Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols

Well... this easily goes on record for my biggest changed opinion. The first (and last) time I listened to this record in full was over a decade ago, back when I was still in high school. And I hated it. HATED it. I thought it was the most boring, annoying, overrated bit of trash, and that it didn't deserve to it's place among contemporaries like The Damned and The Clash. And over the years, hearing a song or two here or there, my opinion was unchanged. Even getting a PiL record on this project just reinforced my opinion that John Lydon is trash. When I saw this come up for the day, I groaned. I was expecting to give it a 1, have it give me a headache, and life would move on. But something changed. The singing that I thought was grating nonsense now felt passionate and aggressive. The boring and overdone guitar riffs now felt enormous and fiery. The songs were all far catchier and more fun than I used to appreciate. I LOVED it. So, I would like to apologize, Sex Pistols, for years of trashing you. You deserved better.

Not into rap

HAIKU REVIEW Rotten and Vicious More energy than talent I can not listen

I get that this one of the most influential albums of all time, but it sounds f-ing terrible🤷🏻‍♂️

This album is pure energy. Weird listening to it today, when all the "controversial" aspects seem tame. It's been imitated so much that it almost sounds like a parody of itself. No doubt that this is as punk as a studio album can get.

A very music-wise friend called the Sex Pistols a punk rock boy band. Apparently they were hand picked and assembled by manager, and there's more to the story, but the conversation was on a train car in the Orient Express and I was a wee bit drunk. It changed they way I hear their music. I've always thought they seemed like an act. They give themselves funny stage names "Rotten" and "Vicious" and call their band a combination of two "dangerous" words. This album apparently revolutionized music and kicked off punk rock, but it doesn't really feel like punk rock to me. I thought the whole point of punk was a DIY, pared down approach to rock that allowed raw expression to rise above musicianship. Being loud isn't necessarily raw. Snarling anger isn't necessarily expressive. I sound like an old guy. It's a cool album from a boy band who played a style of music that was different than anything else played prior, except the Stooges. I think I have a bias against all UK bands. B-

Has given me thrills ever since my mum put it on in the car during my metal/Beatles phase and said, “I think you’ll like this.” Never a headbanger, I wondered what made the Pistols her exception. Probably the same thing that does it for me: the very real danger posed by ex-dole queue give-no-fuckers snarling through a litany of things they find contemptuous about society and spitting the things society finds contemptuous about them back in its face. Some of their assaults ring resoundingly true (Holiday in the Sun, God Save The Queen). Some of them are plain scary (Bodies, No Feelings). Everywhere, contradictions abound. None more so than in the figure of Johnny Rotten, who cuts through the noise with a spiteful clarity, taking care to make sure his words land because he knows how much they'll make you squirm. It's an unsettlingly committed performance, through which a fully (de)formed character emerges. More than just a frontman, he’s a leader, an icon, a hero. But wait, aren’t icons and heroes anathema to anarchists? Yep. Fortunately, the band has no interest in resolving these conflicts, opting to intensify them instead, which they do gloriously. Undoubtedly more shocking at the time, punk has been revived and remodelled so often since 1977 that to someone who first heard it 28 years after the fact, it simply sounds perfect.

