Metal Box

Pretty awful stuff. The first track is the worst, by far, but every song is just a repetitive bass line with plonking guitar and moaning vocals.

Did not have enough drugs with me to enjoy this

1.5

John Lydon is a prick but this album rules.

🎧Uncompromising and abrasive, to the point of being fairly irritating at times

## In-Depth Review of *Metal Box* by Public Image Ltd. **Metal Box**, the second album by Public Image Ltd. (PiL), released in 1979, stands as a monumental work in post-punk, renowned for its radical departure from punk orthodoxy and its profound influence on alternative music. This review delves into the album’s lyrics, music, production, themes, and influence, weighing its strengths and weaknesses. --- ## Lyrics John Lydon’s lyrics on *Metal Box* are abstract, cryptic, and emotionally charged, marking a significant evolution from his days as Johnny Rotten in the Sex Pistols. Unlike the overt sloganeering and direct attacks of his previous band, Lydon’s writing here is more introspective and elusive, often hinting at trauma, alienation, and existential dread. - **Personal and Oblique**: Tracks like “Albatross” and “Poptones” showcase Lydon’s move toward personal and impressionistic lyricism. “Albatross” opens the album with a sense of doom and repetition, while “Poptones” draws from a real-life crime story, using fragmented imagery to evoke paranoia and horror[4][2]. - **Grief and Loss**: “Swan Lake” (also known as “Death Disco”) is a raw, anguished tribute to Lydon’s dying mother. The lyrics are direct in their pain but filtered through Lydon’s unique, almost theatrical delivery, making the grief feel both universal and deeply personal[4]. - **Ambiguity and Distance**: Lydon’s words rarely offer clear narratives. Instead, they create an atmosphere of discomfort and ambiguity, pushing listeners to interpret meaning from the emotional intensity and sonic context rather than explicit storytelling[2][5]. **Pros**: The lyrics are emotionally resonant, original, and avoid cliché, adding depth and mystery to the album. **Cons**: Their opacity can alienate listeners seeking clear messages or traditional song structures. --- ## Music Musically, *Metal Box* is a radical blend of dub, krautrock, avant-garde, and post-punk, rejecting conventional rock forms for hypnotic grooves and abrasive textures. - **Bass-Driven Sound**: Jah Wobble’s bass is the album’s anchor, mixed unusually high and drawing heavily from dub reggae. His playing is melodic, relentless, and often trance-inducing, providing a foundation for the album’s experimentalism[5][2]. - **Guitar Experimentation**: Keith Levene’s guitar work is shrill, metallic, and unconventional. Using an aluminium Veleno guitar, he produces sounds that are more about texture and atmosphere than melody or traditional riffs. His playing is often described as “clangorous” and “untamed,” contributing to the album’s sense of unease[3][5]. - **Percussion and Rhythm**: The drumming, handled by various musicians, is tight and repetitive, reinforcing the album’s hypnotic quality. The rhythms borrow from krautrock’s motorik pulse and dub’s spaciousness, further distancing the music from punk’s aggression[4]. - **Synths and Soundscapes**: The closing track “Radio 4” introduces synthesizers, hinting at ambient and electronic influences that would become more prominent in later post-punk and new wave music[2]. **Pros**: The music is innovative, immersive, and influential, with a unique sound that remains fresh decades later. **Cons**: The lack of melody and traditional structure can make the album feel cold or inaccessible to some