Metal Box

Okay, halfway through the first track, I'm already tired of this album. Not looking good. Into the second song... this album had to have been chosen out of a hat of random albums. This has no redeeming qualities as of yet. 4th song... what even is this mess? ... Just make it end. Dudes, I promise you can make a song shorter than 5 minutes. Seriously, you can even make a song under 3 minutes. Your songs would benefit from being cut down. A lot. Like by over half. Maybe just cut half of the songs on this album too. By half, I mean all of them. Just delete the album entirely. I made it to No Birds and have to throw in the towel. There is nothing good or redeeming about this album. If these recordings were destroyed, nothing of worth would be lost.

After listening to parts of the first 6 tracks I have concluded that the atrocious vocals make the record completely unlistenable. The instrumental parts aren't great either - partially OK but too repetitive to sustain interest throughout an entire track. I also gave the previous PIL album 1 star, and hope this was the last one.

I want to like this more than I do. It’s heavily indebted to a music I love, like Can and others in the Krautrock scene. As I listen, though, I’m reminded of conversation I once had with a co-worker regarding my ambivalence towards Radiohead, despite their appreciation of Can. My coworker said to me, “It’s surprising that you’re not a big Radiohead fan, because they’re really influenced by Can”. My response, exaggerated in order to make a humorous point, was, “I appreciate the influence Can had on them, and I don’t think Radiohead is bad, but saying that I should love Radiohead because they’re influenced by Can is a bit like saying I should love Whitesnake because they’re influenced by Led Zeppelin”. We both laughed. That’s more or less how i feel about Public Image Limited, I appreciate where they’re coming from, but it doesn’t really hit the mark for me.

Did I hate this? Oh yeah, you bet. But was I also fascinated by it? Indeed. And isn't that was avant-garde post-punk is all about?

***On Spotify the album is called Second Edition*** There's something very off-putting about this album, and I couldn't wait for it to end. The songs are too long and the vocals are really terrible new wave style. On the other hand the Bass and Drums really stand out and I feel like they greatly inspired Modest Mouse in their rhythm section. If that rhythm group had a better frontman I think I would have really liked this, but sadly it really dragged things down. Almost gave a 2 for the positives I could find, but drops back to a 1 because this album is looooooooong and it's just brutal to sit through.

"Metal Box" is the second studio album by English post-punk band Public Imaged Ltd. The music is considered experimental rock, dub, avant-garde and a landmark of post-punk. The album was a departure from their first album being more avant-garde with vocalist John Lydon's cryptic, free-form lyrics, bassist Jah Wobble's dub-inspired rhythms and guitarist Keith Levine's abrasive guitar sound. It was recordered at various locations throughout the UK with multiple drummers. The album title was from the initial packaging which was a metallic canister containing three 12" 45-rpm records. Commercially, it reached #18 on the UK charts. A drum beat begins "Albatross." Here's your abrasive guitar- very high pitched, prancing along and at times off-key sounding. The song was recorded live with Lydon admitting he just free-formed the lyrics. Somehow, this works. A slow bass, an echoing guitar and a hypnotic dance beat introduce us to "Swan Lake (Death Disco)." Lydon screaming/singing as he tells about the death of his Mother from cancer. Levine said he was trying to play the Tchaikovsky ballet score "Swan Lake" and created an extremely unique melody. It's chaotic. A fantastic song and for me, the first song I think of when I hear post-punk. "Poptones" has an odd drum beat. The abrasive metallic guitar and prodding bass in the background. Lydon talking the real story of a girl kidnapped, put in a van and led the police to the van after describing the music which the van still had the cassette of in it. Levine's guitar melody was created as he was inadvertently playing Yes' "Starship Trooper." The band goes totally electronic in "Careering." A propet synth was used and we get laser sounds, sounds from outer space and other sounds. The song is about a Nothern Irish gunman "careering" as a professional business man in London. Lydon wrote this specifically about a person he did not like. That's probably quite a lot of people. This is a great album. The guitar gives a haunting, eerie, angular and abrasive vibe. The drums, beats and bass are odd and unique. Lydon seems to be improvising throughtout and he admitted as such. I like the one comment I saw describing it as subterranean. There's a lot of experimental songs and parts of songs especially with the synths. I honestly don't know if I heard anything before or after it quite like it. I'm sure there's something. Definitely not for everyone but if you like experimental, this is probably for you.

Absolute classic. Get the highest quality headphones you can lay your hands on & listen to some of the best bass playing you'll ever hear.

When he sang "You are unbearable" on the first song, I felt that. 1/5

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. There's music that’s discordant in an edgy, strangely hypnotic way (which this is some of the time), and then there are downright tuneless, repetitive dirges (which this album veers into a bit too often).

