouth on meatloaf’s bat out of hell. Religion II starts cool but then turns out it’s just religion I with instrumental work and some Johnny rotten screaming, I mean at least he’s trying to be experimental in this album. Annalisa is the first “ normal song” on here it’s essentially just a 6 minute long worse version ( vocally and lyrically) of any track on never mind the bullocks, but the instrumentation is fine. Next is the sonic public image now this isn’t as good as the most of never mind the bullocks but it’s still much better than the rest of this album. I think it’s because this album kinda lacks the fun and the odd one liners of the sex pistols album. But low life kinda does have that and it’s just still not clicking as much to be fair. But “ bourgeois anarchist” is a good line. Attack starts with these wired spitting like noises but then forms into this odd little mix of the more heavy sex pistols stuff with the weirdness of the first tracks on this album but it does it in all of the ways I don’t like about these projects. The album ends on fodderstompf a dreadful experimentation into electronica. Just no. It’s not even like so bad it’s good. This album is just a mix of what sounds like sex pistols left overs lazily put alongside Johnny rottens weird experiments.

This was borderline unlistenable. Some music with just screaming or talking over random instrument playing. 2/10.

Cover art 3/5. He looks respectable

pas écouté

This one is a turd of that just won't flush. The first track is almost unbearable. It's 8 minutes of a slightly changing bass line the guy made up about 10 minutes before recording while what I assume is a 1 handed guitar player switching between strumming and slapping. While all this is taking place john lydon is screaming lines he's reading off the wall in a middle school bathroom. Track 2 is a spoken word poem so angsty he had to put it to music in track 3. From then on its hit or miss until fodderstompf. This is weapons grade terrible. Only track I've ever skipped while doing this whole project. Sounds like a couple of stoned friends dicking around on someone else's gear.

I don’t like the album

I don’t get it

Hated this. Just not for me.

Not a fan

Didn’t like it. Experimental 70’s punk with interesting lyrics, but nothing to captivate me. Vocals are awful, dissonant chords hard to listen to.

Poor man's Sex Pistols

Панк, который надоел.

chunia że ja pierdole

Wow. This was beyond dreadful.

Did not enjoy.... lots of noise and illegible vocals, but in a horrible way.

Too weird for me

Mostly noise and yelling

Чувствуется, что для своего времени это действительно прорыв. Эксперименты со звуком, композиционным построением, вокальными партиями... Всё это, по сути, нам подарило целый новый глубокий жанр - пост-панк. И этот альбом до сих пор является его достойным представителем. Да нет, конечно, рофлю, это - кал неслушабельный, с одной нормальной песней "Public Image", которая, впрочем, не вытягивает альбом даже на двойку. Мусор.

параша. берешь какофонию неслушабельную и кричишь сто раз название трека вот тебе и альбом

Awful

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Religion I Cutting Edge: Public Image Overall Notes: I don't get post punk. This sounds horrible. It's telling that the one song I saved is a spoken word version of another song on the album. I wanted to like this because I like "Rise" from one of their later albums (after they had already "sold out"), but this was a miserable listening experience. Musically important and the music matches with the rage and anger they're expressing, but this is still miserable. Upon relistenings there were redeeming qualities to the song "Public Image". Still a 1.

Very bad music.

Dreadful. 0/5 if I could

Jesus christ Jon Lydon is a fucking weapon. 1/5

Punk oscuro y malo

Hard pass

noise!

I feel like a grandmother saying this but it's just a whole lot of noise. No melody. No THANKS couldn't even get through the first song. Maybe some other time.

meh