listeners. --- ## Production *Metal Box* was recorded with a sense of urgency and experimentation, and its production choices are as radical as its music. - **Packaging**: The original release came in a 16mm film canister, containing three 45rpm records. This packaging was both a statement of intent and a practical challenge, as it made the album physically unwieldy but visually iconic[4][5]. - **Mixing**: The production foregrounds the bass and allows space for each instrument, creating a sense of depth and claustrophobia. The sound is raw and unpolished, emphasizing atmosphere over clarity[2]. - **Atmosphere**: The album’s sonic palette is metallic, spacious, and often disorienting, with effects and reverb used to enhance the sense of alienation. **Pros**: The production reinforces the album’s themes and musical experimentation, making it a cohesive and immersive experience. **Cons**: The rawness and lack of polish may be off-putting for those accustomed to more conventional production values. --- ## Themes *Metal Box* is thematically dense, exploring alienation, grief, paranoia, and the breakdown of social and personal order. - **Alienation and Disconnection**: The music and lyrics together evoke a sense of being out of step with the world, reflecting Lydon’s own feelings of isolation after the Sex Pistols’ breakup and personal losses[2][4]. - **Grief and Trauma**: The album is haunted by loss, particularly in “Swan Lake,” which turns personal grief into a universal howl of pain. - **Societal Decay**: Songs like “No Birds” and “Careering” hint at political and social breakdown, though always in an oblique, impressionistic manner. **Pros**: The themes are powerful, universal, and handled with originality and emotional honesty. **Cons**: The lack of directness can make the album’s messages hard to grasp on first listen. --- ## Influence *Metal Box* is widely regarded as a foundational work in post-punk and alternative music. - **Legacy**: Its influence can be traced in bands as diverse as Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Manic Street Preachers, The Strokes, and countless others. The album’s use of dub, experimental guitar, and non-traditional structures opened new possibilities for rock music[1][3][4]. - **Critical Reception**: Though divisive at first, *Metal Box* is now considered a classic, frequently appearing in lists of the greatest albums of all time and cited as a touchstone for innovation in music[1][4]. - **Genre-Bending**: The album’s refusal to be pigeonholed has inspired generations of musicians to push boundaries and defy expectations[3]. --- ## Pros and Cons | Pros | Cons | |------|------| | Groundbreaking musical innovation | Can be inaccessible or alienating | | Powerful, original lyricism | Lack of melody and conventional structure | | Influential on multiple genres | Raw production may deter some listeners | | Cohesive, immersive atmosphere | Lyrics can be overly opaque | | Iconic packaging and presentation | Physical format was impractical | --- ## Conclusion *Metal Box* by Public Image Ltd. remains a towering achievement in post-punk, a work of uncompromising vision and lasting influence. Its blend of dub, avant-garde, and rock, combined with Lydon’s abstract lyricism and the band’s radical approach to production and packaging, make it a singular listening experience. While its challenges—opacity, harshness, and lack of accessibility—may deter some, its rewards are immense for those willing to engage with its depths. The album stands not only as a document of its era but as a blueprint for artistic reinvention and boundary-pushing in music.