Absolute rubbish! John Lydon’s vocals are excruciatingly bad. The backing music might actually be good for all I know, but John’s incessant caterwauling drowns it all out. Never heard a worse album in my life, and I’ve listened to Duck Stab.

I guess the people who hate this are just away to listen to their pop tones. Yes, the songs are long. Long songs are cool. I ask you, how else can you get swept up into the intense groove of it all if the song's finished after 3 minutes??! I also don't understand people complaining about the vocals, like you wouldn't expect that dry sheet going in? However, any humour present in the Rotten-era persona has been extracted, made colder, like the cold metal exterior. 1979 was so mental. Punk luminaries such as The Damned and The Clash made great albums this year, but they were still recognisably punk, together with other influences. This, this is...what? Utterly unrecognisable from the sound they were making a year earlier, and utterly unlike pretty much anything else. Speaking of Poptones, that's just incredible. The bass, the rhythm. The insistent dread. Intentionally unsettling, and genius.

John Lydon had abandoned punk when he left The Sex Pistols and had already pioneered post-punk with PiL's debut album 'First Issue'. Here, the band fully embraces the avant-garde. This is particualarly evident in Lydon's bizarre (and slightly off-putting) vocal style. The original packaging, while being novel, actually created (intentionally?) a frustrating experience where listeners struggled to get the records out of the tin case. German band Can is a major influence here though not 'Metal Box' isn't as good as Can's best work. The hero of this album is bassist Jah Wobble. Bassists don't usually get that much praise, but his dub rhythms come out in full force on this album. If anything keeps the listener engaged, it's Wobble. This album also introduces PiL's fantastic drummer, Martin Atkins, though only on one track as he joined in the middle of recording. Overall, this record will annoy a lot of people. It's not something you'd play at a party or a relaxing Sunday afternoon. But it's an interesting one and there is some brilliance among the weirdness of it. A landmark post-punk album.

Well this was truly a difficult one to review. An incredibly eclectic mix of sometimes impenetrable music with a distinctive bass guitar running over every track. Some people hate Lydon's vocal style, but that wasn't a problem for me, partly because I knew what to expect. He drones where he needs to and is off-key in the "right way" throughout, so fine so far. My main problem here is that I knew I had dipped into PIL before many times and always come away bitten. I love their hits, with "This is Not a Love Song" being one of the first songs I ever heard that made me realise music didn't just have to be people singing in harmony about elves and shit. This was similar, with the opener, "Albatross", being almost an endurance test. However, I also found a lot to enjoy here, difficult to listen to at times, but also fascinating to see where so many bands got their ideas from. Did later bands do it better? Probably, but then this is some of the rawest, most experimental, and ground-breaking music from the late 1970s. I think I would naturally give this a 2-3 star rating, but it's definitely on my list to listen to again and I'm going to give it a tactical 4 stars, just to nudge the average up a tiny bit from all the 1s given by people who can't appreciate anything out of their comfort zone.

Shout out to bassist Jah Wobble, the only need the radar star of this album. I like the album quite a bit, especially the aforementioned bass as well as the drums. I feel the proto punk sound in my bones. The most unfortunate part is that I’ll likely not listen to this album again because I could only find it on YouTube.

I simultaneously did not know what to expect and knew exactly what to expect. And I was simultaneously right. And I was disappointed by both.

I hadn't heard this album before. I only knew a couple songs from PiL's more commercial 80s days. Holy crap was I missing out. As soon as "Albatross" started playing, my immediate reaction was, "Oh, so that's where Siouxsie and the Banshees got their guitar sound from. And also where Ian Curtis of Joy Division got his singing style from, and where Joy Division/New Order got their electronic sound from." The Sex Pistols changed music in a huge way with their 1976 Manchester show. Without that show, we might not have had the Banshees, Joy Division, the Smiths, The Cure, and so many other giants of post punk (and goth), let alone all the bands those groups inspired themselves. Likewise for The Clash's (PiL guitarist Keith Levene's former band) influence on music. After SP disbanded, Johnny Lydon went on to form PiL. This is very different from the Sex Pistols or The Clash. In a great way. It's much more experimental, less one note than the punk that SP put out—don't get me wrong, I like SP, but if you've heard one of their songs you've pretty much heard them all. The guitar on this album is crazy. The bass lines are nuts. The lyrics and the dark pre-goth, pre-industrial atmosphere on songs like "Careering" and "Bad Baby" sound way ahead of their head time (I realize both the Banshees and Joy Division had already released albums when this came out, but it's difficult to disentangle who inspired who at this point). The digital-sounding effects on "Socialist" are mind blowing. This album is basically everything I love about post punk. So so good. 5/5

Day 100 Once again I had to pause the challenge as this is really a difficult record. Strangely enough, it is the kind of album that could blow my mind, the sort of thing that sounds as damaged that it would be easy for me to relate to it, but apparently I am not at that stage of my life anymore. I get the experimental approach and everything, but I also feel that I have heard it all, probably in later and less influential albums that in turn might have been influenced by this band. Having said that, there is a lot of musicianship, ideas, and variety here to keep the open-minded listener engaged. Rating: All the points have distortion and feedback. 