Ooooh you're hard

almost didn't make it through. i did though. not a quitter

I had been procrastinating my review of this, because the Sex Pistols were the most important band to my life, and I think I became very wary that explaining my veneration of the Pistols would slightly dispel the magic. I feel I should add some biography. My brother was 14 years older than me, and when he was a teenager, punk was already long dead. But, as an angry teen, he'd built up a vinyl collection of the Pistols and the Clash. Then one of my sisters, 7 years older than me, began seeing an Iron Maiden fan around 1993 while she was into Nirvana, so they dug out my brother's old albums. Initially, when one of my other sisters, 4 years older than me, played Anarchy in the UK once (odd, as she has never been into punk or rock, preferring smarter pop), I tried to be a snotty, bratty younger brother and dismiss it, but I became fascinated. So, my earlier-mentioned sister began playing the Sex Pistols for me, along with Guns N Roses and Nirvana (despite Kurt's rhetoric, every Nirvana fan was also a GnR fan). I now recognise the Sex Pistols as the first artistic experience I ever had in my life, aged 8 in 1992. And yes, that does mean I was a cooler 8-year-old than you. Looking back, much of my subsequent aesthetic mindset was determined by Never Mind the Bollocks. I discovered and fell in love with dada aged 15, clocking that it was WW1 punk. Most of the music I adore is music I can connect to the Sex Pistols (aside from the Stooges, Ramones, Clash and Joy Division, I would name my beloved blues, rock n roll, outlaw country, garage rock, Krautrock, glam, and indie as punk-adjacent, along with plenty of others). Much of my favourite writing has a punk sneer delivered with two fingers. Hell, despite the punk aesthetic being so watered-down that the anarchy symbol is a corporate stand-by, women with dyed, spiky hair and Doc Martens stir something in me few women do. But why was I hesitant? Are the Sex Pistols like an eclipse: as astonishing a spectacle as they are, you shouldn't look upon them with naked eyes? Nope. I was second-guessing myself again. The Sex Pistols are the greatest, most important band of all, and Never Mind the Bollocks is the greatest, most important album of all. The title makes the point: compared to the Pistols, much else is just bollocks. The album is ultimately a monument to two youths: Steve Jones and John Lydon. Steve Jones, a teenage petty criminal who was just starting off on the career of professional criminal (already a housebreaker and football hooligan, even he accepts that without the Pistols he was destined for prison), agrees with his mate Paul Cook to join a band founded by Wally Nightingale called Swankers, with Jones on vocal. Badgering Malcolm McLaren for management, they also recruit his stockboy Glen Matlock as bassist. Though a charismatic thug and womaniser, Jones is not a great frontman, and McLaren convinces him to take up the guitar and ditch Wally (what an apt name). The group, now firmly cemented as Jones' band, stages auditions for a new lead singer, and a teenage oddball with green hair and yellow teeth (hence the nominer Johnny Rotten) mimes to the wonderful Alice Cooper track I'm Eighteen, securing his place in the band. Remarkably, that football hooligan turned out to have an instinctive, almost unconscious grasp of the most powerful power chords, and that oddball happened to have a decent brain, making that unaligned pair briefly the greatest living songwriters, in that they simply made the best songs. Of course it couldn't be sustained; nobody could be that wonderful for too long, and the collapse of the Pistols is one of the most wretched in music history. But they made the greatest album of all, an album that served as a compass for good music: everything worthwhile can be found if you follow the path directed by Never Mind the Bollocks. My ultimate question: what do I have to say to that 8-year-old boy who would jump around the front room to God Save The Queen after mass? You were right. Fucking hell, you were right. John Lennon is a wanker. Got any glue?

A classic and socially significant album with some huge bangers. Its context makes it greater than the music objectively is. The bangers are spread across the album, which works well as a pick-me-up just as things are starting to get a bit samey. This would be a 3 if it wasn't so culturally significant.

Honestly did not know the sex pistols only had one album. I didn't really know Sid Vicious' story either jesus christ. This album is great 5 stars would recommend

I used Anarchy in the UK as a way to talk about Political Theory in a college class. All in all, I feel like The Sex Pistols tried to use cheap shock value to stir controversy. Many of their songs sound repetitive. While I tend to like punk, the Sex Pistols are not for me. Best Songs: God Save the Queen, Pretty Vacant Worst Songs: Bodies, Problems, New York

Even if I didn't know they were British, I still can tell they have bad teeth. My friend Cristina--a grad student studying speech pathology--would be stoked to work with them.