Pfff, not my thing. I can hear the influences (LCD Soundsystem anyone?) but it's messy, but not in a good way. Oh, and i don't like Lyndon's voice.

Hyvää replay value hyvä albumi aijaijai

A wild ride in early post punk, almost industrial at times. I quite enjoyed it without thinking it was something I would be hooked into.

Just not good.

Loud and noisy

It’s not for me this style. I guess there is an appeal to the long winded, never ending, trance inducing drum/bass/guitar sections with whiny vocals but I just can’t get into it. The second track was actually lretty great but an anomaly…

How this trash ass group has another album on this list is beyond me. I hit play on track 1, and immediately knew this wasn’t going to the end. By track 3 I hit stop. Then I remembered they have been on the list before, and I pretty much had the same thoughts on that album. This list truly is filled with abominations that folks definitely should never listen to before they die.

Jag blir arg på att jag behöver lyssna på detta

Det var så där

Inte utan bra stycken men mycket oljud alltså

Not this one. But PIL is fantastic.

The packaging of this album is a metaphor for the record itself; Metal Box is a metal box. It's a clever and unique and attention-grabbing idea that hadn't really been done before, but it's really fucking hard to get into and difficult to play all the way through. I used to work in a second-hand record store, and physically handling a copy of Metal Box was a pain in the arse. The vinyl platters were only barely smaller than the lip of the container, separated by tissue paper, and at 10 minutes a side, you were constantly having to flip or change a disc. And to be perfectly frank, the music is equally hard to listen to. This is a document of an interesting band (Levene and Wobble in particular) jamming out improvised grooves with Lydon sneering over the top. Many of the tracks are first takes, made up on the spot. Lydon admits that they spent most of their advance on the packaging, so couldn't afford to produce and mix the album properly. So, this is a record monitor mixes of unedited improvisations, roughly thrown into some pretty attention seeking packaging. Wobble's dub bass playing, Levene's spiky metallic guitar and the krautrock inspired drumming (by whoever happened to be around) were really influential on post-punk, for which I am grateful, but let's be honest; this record sounds like rubbish. Does anyone listen to this for fun? It could have been so much better; compare to the contemporaneous album by the Pop Group 'Y', which plows the same field to much better effect, or Jah Wobble's 2021 re-recording of Metal Box, which is the same material, but well recorded. I feel slightly condescended to by John Lydon; he has served up an undercooked, poorly recorded set of rough demos, and expected me to lap it up. And if I don't that is _my_ fault for not being smart enough or hip enough to get it. I _like_ this sort of thing, I really do, but this album leaves me cold and uncomfortable. It's deliberately and uncaringly bad, and I lay most of the blame for that at the feet of John Lydon, who is not nearly as clever as he thinks he is.

Tinny and toothless post-punk. I'm sure it thinks it's being counter culturally dangerous but it's generally fairly boring. The production is awful too. Keep it in the metal box.Best Tracks: Albatross; Swan Lake; Poptones

Very difficult to listen to.Prefer Lydens voice when he was a Pistol

Give a 5 year old a microphone and a backing track of machine noise and you’ve recreated the first song. I considered bailing after the first song but am actually glad I didn’t. The rest of the album is hit or miss for me. One of the biggest distractions is that the mastering feels extremely all over the place. I want to say that was an artistic choice that pushed boundaries given the time and genre, but idk maybe that’s too generous. Through the discord I heard origins of bands I really enjoy today, many in fact who joined dischord records. Lol. “Poptones” and “socialist” are my faves.

Pass please

lol this sucked so bad

Looked up PIL’s Popular Tracks on Spotify halfway thru the first track, skipped ahead to sample Metal Box’s Swan Lake, and triumphantly turned this offffff Fool me once, PIL!!!!

The first song was awful, what followed improved to unmemorable.

wuh oh

Jag är inte sugen på att lyssna på John Lydon nu eller någonsin

Almost felt like listening to The Rapture, so yeah, I liked it.

Another great album from John and the lads

Borderline unlistenable and I'm someone who generally enjoys "avant-garde" music. Dissonant in ways that are just noise without any structure. It's like every member of the band is playing a different song while some guy whales and moans. If Pere Ubu sucked, this would be the album they would make.

edgy repetitive stuff.

Not for me. I wanted to like it because I often like avant-garde-ish stuff but this has no redeeming qualities to me.

Якщо колись і був альбом, який узяв панк, розібрав його до останнього гвинтика й зібрав наново в досі нечувану гіпнотичну та похмуру конструкцію — це Metal Box. На своєму дебютному альбомі, що вже був сповнений експериментів, John Lydon ще притримувався більш канонічного панк звучання, яке прийшло разом з ним з Sex Pistols. Натомість у своєму другому альбомі, він пішов у повний "відрив": звучання стало максимально незручним, психоделічним та дисонансним, додалися електронні краутрокові текстури, ритм став холодним та відстороненим. Тут немає "куплетно-приспівної зручності", лірика абстрактна та схиблена, і єдиним, що хоч трохи "вгамовує" увесь цей потік підсвідомості є теплі басові лінії. Навіть якщо ми подивимося на інший постпанк, що почав зародження приблизно у той самий час - Television, Magazine, Wire, врешті-решт Joy Division, то побачимо наскільки виразно від них усіх вирізняється Public Image Ltd. Якщо всі перераховані гурти та їх ранішні роботи були просто “ще одним після панковим експериментом”, Metal Box пішов значно далі, та став пращуром усього похмурого, рваного і мінімалістично-психотичного, що ми потім почуємо в нойзових речах від Sonic Youth, гранж сцені, та й у значно більш пізньому - гараж рок/постпанк ревайвл (The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs).