No Johnny, No. The last song made this escape a 1 star.

Pleasantly surprised. Truly captured the post-punk vibe and made a blueprint for all the bands that followed. I had to go to YouTube music to find this in streaming format and im not sure why it is not available ( record company dispute?) but it is an important album and a great listen.

There is really nothing like this album. If you want to talk about something you should hear before you die, it’s this wildly unique blast of sounds. Every time I listen to this one I hear something new or I hear a snippet of another band this influenced. Albatross and Poptones are my favorites, both are so stark futuristic and nihilistic, but almost all the song are great (the exception being the somewhat annoying The Suit). The close out Radio 4 was my new favorite this time around, reminiscent of Angelo Badalamenti’s work on Twin Peaks. One of the more astonishing things about this album is that John Lydon basically tore down everything you knew about him from the Sex Pistols, he is almost unrecognizable from his punk guise. The guitar work is also fascinating, it drives the dystopian soundscape that permeates through the whole album. This one is important.

Obviously great, and a fun companion piece to all the whinging people do about basically any remotely challenging album in the reviews.

Public Image Ltd. (or PiL with this release) have been a major figure in Post-Punk although their commercial success wasn't as strong as Joy Division or Television. Like the Velvet Underground & Nico and Sticky Fingers by the Rolling Stones, the design of the packaging was something really special. Unlike the ones I've mentioned this wasn't designed by Andy Warhol and not even released as a standard 33rpm 12' LP. Instead the songs were printed on 3 12' 45rpm LPs. Freaky, I know. Sadly this design was UK only. Other issues in other countries were simply called 'Second Edition'. (Booooring!) The album slickly combines Post-Punk, Punk, Experimental Rock as well as some Noise Rock, Disco and Dub. This combination might sound and feel weird but that is exactly what they were going for as it was pushing the sound of Punk even further. The album starts with the 10 minute monster 'Albatross' with its repetetive riff and the abstract and ominous lyrics and distant vocal style that together make this an atmospheric and anxious listen. A perfect opener for such an experimental and dark album. In the end of that song the vocalist switches the style he used as the lead vocalist in the Sex Pistols, contradicting the dark and echoey vocal style from before. It is, in my opinion, the best song on this album and there is a case to be made that this is pretty close to the greatness of 'Marquee Moon'. That vocal style gets used again for 'Memories'. I have to say that I am not the biggest fan of that vocal style, mainly because it feels so alike to the Sex Pistols and I feel that vocal style works only with Punk Rock and not so much with their Post-Punk style. Still, the song is fantastic instrumentally especially the high pitched guitar. 'Swan Lake' pushes the energy even further. I prefer a lot over 'Memories' because this is much more focused on the rythmn section and the bass sticking out even more. A perfect example of Dance-Punk and Mutant Disco (yes this genre actually exists). The second LP opens with 'Poptones'. A very hypnotic song that even features a tiny little bit of Post-Rock. It is noisy and builds up a suspenful tension with the listener over the 7 minutes of playtime. It's really good especially because the build tension gets really anxious half-way through, a point where you'd expect it to loose the listeners interest but no it keeps it perfectly. I'm just not the biggest fan of all the things "around" of it although the chorus is pretty funny. 'Careering' has a lot of groove and the added synthesizer, the abstract drums and the final build-up make this a great tune. Especially the misanthropic vocals really add a layer of emotional depth to this very suspenful track. 'No Birds' is much less "noisy" than the other songs. The melody is also much more conventional? It's not really but compared to the rest... This feels very emotionally empty but in a good way. I don't mean that there is not emotion in there, more like the that someone's lost all their emotion and that it's empty now... No birds that fly around. And that is undermined by another very dark sounding song. With 'Graveyard' the noise returns already with the guitar that stings you with its first notes. The abrasiveness and the groovy instrumental nature of this really make this stand out to me. The last disc opens with 'The Suit', a much slower song that because of that looses my interest very fast. It's not bad at all and I love the bass but there isn't anything other to catch on for me. But I do have to appreciate the dark lyrics that with a bit more enthusiasm would make this song much more interesting. I also like the "thrown-in" avant-garde piano that plays for just a couple of notes and then disappears. Funny thing. 'Bad Baby' is better by a bit. The weird vocals that sound like they were sung drugged up as well as lots of ominous sounds both do a slighty better job in achieving what the album intends with its chaotic songs although it isn't anything too special compared to the rest of the album. The albums finale is a 12 minute song split into three parts. The streaming releases do split the song into each part but 'Socialist / Chant / Radio 4' was intended as one piece. 'Socialist' starts fast-paced with synthesizers that make the sound you would expect in a sience-fiction spacecraft. The drums are also really interesting as the sometimes feel "edited"? As if someone put them into a synthesizer itself and then sometimes changed the sound a little bit. It kinda freaks me out. 'Chant' is the one with vocals but to be honest, they get annoying very fast. I would've prefered it to be instrumental with that awesome guitar and just the ad-libs sometimes in the background. But the build-up to the repeating "Chant, Chant, Chant" is worth it. 'Radio 4' is a mix between their typical style (mainly bass and noise at the end) but added classical instruments and a kind of ambient sound. It sounds like the outro to a majestic movie and in a way this album is. There is a lot to get out of the album and it obviously was very influential but I think I have to give this album some time until I can really appreciate it but for now: Great but not perfect. favourites: Albatross, Swan Lake, Graveyard, Poptones least favourites: The Suit, Bad Baby, Socialist / Chant / Radio 4 Rating: decent 8 https://rateyourmusic.com/~Emil_ph for more ratings, reviews and takes