Punk always claimed that it was people who "couldn't play", but many bands (Pistols, Clash, etc) were in fact working within a pretty well-trodden back-to-basic rock and roll style and technique. The Pistols had already turned into the stuff of legend by the time I started listening to Never Mind the Bollocks, a mere ten years after its release and the band's demise. The chaos and violence of the Pistols brief career was well documented (if not always accurately), but somehow, despite the hype and mismanagement, they managed to record and release a really powerful album. The tunes are simple (as befits a singer of limited technical ability) but catchy, the lyrics are immediate and political without becoming dogmatic, and it's got a beat you can rock out to. Johnny Rotten may not have been a singer of great technical ability, but he was smart and caustic and articulate and funny and charismatic and full of attitude, which makes him one of the greatest frontmen of all time. Steve Jones really was the most valuable player on the record, having tightly and powerfully tracked all the guitar and most of the bass parts. Equal parts Johnny Ramone and Eddie Cochrane, it's a loud and compelling hard rock record, not groundbreaking really, but energetic and exciting all the way through. Sid Vicious, by the way, is an icon of self-destruction, but no musician. His early death was sad but inevitable. Never Mind the Bollocks is an unusual album in many ways; it was a world-changing symbol of a new musical movement and heralded decades of sound-alikes (most of whom can't hold a candle to this record), it's a legend and a media circus, and massively culturally important. And still eminently listenable and exciting nearly 50 years after the death of Sid and Nancy, a million copycat bands, cash-grab reunion tours, box set reissues, and Johnny Rotten spruiking butter substitutes and Brexit. God bless Richard Branson for insisting that all of the singles appeared on the album which helped ensure that this was a record for the ages. Never Mind the Bollocks was powerful, sincerely meant and, ultimately, unsustainable. But it is amazing that they managed to produce this record and that it is so great. This record, along with the Ramones self-titled, are seminal texts for me (and certainly highly influential for all the bands I ever played in, for attitude even if not always for genre) Five stars, must listen. Great cover art, too.

Malcolm McLaren is a certified genius. Kudos to him for capturing the zeitgeist of the era so well and creating and marketing a Boy Band for angry, disenfranchised and rebellious teens. They could barely play their instruments but it didn’t matter, this was all part of their schtick. Bands such as the Ramones or the Stooges actually has more talent. And coming up with Pro-wrestling like stage names like Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious was another stroke of marketing genius. And like the saying goes, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. The semi controversial album name, “bollocks” getting banned by the BBC, mocking the beloved Queen, the wild hair and costume all added fuel to the fire and the the kids loved and lapped it all up. They were probably a handful to manage though, so poor Malcolm could only squeeze one studio album out of them before they self-destructed. And the album wasn’t half bad, it had a few memorable singles and it sold millions. This gets one star for the content and two for its huge influence on music and culture.

Absolute tripe.

Separation of the art and the artist, ACTIVATE! Good music! Fun, energetic punk that shook up the 70s. Thoroughly enjoyable.

love the punk sounds and vocals. im personally unaware of the context this came out in but there is a level of inflated anarchy to it. my first time listening to sex pistols. i really like the way the singer enunciates some of the words. sex pistols is such a punk name actually. sex and pistols. such taboo topics. tackling and challenging modernity; and those who simply drift through life. bodies, the song about abortion really stuck with me because of the current debates surrounding abortion laws all over the world. its very interesting. i never really looked at things in the way this song presented them to be. really good album man, probably my favourite that ive heard this year. after exmilitary

The Godfathers of Punk! One of my favourite albums of all time. Crunching guitar, snarling in your face vocals, solid album.

It is much slower than I remember it being - listened to it a lot when it came out, when it all seemed to hurtle along. Now, even the faster songs feel fairly considered. Great guitars from Steve Jones, fabulous sneering from Rotten. (Famously described by Captain Sensible as " 'e sounds like Old Man Steptoe!" )

Pistols started the UK punk movement. A seminal album, though probably not the finest (imo) debut album in the genre. Given the chaos that surrounded the band, the recording and the record company shambles it is an excellent effort.

What an album for a sunny commute. Would know that vocal anywhere. Bit samey and you never get a breather do ya but undeniably iconic to punk-rock and I do love me some punk-rock sometimes. Guitar in Problems is sick. Anarchy in the UK is one to skip to at the bottom of a big hill on a long run. "She was a girl from Birmingham and she just had an abortion" EMI

Epitome of pared down punk rock. Simple three piece, singer with an enigmatic voice and delivery singing street anthems. Not to mention a great name and some crazy swagger to go with it. They’re not master of their instruments but they manage to make it sound good. You can feel the grime of the 1970s on this album. Smell the cigarettes and booze. It’s a fun album that breezes through with reckless abandon like a drunken night leaving you with a hangover. You can hear the dead Kennedy’s, the strokes, yeah yeah yeahs and many others in this album. It’s short and sweet and sour, though I think it gets a bit repetitive and could be a little shorter. It’s a 4 from me.

This reminds me of everyone’s youth. Brilliant but terrible. Ruined by knowing the manufacture and what became of Lydon. Some of the lyrics too are the same depressing misogyny which seems to be unfortunately found on more of these albums than you’d wish. Also - is there anything more English than stealing a joke from Shakespeare and claiming it counterculture?