Trash. Annoying and droning vocals. How can this be something important? It is trash. Got to No Birds, and am leaving...

Le post-punk fait une entrée remarquée dans le top5 des pires genres de l'histoire de la musique.

This album sucks. In fact, it sucks so bad I listened to it twice just to hear what it was I don’t like about it. And it’s everything. I guess I was able to listen through it twice though and I believe that should count for something.

Good stuff but not particularly unique imo

Lost two full stars for the song Chant.

not quite joy division but a cool experience

This was another album where I really disliked it at first, but the longer I kept listening the more I understood its significance. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still grating and irritating to listen to at times, but I hear the inspiration for bands like Talking Heads and Pixies buried in the sludge that is long, droning avant-garde post punk. There’s something valuable to this record, and it’s the lessons other people took from it.

some parts of this album are kind of neat. some parts are unlistenable. the instrumentation is pretty cool but the vocals are really hit or miss. i gather that's sort of the point. obviously john lydon doesn't give a shit whether or not something is listenable. it was definitely interesting, but not something i'm particularly keen on listening to again. a one and done type of deal.

Album 775 of 1089 Public Image Ltd. - Metal Box (1979) Rating : 1 / 5 This was really bad. I read they influenced several top bands. I'm guessing they influenced them to not replicate this mess.

Hmmm at times the bass lines were interesting. But as songs or the project as a whole? Don't think so. I can't believe it's not butter https://youtu.be/7mSE-Iy_tFY

Never really did care for this

This album was a lot of fun. I had never heard of PiL before, but I love the experimental nature of Johnny Rotten's post Sex Pistols group. It's not always great, but it is always interesting.

Fav songs: Swan Lake; Poptones; Careering This album is fantastic. It's going on the list of albums I didn't know I loved until this list project.

PIL has always been a band that fascinated me. The politics of the lead singer is straight up punk and demands attention while the music itself is somewhat post punk/ industrial and just has something special in it that rises it above. I think if I remember correctly this is one of those bands that evolved and moved around genre with time. I wouldn't say they ever hit mainstream too hard and for me I think of them as a small club band, like the ones I used to go to in my "youth." The musicians keep it in that kind of small space groove and it never feels overproduced or made up for some other (commercial) purpose. Yeah, this is a good band, good groove. (Maybe for today a bit intense, dark, but PIL is PIL!

Noise

absolute trash

So I hated every song on this. There are worse albums out there, but boy are there better ones. If I never listen to another Public Image song in my life I'll feel OK about it.

2/5

I did not use a private session for this one. Lydon's voice matched the grating, annoying instrumentation. I didn't need to hear this, I don't want this.

Public Image Ltd are a well-polished machine that sound great on the album and were probably even better live. Brooding but eccentric post-punk with lots of driving riffs and beats. The bass was the star of the show for me, or at least the element that grabbed my attention the most. I don’t go crazy for this sort of post-punk band (I understand why some people do though), but the bass is usually fantastic in this genre.

Some pretty interesting noisy alt punk. I liked how droning the music was while the vocalist did stuff on top- like "Poptones" has an incredible bass line groove with the drums, and it makes for a really nice foundation for the shifting tones that the guitar and vocals place on top. Unfortunately after a few tracks of it it got a little grating, but luckily right around this mark (5-6 songs in), we get treated to some songs that are a bit different than the rest, like some dance-y proto emo, and some cool electronic exploration on "Socialist". I dug this, and I enjoyed not really knowing where it was going.

I can dig the bass and drums on some of these tracks. But the rest is god-awful.

They have another one on this list?! Good lord. The first one was murder to my ears...this one isn't much better.

Two days of avant-guard music and im beat

06/05/2025 This album should count itself lucky it's even getting 2 stars.