Not much better than their other album I listened to, I guess it’s more miserable. It’s still just meh.

Metal Box is the second studio album by Public Image Ltd, originally released in 1979. I'm an American so I feel as though post punk music would truly hit different for me if I was British. A lot of these bands' lyrical content revolve around British life and the tongue-in-cheek stuff doesn't land for me most of the time. Anyways, I just learned that this band was Johnny "Rotten" Lydon's post Sex Pistols project. Had no idea. I previously got PiL's first record on this list, so getting Metal Box today made me decide to revisit it. Metal Box is pretty damn different than First Issue. It's a lot more ambient, you could tell the influence of New Wave was on the horizon. It's also more "deconstructed" in a way. The guitar on Metal Box acts as more of a background texture instrument, whereas on First Issue the guitar is more upfront, distorted, and driving. The songs are bass and drums heavy. And oh man the bass on here. Really reminds me of dub greats like Lee Perry. I did have some problems with this record, though. Lydon's vocals can get annoying at times. They're also way back in the mix so I can't really make out some of the lyrics. Some of the songs meander as well and devolve into jamming for half the track. Maybe all of that is the point, though. Am I not genius enough to "get it" completely?

It had everything to be a good Post Punk album, but the vocalist gives me the impression that he is eternally falling down a staircase while singing! Although the instrumentals are very good, it was painful to listen to until the end. I'll leave 2 stars.

Here’s one that I’m happy to leave far behind in the rear view mirror. Not my thing. Tedious. It went on far too long.

A tough listen

All you hear are poorly produced drums and everything else is squeezed into like one channel and sounds horrible.

I should like this, but I don’t. The overly ambitious concept and bloated track lengths make it quite a chore to get through. I appreciate the genre and the band’s contribution to the scene at the time, but I think there are much better albums in this vein that I prefer listening to instead.

You can call it experimental and influential and groundbreaking all you want but for me this was a pretty boring hour of my Saturday. 3/10

Could this be the worst vocal performance of all time? Shit vocals are part of the punk aesthetic... but this is not punk, so what's the excuse? Saved by the last few instrumentals.... and the bass all the way through.

I try to approach every post-punk album on this list (today marks number 75!!!) with a fresh mind. I consciously try to drop off all my baggage from the last 74 albums at the door and start a new relationship with a new album. For the first, like, 45 seconds I was really into this! Good bass lines and interesting synth compositions. And then the singing starts and it is a FUCKING NIGHTMARE... I enjoyed the last track or two because they were entirely instrumental. Shut up this man.

I wanted to like it. I didn't.

Great instrumentals combined with some of the worst vocals you can imagine. I know post punk isn't know for great vocalists but come on

Best Song: Socialist. At least it grooves. Worst Song: Bad Baby. Just an absolutely fucking dreadful vocal performance. Overall: Mostly junk. Marginally more listenable than the other Public Image Ltd. album on this list, but only because of a few nice (but not extraordinary) riffs. It is a mess of barely conceived ideas haphazardly slapped together. The musicians seem uninterested in playing well or together, and everything just kind of dithers about until it ends. I hate the hubris of these dorks who dispassionately fuck around on their instruments for an hour and call it a day. Aimless. I just don't get it. Which drugs are necessary to enjoy this junk?

Meh

I adore long songs, but not this crap - this album could’ve been an email

I didn't care for it, but I'm sure it was influential for other shitty music

I think this is rubbish. Weak out of tune vocals over boring, repetitive instrumentation. I am genuinely baffled by how highly regarded this album seems to be.