The cultural relevance of this album is lost on me. These guys are like the shitty Clash, and I'm not big on the Clash to begin with. Ooh, the song says "abortion" in it? Who cares, it sucks.

The recording quality is abysmal, if somebody tried to put this out now, I'd be giving it a one. That being said, I can't help but give this a five. It's a cracking album.

I really don't listen to this enough. I was too young to experience it in person but the story is incredible and, most importantly, it SOUNDS FUCKING GREAT, packed with tune after fucking tune. The songs are (almost) all bangers - Bodies is shocking and abrasive even 45+ years later, and I can only, gleefully, imagine how God Save The Queen and Pretty Vacant sounded at the time. All monster riffs and amazing vocals. The title, the image and the contents still give a mild frisson; it's a bit weird (and disappointing) to be considered "classic rock" these days. I know the MC5 and others did it first, but this was executed perfectly. McLaren chose the ingredients masterfully; this could have been Sigue Sigue Sputnik or, I dunno, Gay Dad but is, instead, timeless like Elvis and The Beatles. Steve Jones and John Lydon are absolute giants (and both their books are well worth a read). Play it again! PS - listened to the "Spunk" demo bootleg in addition - it's not anywhere close to "superior" to these versions, don't waste your time; Chris Thomas knew what he was doing.

Right. If you knew nothing about the history, you would find that this album still rocks pretty hard. The music has swagger, great guitar solos and that lead singer sort of sings, screams and sneers. No topic for a song seems off the table. Ah, but history it does have. Controversy. Censorship. Johny Rotten. Side Vicious. Starting the Punk Movement. Malcom McLaurin. Plenty of history. There has been a lot of more extreme punk and music in general since that this sounds just like rock and roll. I think it's also been absorbed into rock history so. The one thing that has stayed punk are the song lyrics; they're still pretty edgy and anti-everything: anarchy, abortion, women, the Queen, the UK. Most of the songs are great. I can't really add anything more other than this still well worthy of a listen.

I can understand a neutral not liking this, but to me, it’s rock music in the truest sense. Loud, aggressive, a punch to the face. These guys made a statement, one album, they broke up, and they changed society. I always loved this album.

This is so much better than I remember. This was released with I was a teen, just getting into prog rock and such. Was not a fan of "punk" and scoffed. However, it is a damn good album. Hats off (<50 years later...)

Every music magazine and Sunday afternoon VH1 documentary tried incessantly to convince me of the significance of this album. Taken within the context of 1977, I can see how this might've once felt groundbreaking but by now this entire sound has been wholly swallowed up and digested - there's very little here that to me sounds new or exciting. Certainly it seems like a strong example of early punk - songs convey an appropriately cynical POV, songs hit hard and rapid fire. And the vocals and guitar lines are exceptionally clear - plenty of muscle in the recordings. It's an enjoyable enough listen but I'll be only too happy to re-shelf this one back into the "canon", never to be picked up again.

I’ve never liked punk, I like what they stand for but not the music itself. The sex pistols however were/are talentless posers. I can see why some people enjoy the Ramones or sonic youth, I don’t get what people saw in these posers.

Genuinely the worst album I've listened to in my life.

Rollicking, deafeningly monotonous.

I've discovered it's not just for rebellious teens. Can confirm it’s a good release for parents when your kids are being a pain in the ass, too.

For something that defines a "back-to-basics" genre of music, there's a ridiculous amount of lore, bombast, and general artifice to wade through. The fact that this is the quintessential 'punk' album can't have sat well with the much more hard-nose hardcore scenes that followed in the 80s. But strip away the legend of their replacement bassist and calamitous live shows, you have a ridiculously tight album, filled with killer riffs and Johnny Rotten's aimless, righteous, and self-righteous anger.

Haven’t listened to this for a while. Aside from the overwhelming cultural significance, it’s an all-round banger of an album with some great singles and other decent tunes. I was pleasantly surprised at how good some of the playing was when I listened closely. I think I was of the impression that none of the band could play but clearly the drums and guitar work are more than competent.

Here we go :)

Pioneering punk record.

Iconic

Tempted to knock it down to four stars because John Lydon is a complete bell end, but really for it's impact at the time it has to be five.

Excellent

What an album so what if the lead singer sold out and is now a massive twat. This album has it all from the deranged bodies to the ultimate holiday in the sun. Social comentary of a cycnical 17 year old full of spite and contempt layered against the sonic simplicity of single chords played loud. Should be a 6.