Execrable, interminable dirges. Absolute dogshit dreck. I won't go down to 1-star for it, as that's reserved in my mind for records I actively despise. This was close though!

Ugh. Awful. Overrated. Rotten.

Almost wilfully difficult. Half expected John L to start shouting "Exterminate!" during Chant. But I really enjoyed it. Quite a departure from the Pistols. Socialist is the standout track for me.

It’s not good! Atonal repetitive noise offset by short bursts of musicality. Ugly, repetitive and boring! They got better. Why the hell is this album on the list? Pick “Album” instead; this one is a No.

Just rotten

I like challenging music. I have the ability to listen to challenging music. Challenging music is in my wheelhouse. But I could not get into this. Very repetitive.

I did not love this album, but I recognize it's merit. It reminds me of an early version of the band HMLTD (another experimental British Punk Band). Best Songs: Swan Lake Worst Songs: Albatross, No Birds

This is like a bad garage band.

A hard to get to package, with a headstrong determination to continue their trajectory towards further hazy musicality, Metal Box (Second Edition for those who could not hack the tin without ruining the records) is the quintessential post-punk album. Public Image, Ltd. continued their bewildering yet invigorating journey away from the haphazard punk rock that defined John Lydon's irascible alter-ego, and his whole career, and delved deeper into impenetrable sounds unfathomable before and thus unsurpassed since. Whether or not it is the last great album of the 1970s is a debate for another time but what Metal Box/Second Edition captured was the decay that was plaguing Britain during a time of upheaval and soon-to-be selfish ideologies that would come to characterize their Conservative Party and this album was one of the many warning signs. Inevitably, the road taken here wound up being the farthest this iteration of Public Image, Ltd. would go as they'd disintegrate and take on the shapes that would be the opposite of what they had set out trying to be. But Metal Box/Second Edition remains in all its dented, nicked, rusted, inaccessible yet richly awarding glory, still scoring the atmosphere that sows seeds of discontent.

This is just a racket. I can either give it another spin to see if I can justify a second star or just give it one and move on with my life. Ok I gave it another spin and I’m giving it a second star because there’s some cool bass guitar work in there. The vocals are dire and every song is too long though.

An alright album but no real standout songs.

Not good, felt stressful, alot of tension build up with missing releases. Wikipedia has 'dance' as one of the genres of this album, im struggling to see how this is possible, unless possessed by some demons. 1.5

i want to like it but i really just don’t

Tolerable but no redeeming qualities

Bored, ngl

The metal theme is cool. I respect this stuff. I was really digging the bass, and then found out it was Jah Wobble playing - that explains it!! Unfortunately I have to rate this album a 2, even when they have other great stuff. My mum even had a PIL shirt when younger!

Great album

If this band fired their guitarist and singer and continued as a drummer/bassist duo they'd actually be really good

Complete

I've always had a soft spot for this band and hadn't really listened to this particular album. TBH, my initial listen wasn't all that profound. I decided I hadn't really listened to it. I turned the volume up and put it back on. On a second listen, I found it a bit more compelling. I think the key, honestly, is that the record came out in 1979. It was unusual for the time. The songs did not have typical structures. They meandered. It was clearly heavily influenced by dub, which wasn't something that was typically part of mass market music, with distortion and repetition. The vocals were clearly post punk and surreal. Would I say this is a great record? No, it's not. Would I say that it's an influential record? Yes, absolutely. Was it ahead of its time? Certainly. I like other material from PiL better.

surprisingly enjoyable, i wasnt looking forward to it from what i'd heard about this album, but it was a very interesting sound

Not my kind of thing.

👎🏻

Interesting album. I like to see the development of genres and you can clearly hear the punk/dub blend.

Effects and vocals that haunt

What if we swapped out all the musicians on this record with, let's say, some of the most gifted jazz and metal instrumentalists of all time? Oh, they did... *Listens to "album"* Oh, that's much better. I'll take that instead.