I unashamedly love this. It's genius. Though I totally get why it's rated so low on here, I don't think it's for everyone. I can see John Lydon's vocals as a sticking point but I've always thought he was unique to the point of greatness. For the people who do connect with this for one reason or another, it's just brilliant. I can't even describe why I like it, there's just something about it that seems so far ahead of its time and wonderfully arranged and produced. As others have said the bass is fantastic throughout. I wouldn't ever throw this record on to just have it play in the background, I'd want to play this when I'm in a certain headspace and sit and listen to it. It would be a really good record for driving. Like maybe hour 2 or hour 4 of a 6+ hour drive. Anyway, this is an unexpected 5/5 for me.

Loved it

Yes

I have to say at the time I wasn't a fan of PIL but listening to this now 35 years later it's really good. Drawing on a lot of stuff that had already been going on- experimental, Throbbing Gristle and other early Industrial music it's actually quite enjoyable. Lydon is a genius that much is true now. At the time he wasn't appreciated for what he was doing.

Groovy, repetitive and hypnotizing. The bass playing is phenomenal throughout the whole thing -- Jah Wobble is king. I adore Keith Levene's metallic, shrieking guitars that threaten to cut you in half. Lydon's ragged and sickly vocals fit this record perfectly. A true wonder on all fronts.

How to write a review of Metal Box? Try to defend it from it’s detractors, make a comparison to other Avant-Garde music, place it into historical context, make jokes? I don’t think any of that matters. If the music isn’t for you, it isn’t for you. I can’t stand Michael Jackson’s big albums, but they’re all very highly rated on here. In the reviews of those, I didn’t disparage, I made what I thought were salient points about the quality of the music as I experience it. Metal Box is supposed to be difficult, and yet despite it’s uncompromising nature and bleak sound, it is often hauntingly beautiful in it’s own way. It is the sound of anxiety and of anger, the Id lashing out at a world that isn’t listening. Lydon’s lyrics are brief snapshots of the inner working of his mind, with everything from observations about people he knows (Albatross) to musings about news stories he’s read (Poptones) to reminders about his schedule (The Suit.) Nothing but snapshots of thoughts, scattershot, meaningless, random, ephemeral yet eternal. Where else are you going to get a listening experience like that than with the Avant-Garde?

The power of repetition. Five stars, obviously.

Grinding, paranoid, relentless, utterly beautiful. Many imitators, but the sound was born here! I could listen on repeat for hours.

Metallic guitar sounds and cold, mechanical bass-lines permeate this record. The vocals drone on with intensity and relentlessness that bring you into the dark sonic world that has been constructed. It is disorienting and unsettling but at the same time hypnotic and groovy thanks to the incredible bass slinking all across the record. Definitely will be too abrasive for many, but for me, the atmosphere this record brings is undeniable. It's not something you'd throw on all the time, but when you do, it WILL drag you into its distorted world, whether you like it or not.

Чувствую себя прямо экспертом, когда дело касается PIL и этого альбома в частности (Rip it up and start again-core!) Это великий альбом, и вероятно самый важный альбом в пост-панк поджанре. Это альбом, который представляет собой всю суть пост-панка не просто как коллекции музыкальных клише, но в самой своей идее. Пост-музыка! Лучшая песня - Albatross.

This shit is ground breaking and interesting. I didn’t love every track, but overall it’s so good it can only get 5 stars. I would totally buy this on vinyl.

Beautiful atonal caterwauling atop avant dub post punk. Fearless.

Ngl, this is dope. I mean, I love noise rock and unhinged goth shit, so take that into consideration obviously, but yeah. I'm actually a little surprised I had never listened to this before, it's definitely way up my alley. The vocalist is definitely going to be an acquired taste (or not lol), but the bass playing and drumming here is absolutely sick, and the guitar player is unhinged and wild (so also pretty sick). Add in the occasional weird synthy tones and there you go. I'm giving this an instant based/5, but again... Fan of The Fall here. Not for everyone lol

Post-punk masterpiece. The jangly, funky tunes are of course excellent, but when the looseness and seeming disregard for tonality become transcendent, particularly on “Poptones”, is when the album really shows it’s colours. Great effort by all the players, Jah Wobble’s bass standing out especially. Punk’s not dead!

Listened to this before and I didn't like/get it. I love it now. The bass lines are catchy, punchy, and the squad loves to go in different sonic directions. Fun n great

I like some avant garde in my post punk

john lydon consistently surprises me with how many great tracks I've never heard of from him, not that I knew that many to begin with. But shit this was great, dragged here and there but I had lots of fun so 5 stars

I don't love everything about this album, but it sounds like very little else from that time. Lots to commend it, especially the strange mash-up of Krautrock and dub. A line in the sand. I don't think it's an exaggeration to suggest that Metal Box can upend - even if temporarily - your notion of what popular music can be.