Iconic bollocks from Mr Lydon & co. He might be an insufferable prick (no, he IS an insufferable prick) but he does know his trade. As for the album, it's a riot of energetic fun and anger and deserving of its place on the list.

Liked songs: Zero, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, 1979 liked songs: Tonight, Tonight, Jellybelly, An Ode To No One, Love, Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans, Bodies, Tales Of A Scorched Earth, X.Y.U., By Starlight Fantastic album. Yes, it's long. But it's so good that it doesn't matter. Depending on the day, this is probably either the best or second best Pumpkins album. 4.5

Yup, it's the blueprint!

I listened to this album a bunch a few weeks ago but wanted to find the time to listen to it while reading the lyrics because I thought they were the epitome of biting sarcasm and criticism. They give a big middle finger to everyone - the iron curtain and western society (Holidays in the Sun), orphans (No Feelings), the music industry and record companies (Liar and EMI), monarchy and British government (God Save the Queen and Anarchy in the UK), working stiffs and couch potatoes and sheeples and themselves (Problems and Pretty Vacant), middle class (and above) society (Seventeen), silver spoon or flaky musicians (New York). They even call out abortion. Ok, that one is a bit jarring and a little offside. But if you really listen to it, they're not taking a position on the issue and the lyrics are powerful. It certainly cannot have endeared them to too many folks to even discuss the issue back then, so you gotta respect their guts. There is no better example of screw the man and screw everything than this band and this album. And for all the flack they have taken for average musicianship, I liked their sound and thought it was solid. Combine the music and the lyrics and their energy/fire and you've got a classic album.

Classic Pistols, The Filth and The Fury (Headline from the Sun the day after their Today with Bill Grundy Interview) Malcom Mclaren was a master manipulator of the media. A terrific example of British Punk, Not the first British Punk Album (That was the Damned on Stiff Records) but seminal for sure. Johnny and his sneering lyrics, the sheer energy of the music was such a relief for this 18 Year Old in '77. Pistols, Clash and Damned, what a good time the mid 70's were for British punk, link that with New Wave and Pub Rock and you had the perfect alternative to Prog Rock Navel Gazing. Holiday In the Sun & Bodies were both favourites and of course Anarchy, GSTQ, Holidays In The Sun, Pretty Vacant all top Punk Singles. A must have in any Vinyl Collection. It is in mine!

What an album. Perhaps the most influential album of the rock era. After this nothing would be quite the same. All thus would be hyperbole if the songs weren't so fucking good. Some of the hardest most uncompromising rock music ever committed to tape. It's a masterpiece. 5 🌟

Haven't listened to this since college. People tend to be dismissive of the Pistols but this reminded me that they were actually quite good and Glen Matlock was only brilliant. Songs are great. Holds up.

What an album. Perhaps the most influential album of the rock era. After this nothing would be quite the same. All thus would be hyperbole if the songs weren't so fucking good. Some of the hardest most uncompromising rock music ever committed to tape. It's a masterpiece. 5 🌟

It was good would be better live

I would put this on a list of music to hear before one dies even if in 2025 some of the impact is a little blunted. I think just the attitude that younger people have about music is kind of reasonable that after 50 years of people being exposed to what was considered "edgy", "transgressive" or "the decline of western civilization" it just doesn't really yield whatever effect the pearl clutchers were worried about at the time. The schtick got taken to it's logical conclusion with GG Allin and Hanatarash and anything less is just songs to be a little snot which always has some space in my rotation.

Fresh sound and attitude

Rough and sometimes repetitive, but the best cuts are big sassy punk rock cornerstones. I bought this CD along with Toni Childs "Union" at a used disc shop one day. The clerk claimed it would be the only time ever somebody would purchase those two albums at the same time.

Yknow what hell yeah. This stands the test of time and had me wanting to destroy my office

Sex Pistols have always bothered me with their whole "punk" image being "be obnoxious and as immature as possible without actually being 'punk'". Which I still think is true. But damn this album is pretty entertaining. Funnily enough this doesn't even sound like what I'd think of as "punk"; figures they're musically and ideologically posers. But the album is catchy and fun, without falling into the trapping of punk just needing to be as fast as possible. Solid angsty rock album ;) Top tracks: Problems, God Save the Queen, Anarchy in the U.K.