Only made it through 3 tracks before I shut it off. Albums you must hear that make you want to die.

picks: albatross, memories, graveyard

Each song is at least a minute too long. I can see how this influenced other artists, but, it wasn't a super fun listen.

Pure nonsense

Tried…. Just couldn’t do it

It was ok.

Experimental and avant-garde if not a bit repetitive. John "Johnny Rotten" Lydon's trajectory through the music biz has always been nothing but interesting.

has like one song I liked... maybe I'll revisit it someday, the songs drag on

Honestly a 4.5 rounded up for how out there and brilliant parts of it are, offset by it sagging a bit by the end John Lydon being a MAGA geek. Nonetheless, if listened to through the eyes of 14 year old Adam... it's incredible and Keith Levene made me pick up a guitar in new ways... 5 it is :)

A whirling, spiked flail of an album. Music to be crushed in an iron maiden to.

I think it'd be a good vibe without the vocals. As it is, about four minutes in I just started laughing. This is a slow motion argument where the intoxicated agressor is stuck in molasses and gets kicked (deservedly) in the nads at the end.

On I-tunes, Metal Box is titled Second Edition

JAH WOBBLE IS ON HERE. I quite like some parts of the stripped back songs like the guitars and the synths, the vocals are a bit hit and miss, but do work well in some areas. The atmosphere which is made in some songs is really haunting, in a good way. It captures that same sense of dread which joy division also had, however this is also very, very different in many ways. I really like the first song, which to me seems to be the most ''post-punk'' or ''anti-punk'' song ever, with minimalism and art-ish absurd lyrics and it kind of uses its length almost as an art form in itself. Favourite songs: albatross, memories, careering, graveyard, socialist, radio 4 Overall around 7/10

nicht wirklich auszuhalten und der Gesang ist so "jammernd"

This is what angry brits sound like Tbh they were onto something with this one, could see myself enjoying it if it wasn't for the vocals

an hour of this, really?

Johnny Rotten sucks ass

This is the first album I've gotten from this generator where I absolutely have no idea what to expect. I've never heard of Public Image Ltd. Without researching, I'm just going to put this on and take it as it comes. To start off, it looks like two songs from the album have been greyed out on Spotify - those songs being "Bad Baby" and "Chant". To make sure I'm taking in the entire album, I'll try and see if I can find those songs independently from the linked Spotify release. From the opening couple songs, it seems like a very interesting brand of early noise rock. A lot of weird and interesting production tricks to make the guitar sound very shrill and off-putting in a positive way? The drums on this album seem to keep a familiar monotonous tempo that scratches my brain nicely. I think the only thing that stands out to me as negative is the vocalist's vibrato-laden vocals and yells. I don't know if it's necessarily for me but it absolutely fits the theme of the album from what I've gathered of the first two songs. "Socialist" is a fun little track that feels like an improvised jam sesh with some futuristic soundscapes thrown in there to make you feel like you're on an alien spaceship. Same thing with the track "Graveyard", however, I feel like it's composition lends better to the theme of the song. "Chant" has to be one of the most insufferable songs I've heard in a very long time, felt like I was getting a headache listening to it. Overall I feel like this album was experimental for experimentalism's sake and I didn't enjoy listening to this one. Will not be coming back to it. Standout tracks are "Careering", "Socialist", and "Graveyard".

it was alright? experimental no doubt, post-punk ish, reminds me of television by marquee moon but I like that better. not too punk for me

Nice finding.

This is certainly music.

had the unique privilege of being able to break out my literally Metal Box with this lp and listen through. the way the album is structured makes each side of the 3 discs only 1 or 2 tracks long, which made me appreciate this so much more than streaming it start to finish. I get why this would not be enjoyable to a listener, but this has the sauce thats makes we want to hit play as soon as it ends. musically, it’s so akin to the dub they’re clearly super influenced by - hypnotic, atmospheric, kind of menacing - but lyrically it’s agonised and devastated. I never put two and two together, but john lydon had spent the end of his teen years going through a hellish gauntlet on an international stage. my thoughts on the sex pistols are a whole other thing, and I’ll leave it at they were mostly fabrication but energetically spectacular. their youthful fury and contrarianism gives way to pil’s jaded nihilism and purgatory. it’s hilarious how much ppl on here hate this album lmaooooo

One of those that leave me questioning the selection criteria for this list.