Legendary post punk k album that soon sounds fresh. Their career highlight by far

Important early alternative....

I generally liked this more than I expected. I liked most of these tracks but sometimes they went in way too long and other times John Lydon’s voice is too grating for me. Other times it totally worked for me. Like a mix of the Fall, the Birthday Party and Joy Division.

Starts off so abrasive and disjointed, but after a couple songs you sink into it and this is actually a damn quality album. Really keen to have another few listens, I feel it will only get better. The only PiL album I'd listened to in full before this was "Happy?", which I found to be fairly mid, so this was a really nice surprise. 4.5/5

Idk why I had such a negative opinion of these guys going in. This album was solid. Vocals like a less ridiculous talking heads with the punky/pre new wave instrumentals make for a good, almost trippy, yet stoic mix.

I hated it. I tolerated it. I thought it interesting. I really liked it. That’s my summary of listens #1 through #4 of this album. Who knows what the ceiling is?

A great album that is something post-punk'ish, post-rock'ish, funky, groovy and still something you could also see Bauhaus or New Order doing if they'd a bit happier. While not everything works on the album it still really deserves to be on this list for that rhythm section alone!

great album

I like the punk stuff from that era - but this is a bit too much for me. But I can notice how it influenced bands like System of a Down

A quite unique sound that is mostly amazing but sometimes disappears up it’s own arse!

achei que tivesse colocado na minha playlist de musica gótica por engano nossa eu adorei esse album 5 estrelas (2a música) pegada the smiths gotico estranho esquisito post punk pulei the suit muito post punk pra mim n gostie de chant

This album a bit of a difficult listen, but when I gave it my full attention I found that I liked it. I doubt I'll listen to it again often but, for the right frame of mind, it's a good album.

You've gotta admire these guys. John L had been at the peak of Sex Pistol notoriety, and could just have continued as the crown prince of punk. But no. Joining up with Wobble and Levene, they struck out in an entirely new direction., creating one version of Post-Punk. OK, not everything worked. Like Capt Beefheart, there is much kudos in trying something new, and looking back and seeing how much of later music followed in their footsteps. Metal box is like that... it's now difficult to see just how jarring it was to the music establishment. Good on you guys.

A tough one. Would you be following my reviews, you'd see that I'm really not keen on all this (post) punk business whose main raison d'etre seem to have been to shit on the giganto rock of the earlier 70ies and to replace the musicianship with edgy, performative nonsense and willfully dumb vocals. But this isn't somehow that. Oh, it bears all the hallmarks of it but it's also a continuation of music that existed before it. Krautrock, both the groovy and weird kind. And - this is going to be a stretch but - maybe even The Doors. On heroin. Or on *more* heroin, all of them. Did I enjoy "Metal Box"? Phew. But in parts, yes I did. It surely was interesting. In line with my usual review practice, I would almost give this 5 stars - I listened to it a lot since it came up yesterday - but there are twothree tracks on it which are the worst. Of everything.

Een taaie, maar zeker het luisteren waard. Het andere album van public image vind ik absoluut niet te harden. Hier hoor je de kraut invloeden die mij wel stemmen. Lange, monotone nummers, en toch interessant. Je moet ervan houden, en dat doe ik. Heb niks met de sex pistols, vooral om deze guy, vind dit een stuk leuker.

Stone cold classics from a punk era that was fading into the 80s.

Having never been a fan (and certainly wasn't one back in the day) and have not much patience or poseurs like Lydon in general, one didn't know this record which is more interestingly vibes-y than one expected and much more engaging than the earlier work (inclusive of Sex Pistols) and later work (the more lurid, dancier, less serious PiL to come). This is expansively dark and droning, with major Joy Division vibes and early Cure (which probably means rotten Johny might be due more credit as an influencer than one has been historically inclined to give him). It's a plus that the yodel-y vocals are de-emphasized and sublimated here to the industrial-tending-with-dub-overtones drum and bass foundation – that's the greatest contrast to the to the didactic and very talky first album, where Lydon's "singing" is almost as grating as his speechifying. It definitely goes on too long and descends into a not-great trough though the middle of the album ("Socialist" and "The Suit" are low points) and the sameyness will certainly wear on certain types of ears. Still, strong overall with a (dare one say it considering the frontman) sort of understated focused on a shadowy aesthetic. "Radio 4," the mournful, churchy closer seems just about the least-PiL-ish thing PiL ever recorded (no wonder one likes it). One is inclined to quibble with 2 PiL records on this esteemed list; this would certainly be the one to keep.