While Johnnie Rotten has given up his Punk Roots and gone full MAGA (or maybe that IS punk now), I was really blown away to hear this album for the first time realizing just how much it inspired later musical acts in the 80's and 90's. While a completely different genre, it reminded me a lot of the Beastie Boys. I am very unfamiliar with Sex Pistols besides their biggest hits and enjoyed this album much more than I thought I would.

This is a pretty fun album, surprisingly well written and played considering everyone thinks they were hopeless. Holidays in the sun in particular is a bona fide banger. And it aged well! 4/5.

This is a hell of a lot of fun, and there's no doubt in my mind how insanely influential it is. Is it something I want to listen to all the time, or even often? Probably not. Straight ahead punk is pretty simple, very angry, and mostly ugly. Which works very well for what punk is going for. And that's super cool. Just not my cuppa tea. That being said, this is definitely one that everyone should listen to before they die. Probably the number one album to point someone towards if they want to get the nutshell of PUNK. Fave tracks: - Holidays in the Sun - Bodies - Problems - Sub-Mission

Long Live Nancy Spungen

I'd rate it higher if I was a rebellious 14 year old

Snotty, brash, and unapologetic songs. I tend to enjoy the bands the Pistols inspired more, but this collection of songs was a great starting point. Good Punk primer, but comforting to know it gets better from here.

I’m that old I was at school at the time

There’s no denying the impact and influence of this record and band, especially from an aesthetic point of view, but The Damned’s “Damned Damned Damned” runs circles around this and every other UK punk debut record. (Plus, it came out before them all.)

Not a good album verry boring and a lot of the same the only goodbthing is that its short

- Johnny Rotton is a Zionist, assaulter, DA, and animal abuser. Plus the band has been involved in pedophelia and SA. Boycotting. - There are couple good songs on here, but most of them can't keep my interest for very long. I definitely prefer the Clash and Ramones. This one feels artificial and doesn't evolve at all.

all the songs sound the same :(

Just not a Sex Pistols guy

Nunca antes había escuchado a los Sex Pistols más allá de algún que otro tema de los más conocidos porque nunca creí que valiese la pena considerando todas las malas críticas fundadas hacia la banda. Decidí ignorar toda la mierda que los involucra y escuchar al álbum enfocándome únicamente en la música, y me sorprendió que realmente este grupo haya alcanzado semejante éxito con tan malas canciones. Tendrán un buen guitarrista, pero esto no los salva de sonar iguales todas las canciones, las cuales parecieran haber sido escritas por un adolescente insoportable que odia la vida y se cree superior al resto. Tengo más críticas, pero no ganas de escribirlas; sí tengo que dar mis flores cuando corresponde, y en este disco el único aspecto redimible es 'God Save The Queen', porque hablar en contra de la monarquía británica siempre es cuestión de mérito. Al menos puedo concluir que no me estaba perdiendo de nada relevante por no escuchar a los Sex Pistols. ↑: God Save The Queen, Problems, EMI ↓: No Feelings, Liar, Seventeen, Submission, Pretty Vacant, No Feeling

Maybe I’m extra rusty after a week off but I did not enjoy this at all. No light and shade, too much yelling. I accidentally had the album on repeat without realising because it all sounded the same and was glad to turn off when l realised.

I’ve known from a very young age that I didn’t like the Sex Pistols, but today I finally got the chance to listen to their music in full, also a chance for them to redeem themselves in my eyes. It turns out none of that happened. They have one album too many. I understand the influence they had, and I’m not trying to undermine that in any way, shape, or form. Having such an impact with a single album is an impressive feat, props to them. However, I can’t see the appeal at all. “Problem” doesn’t even sound like a word anymore after listening to Problems. The same can be said for other songs on the album. It felt like a personal attack on my English knowledge. On top of the very British pronunciation, every word is spat at me, for lack of a better description, so my Eastern European brain kind of short circuits every now and again.

Yeah that's a great punk album and it deserves the infamy. The energy on the album is conveyed perfectly, and there is variety!

One of my all-time favourites. Bought this within days of hearing it for the first time in a 3rd form music class (1980), when the teacher had asked us to bring along albums to discuss, or something. I'd brought in a couple of Rod Stewart LPs, and someone from a boarding house had this, probably borrowed from a 6th former. Blew me away. Still does. Great dinner music! (And I didn't buy Rod Stewart ever again.)