Fine in the background when struggling to wrangle an Excel sheet. Otherwise uninteresting.

When we were wee lads in school, late 80s, we had a band and took the thinnest of ideas, played them atonally, interminably, just a bit of funkiness we white boys could muster and we thought it was the most interesting music. WTF gave us that idea?

FUCK YEAH 4.5

I feel like PIL is one of those bands that's always recommended to me by various music services but I've never really gotten into. There are some intriguing moments on this album but it's very cohesive. I also find it amusing that the First Issue wiki says "It is considered one of the pioneering records in the development of post-punk." And the wiki for this album says "Metal Box is widely regarded as a landmark of post-punk." Anyway, Faves: Poptones, Radio 4

I mentioned when reviewing their first album that I bought their "Greatest Hits (So Far)" in uni, and it being pre-internet, pretty much had no choice but to play it enough that it clicked for me. Can't help but wonder what my music taste would be like if I'd grown up post-internet. Would I have got into every conceivable genre almost straight away, as it's all right there for the listening? Or would I just deep dive into the first thing I found comfortable and never branched out, because there was no pressure to do so? 🤔 Anyway, this sounds more like my idea of what Public Image Ltd. are. I guess I can sympathize with people finding this terrible because it is deliberately challenging. If you don't get swept up by the bass lines you're gonna struggle. Fave tracks - the three track run of "Swan Lake" -> "Poptones" -> "Careering" is totally cherry!

I understand how important this is to the development of post punk but my god it was a slog

Enjoyed it but not a must listen in my opinion

LIttle too raw for me at this point of my life

Bizarrely enjoyed it? If I started thinking too hard I was just like 'what's happening???' but despite confusion at why and how anyone wrote this, I had fun listening. Maybe this is something to be felt. And laughed at a little. The artist pic on spotify backs up this last argument haha

Супер экспериментальная музыка не для меня. Но, опять-таки, эксперимент был интересный, воображений у группы есть. Вводит в состояние нервозности, тревоги.

I don't like this. Fairly disappointing as I figured PIL, a band with which I never got familiar but always meant to check out, would at least get a 3 or 4. Guess I dont care for post punk as much as I do punk.

Couldn’t finish it. I feel like music critics exist in their own little world sometimes. This is shit, although the guitarist has some chops.

äh fy fan. det får en tvåa för att trummorna och basen låter gött. resten är skit.

Grew on me little by little as the bass wormed into my subconscious. Unique, yes, interesting, somewhat, but overall, a slog. Arguably a reasonable inclusion on this list.

There were a lot of things I liked here and a lot of things I didn't. I could see the influence that came from this, but I just didn't love listening to the whole album.

This one will forever be one of my absolute favourites. It may not be for anyone, but I could wallow in this if it was 5 times longer.

Neither enjoyable to listen to nor interesting to hear. The punk and post-punk sensibility can be such a liberating creative force. But it is too-often a convenient facade for the lazy and uninspired.

Didn't like

Great rhythm section shame but then it goes into free form punk with some twat on a guitar. And then you have some twat that wants to wail rather than his usual talk/shout singing. Real shame Mr Lyddon but this is awful

I’m not into this type of music

They need to put this shit back in that damn metal box, bury it and never let it resurface again. This album will be playing during the first purge.

Note: on Spotify the album is called Second Edition This is a dreadful album. Although I got through the whole thing, I found it to be largely unlistenable. 0/10

Wikipedia gives the genre as Post-Punk / Experimental Rock / Dub / Avant-Garde/ Dance which contains three genres that I'm always wary of. The music is OK, but the vocals are just a dirge; the opening track "Albatross" just drags on. Another pretentious "trendy" album that I think was only moderately successful because of band member John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten).