I took a second attempt at this. I first played it in my shitbox car, on its shitbox stereo. I was fully prepared to write it off as an abysmally produced album. Honestly, I started to question everything about it. It sounded like I was listening to it from 2-3 metres away as it leaked out of somebody else's headphones. The tinny and hollow-sounding hi hats and cymbals overwhelmed the whole experience, Lydon's voice sounded feeble and phoned in. After getting home and boring myself with a couple of hours playing Fallout, I queued it up to give it another go. Mainly because I didn't want to listen to Joan Baez, like I probably should given my couple of days of backlog with the project. And... Well! On a stereo system that cost approximately 5x as much as my entire shitbox car, I can tell you, there is bass here. Hefty geet wodges of it. There is nothing tinny or aggressively sibilant about the hi hats or the cymbals. And Lydon's voice control swings dramatically into focus. Between Nevermind the Bollocks and Metal Box, he had singing lessons. And you can tell. His enunciation is clear, his timbre is deliberate and his knows how to put power in. Yes, this album is a bit challenging. The tracks are too long, but there is a lot of experimenting in there which seems to have directly opened the door for later stuff. And bugger me, there are better things to do with your life than listen to FOUR HOURS of "special deluxe super edition". Do yourself a favour. Listen to the original track list, leave it at that. And listen to it on kit that can actually manage to distinguish between lows, mids and highs. I can't think of many albums produced with such dramatic clarity and separation between the instrumentation and the vocals. Each of them tend to do their own thing, slightly, which adds to the challenge, but it does mean that you can listen to a different album every time you put it on, and that's actually really quite fun.

brilliant

Amasing start

It's very fun lyrically. Kind of stuck musically, but at least it's stuck somewhere interesting and atmospheric.

Really strange sound but not bad.

Lots of hate in the reviews for this album, buy I enjoyed this. I listened to it twice back-to-back.

Listened to this one straight through back to back. While I don't love it in all respects, I respect all of it. There was a lot of range on here, going from sprawling post-punk (Albatross) to dancy pop-punk (Memories) and dub-inspired (Careering). Plenty of throbbing bass throughout, and while the vocals were often polarizing, I enjoyed most of it. I will say that certain aspects here remind me a bit of LCD Soundsystem (Swan Lake in particular). All said, this was mostly enjoyable even if it did at times feel like it was dragging. For that, I give it a soft 4.

You know, I can see why people wouldn't like this. I don't like the sex pistols at all but this I can get behind. It's weird, spooky, different and that's what I want my music to be.

I like PiL, and I like the genre overall, but I’m not sure why this would be an essential Post-punk album. It’s pretty good, but Entertainment!, Real Life, or Jane from Occupied Europe are all better and more interesting.

Weird but good

La première pièce particulièrement me fait penser à Joy Division. La recherche formelle, l'acuité des sons (synthétiseurs) en fait un projet à l'écoute de lui-même, moins dans l'ouverture immédiate. C'est singulier et cohérent.

It takes some (post-punk) nerve to start your second album with the most overlong, repetitive improvisational dirge within its tracklisting. Very much a second hand version of the sorts of cold, hopeless soundscapes Joy Division had specialized in during those late-seventies years, "Albatross" never soars in the course of its 10 minutes indeed. Instead, it stays stuck to the rotten ground, eliciting an ill-at-ease response at best. This opener bordering on parody is definitely not a proper way to welcome your listener. Fortunately, the rest usually fares far better if you're interested in experimental grooves that are admittedly unsettling, and yet often evocative--the sort of groove fitting to a society of misfits living in desolated warehouses after the apocalypse. The first half of this album is especially notable in that regard. "Memories" is a somewhat intense cut where the record truly hits its stride. "Swan Lake" builds up its own noisy mayhem around the famous Tchaikovsky leitmotiv--an ironic borrowing that blurs the line between catchiness and a total mockery of it. And while "Poptones" and "Careering" explore moodier territories, subsequent tracks like "No Birds" manage to liven up the proceedings a little (if you can consider demented howls over cranky noises a proper option to liven things up). The last half of the album is less memorable, but it often succeeds in pulling the rug from under your feet (those stylistic changes) while keeping you on your toes (the tension remains in spite of those 180-degree turns). Which is quite a feat, you gotta admit it. :) PIL inherit from all sorts of influences here, from punk to Can to dub to musique concrete. But their sound is unmistakably theirs. They admitted a large part of this album has been "improvised" or written on the spot as they booked late-nights sessions between other bands in the studio (the famous metal packaging came first, what music would turn out to be was only considered later). But somehow, the artful pretense worked out in this case--even if not totally--the 10/10 or 5-star reviews feel a little unwarranted in 2024. But the overall proposition still holds water today, given how vital the current post-punk scene feels like. Of course, one can't write a small review of this record without saying a few words about the individual contributions of PIL's key members at the time. Jah Wooble's dub basslines are often mesmerizing. David Levine's slashing guitar lines and overall sound are both spooky and groundbreaking. And of course, there's John Lydon. Yes, the public persona of the former Sex Pistols is 'obnoxious' in all the worst meanings of the term today. He is a "reactionary" fool, an old man yelling at clouds. But maybe the man has always been a fraud after all. The thing is, in this record (as in the Pistols' *Never Mind The Bollocks* and a couple of other PIL albums), the fraud manages to convince you he is the best thing that could have occured to punk and its later offshoots. And you just need to be somewhat open-minded for this miracle to happen. The sort of miracle that didn't happen on this app, given the small global score *Metal Box* received, admittedly. My score is different: 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list, rounded up to 4. 8.5/10 for more general purposes (5+3.5). Number of albums left to review: 160 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 362 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 212 (including this one) Albums from the list I won't include in mine: 269