I'd forgotten how to good this album is. The first half is great, and the second half lifts off from there. It's one of those classic albums where the listening experience matches the legacy of it's influence.

You know that part of the movie Garden State where the manic pixie dream girl says that the Shins' song "New Slang" will change your life? How, kids, how? You want an album that actually *can* change your life? May I suggest *Never Mind The Bollocks* by the Sex Pistols, an atomic bomb of a rock 'n' roll record packed full of warped pop music powered by Steve Jones' brash electric guitar and featuring Johnny Rotten's fractured avant-garde vocal melodies. This is the kind of groundbreaking and exciting record that makes you want to jump around the room instead of just saying "it's nice".

A classic and it's contribution to the history of popular music incalculable. Thoroughly enjoyed giving this a spin once again.

This album changed music. And, at least to some degree, me. Essential.

Talent schmalent, these guys were placed on this earth for one reason, to be angry. They do it wonderfully, however as one dimensional as it makes them, it also makes them a great choice for those times when you feel like kicking something. This album has been credited with so many things, that I dare not get into but it is a ton of fun regardless of what's been said. "Anarchy In The UK", "God Save The Queen", "Bodies" and several other great songs appear here but I do have to say that I prefer The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle album more. Still this album has the sort of angry youth of a generation feel, and most of the songs are pretty much punk anthems and when you consider that they weren't really musically gifted they performed miracles by creating some of the catchiest snottiest stuff one is likely to hear. Pretty much every song is a classic, and I do highly recommend this but, I still prefer The Clash... Low 5.

I don't know what the hell was wrong with me in college when I tried to listen to this album and thought I didn't like it...this album RULES. Not sure how I resisted for so long, but it's so classic and formative to the global popularity of punk. Simple riffs, defiant lyrics, and sneering delivery make this an unforgettable listen. Favorite tracks: Holidays in the Sun, No Feelings, God Save the Queen

Sex Pistols on yhtye, johon mielestäni kiteytyy koko punk-genre. Managerinsa Malcolm McLarenin johdolla bändi järkytti koko englantilaista kansakuntaa törkeillä tempauksillaan ja rajuilla laulujen aiheilla. Myös suomalaiset moraalinvartijat pelkäsivät niin pahasti, että rääväsuilta evättiin pääsy keikkailemaan maahamme. Mutta ei Sex Pistols ollut kuitenkaan pelkkää tyhjää uhoa, vaan tämä bändin ainoaksi viralliseksi albumiksi jäänyt teos on vielä tänäkin päivänä helvetin toimiva rokkilevy. Soundit ovat oikein hyvät moniin aikalaisiin verrattuna ja asennetta ei tältä levyltä puutu.

My gosh I love this album. It is so raw and aggressive. An easy five for me.

I was turning 16 and finding life tough going, but then Punk happened, I heard “Anarchy”, bought the 7” single, “Pretty vacant” 7” I still have, and I have my original vinyl of “Never mind”. The Pistols were something completely different, and I loved it -after all that prog rock shit.

This is one of those rock sounds that I crave but can never find when I need it. I adore it. Hell yeah Sex Pistols

El Big Bang del punk rock global y un manifiesto estético e histórico que ha envejecido bien gracias a la vigencia de su rabia conceptual. En el plano de diseño formal, la producción sorprende por su rigor técnico: las múltiples capas de guitarras distorsionadas y la base rítmica configuran un entretejido que da claridad al asalto sonoro, proveyendo una nitidez e impacto que potencian la violencia del mensaje sin diluirla en el caos. La entrega vocal de Johnny Rotten prescinde de la técnica tradicional para proyectar una fuerza y calidez volcánicas que transmiten una autenticidad y autoridad superior indiscutibles, legitimadas por la pura disidencia callejera. Piezas fundamentales como "Anarchy in the U.K.", "God Save the Queen" y "Bodies" dan forma a un documento conmovedor, crudo y real que funciona como un potente llamado a la conciencia contra la complacencia social y la opresión sistémica. Un trabajo de inmensa carga disruptiva que, a pesar de su agresividad, posee una acelerada sensación de paz y fluidez en su urgencia rítmica, volviéndose óptimo para múltiples usos dinámicos en el día a día, destacando de forma excepcional para el ejercicio de alta intensidad o para sacudir el trabajo creativo de sus moldes habituales.

Never Mind The Review, Here’s The No Brainer

I bet old folks were super chill when this album came out. lol. 4.25/5

The worldwide birth of punk.

Learned to play guitar to this album years ago. It’s as visceral and relevant as it has ever been. Amazing to think that a bunch of teenagers could write something this influential. Will forever be in my top 5 albums of all time. Highlights are: Bodies Holiday in the sun EMI God Save The Queen.

Up theee with VU&Nico and Revolver for most influential albums ever. Whatever you think of them, and they don’t care, the impact alone makes it 5 stars.

there’s so much i could say about this album but to keep it short and sweet, fucking brilliant

Se las mamo.

Nothing but raw energy from Sid and Johnny Rotten….can only imagine what a live show was like 🎸🎸🎸

Classic. I listened to this record for about a month straight in high school. I don’t really care that they were sort of a 70s punk rock “boy band”, and I don’t really care that their shtick was to be edgy and shocking, or that Sid was a dogshit bassist. This record is all about energy and charisma for me. I love it. 9/10

#381/1001. Two moments in history: January 1978 Sex Pistols is denied permission to work (play) in Finland due to multiple complaints from political parties left and right, child care organisations and a hirde of journalists falsely claiming them to have criminal records, violent and drug abuse backgrounds, and their music consisting of distorted voice screeching out incomprehensible noise. January 2018 I am dining with my family at a local restaurant, the playlists spits out Anarchy in the U.K as any other regular song, no-one pays any attention. The original became banal already in their first album. Howerever it remains one of the most important albums of music history. Somehow, someone got cheated, but I don't know who.

i love this album. i find it pretty influential for many reasons: -the graphic design of the punk movement it's here a lot. and it was really influential, is so creative in how with this limited resources approach can make a style so iconic and influential. the lettering, the cover of the "God Save the Queen" single. And the colors, it's a choice so specific that transmits that rebellious acid energy -you can say what you want about the non-existent virtuosism or ability of the musicians here. same with the logical destination of a band so nihilistic and caothic. but you can't deny how important and influential was this sound and the political meaning of the punk movement. it's so radical, and i feel it stills holds a lot of importance. i think with the time, some songs have only more power in their vision of the decadence of the british empire -the energy here, how they sing and play it's sloppy, its half-singed. nowadays, a lot, if not much of the rock bands that play carry that energy and vision of performance. It's a standard that you couldn't see with other bands in the rock sphere in that decade, a distinctive style. it's interesting to me how this idea of a band being disruptive and chaotic became more normal with the time. not to say that they were the first or the only ones. but that they are distinctive. i find some songs iconic. i like the sound, is a short listen and it's not boring. ¿what else i could ask for?

One of those albums that I know every note, every vocal inflection, every sound. It was a good time to come back to it again. Bollocks still feels edgy and a wee bit scary, which is the whole appeal of Punk I think. There's a thrill in not knowing what might happen next, and Johnny Rotten will for SURE say something provocative, or absurd, or obnoxious. In the few years right after it came out, this was absolutely an attack on mainstream middle-class sensibilities (even in my mid-size middle American religion dominated town). This ended up being a huge influence on me, not neccessarily a good one, but in the grand tradition of questioning authority, this is a bellwether. Lyrically and musically, angrily challenging the status quo, transgressive just to shake things up, biting the hand that feeds you, all while (kind of ) inadvertently inventing a subculture. Or helping to do that, depending on which poser you talk to. The template for almost all the Punk that came after it. There are a few bands where SO MANY other bands said "I saw them, and I knew I wanted to make music after that." Along with The Beatles and The Velvet Underground you have The Sex Pistols. Changed my life, my thinking as a musician, and Rock and Roll itself. And catchy as hell.

Carnage from start to finish

I was obsessed with this band and this album as a late teenager. OBSESSED. This album is the ultimate example of a one and done. It hits you like a slap in the face, and has a vitriolic urgency that I still find thrilling all these years later, and then leaves. I know a lot of people hang it on the Sex Pistols for being a manufactured band, but to me that makes their story all the more fascinating and tragic. With all the support they had going for them they could't help but collapse under thier own weight. a good thing too, because if any band needed to burn out and not fade away it's these louts. Love 'em, love this album.