Ja, för fan.

This, flowers of Romance and Album are all great PIL albums. This may be the hardest to appreciate but I do like its self defining confidence. Maybe what the Pistols could have been conceptually, an attempt to reshape music in a way that pushed beyond what is considered marketable and pop yet still being sonically rich and wild in a way rock only attempts to be.

I cant explain it but this really works for me

4.25 Great!

Their first album was too similar to pistols and other pioneers (which the memebers of PIL were part of) and although good as an album it was jist the same music. This second album they went a bit further and really experimented with new sounds and new wave and its a great concept album with it raw punk roots. Its a wierd album but musically better and very innovative for the post punk movement. Liked this one a lot. First song is really bad but the second track makes up for that one

These guys do that freestyle Jazz thang where they fuck around and occasionaly make a 2 second moment of genius. You have to sit through a 9 hour song. Is it worth it yes, have a huge soft spot for John Lydon, nothing rational just glad its there.

Intriguing and irritating in equal measure, with an inconsistent sprinkling of genius. John Lydon can be an insufferable prick sometimes but when he's on form it really works (and when he's not, the rest of the band are easily good enough to carry the odd duff track).

Liked it more than I expected. Cool punk style and neat muffled bass sound

i tried listening to this album a year or two ago and gave up three songs in because it was so obnoxious. now im a pretentious music nerd so i love this. i think people overstate how unlistenable this is, the bass is so groovy it kind of allows the other aspects to be noisy in an enjoyable sense. my favorite song was probably poptones but every song rules honestly. 8/10

I liked this a lot more than I thought I would, the album has some catch pop/punk songs. I loved the swan lake version! Favourite song: memories and swan lake Least favourite: Its a long album with too many filler instrumentals. Album artwork: I have always loved the symbol for the band. Simple yet effective art work

You know what helped me get through this album? Pretending that its like disco without the dance! Wait, no, that defeats the purpose... oh, I know, its like System of A Down without the metal? No, that's not really accurate either. It's like... Real Life by Magazine but worse? Yeah, that's kind of it, but its certainly not bad, in fact I'd say its pretty good. It has this groove to it through most of the album thanks to Jah Wobble's bass playing, yet is still haunting due to its music seemingly looping over and over and over, as if you were stuck in a spinning ballroom straight out of the 80s, except its still the 70s and you have one of the most baffled sounding guys warbling in your ear for a good chunk of it, once again in the best of ways. Actually, even better, it just feels like being trapped inside of a cold, derelict tin can (emphasis on the Can with the repetitive nature of most of these tracks) while there's a party down the street, and you're yelling for help, but the party is too loud and your screams are futile. If I haven't sold you yet, this album probably is not for you, but I had a good time, even if it is too long by the end.

this is actually way better than i expected from public image ltd.. the first album i listened to was "public image: first issue" and i loathed every second of it. seeing that this was the album generated for me just a few days later was, in the moment, devestating, but to be honest, this was a very enjoyable listen! i ended up loving a LOT of songs on this album. radio 4 is the perfect way to end an album, it is so groovy. the whole tracklist made me want to start painting or drawing again- it revived my love for being creative! that's what a creative and thought-out album can do to someone, it can inspire them to do the things that they love. originally, i thought that this album wouldn't deserve a place on this list, but i was proven wrong. this was an amazing listen and i would recommend it to anyone who needs a little bit of something new in their life.

There’s a lot going on in this seminal post-punk album. It sounds like a hybrid of the Doors (mostly vocally) and Joy Division. There is a lot of experimental and Krautrock influence as well. I was pleasantly surprised to find John Lyndon fronting this band was was impressed with his musical versatility and embrace of experimental music as I only know him through his Sex Pistols persona. This album is disconcerting and challenging.

Solid stuff. A more out there and dancey version of Joy Division. Will revisit.