I knew nothing about this band going in and was not expecting much only to be pleasantly surprised. Particularly by the instrumental tracks towards the end.

Challenging, fierce, unsettling, singular, slabs of atonal noise, hints of disco, splashes of dub, rooted in krautrock, with Lydon's sneering howl the icing on the cake 4 stars

It was good, but not totally my thing. Probably needs another listen

It just sounds like a band with a lot of ideas and styles that just doesn't meld well together. It's not bad but it just sounds like a mess at times.

This is a tough one to rate. I really like Jah Wobbles bass anchoring the tunes and the kind of annoying guitars and vocals work on most of the tracks. But sometimes it feels a bit too intentionally irritating which tips into contrived. Socialist reminds me of early Police.

This was an interesting record. It really branches out from what I expect from a punk or post punk record. I'd go 5 but at some point this made me feel jittery. Not even sure what song it started on.

Like the first PiL, I’m not exactly sure why I like it so much, but I really do. First time hearing this album, maybe with some more time it might even get to a 5 but it’s a strong 4 right now.

Interesting in all the wrong ways.

psychedelic

Good alternative/ punk band.

No

Fucking horrible. The only that makes this remotely interesting is getting to hear what Johnny Rotten is up to post-Sex Pistols. After the first listen there's nothing interesting left. Shit is BORING! Repetitive jumbled messy trash. Not to mention, Johnny Rotten still remains a completely unlikeable trash human! So far in my journey through this list, this album has the #1001 spot locked up!

Not a fan.

I love post-punk and this is a great foundational album. Love how much they let the grooves just go here, and the funky bass. That packaging is iconic too.

The prophetic lyrics of track 1 say it all: “You are unbearable”, “run away”, “getting rid of the albatross “.

People who are not familiar with PiL will no doubt never pursue more of their catalog after listening to this crap record. Which is really unfortunate since the band has some really good ones down the line and really came into form on Album (1986) and Happy? (1987). But this one only prompted me to say never mind PiL…here’s some bollocks!

I heard the bass and groove on the first song and was thinking “okay, okay…we might have something here.” But then the vocals came in and completely turned me off. And it kept going through every song. I made it 2 maybe 3 songs and couldn’t handle more. And had no interest to go back. So I think that’s grounds for a “get tha fuck outta here!”

I did not like this. The first track really set the mood for complete suck. 1.25/5

kind of grew on me as it played out, very experimental, wouldn't listen again

I prefer the Sex Pistols. Maybe more innovative/groundbreaking but i think there's better stuff in the genre.

couldn't sit through a single song on this albums, just unnecessarily long and very repetitive which makes it extremely difficult to listen

Immediately from track 1 its a genuinely challenging album to listen to. It's just not for me, sorry folks. I was itching to listen different music the whole time. Fav song: Swan Lake?? Socialist ?maybe

Dubby, noodly, and droney, Metal Box didn’t resonate with me at first. Just a great thud. Maybe I was too young to grasp that artists could completely change direction—not just evolve, but zag where you expected them to zig—that they might seek out creative destruction of the idea of their former selves. My only real reference at the time for a group whose sound I had noticed changed was the Beatles; and even their stylistic leaps felt less jarring than the cognitive whiplash of going from the Sex Pistols to PiL at 12 or 13 years old. By the time I was listening both bands were removed from their original context and my young lizard brain wanted PiL to continue something I had found in my idea of the Pistols. Take that expectation and take that PiL — a kid might recoil. And for this album in particular, maybe it’s just a matter of sequencing and song selection. It succeeds more when in Swan Lake and less with an Albatross. Mix things up (Albatross as a closer) and pull the least good song entirely might help this album land better. But if Lydon’s mission was to wag a bony middle finger at the industry and sometimes the listener, then mission accomplished. Like I said, I was listening out of time and out of context but my sense is that PiL was still early in articulating the dub-punk sound. And many tracks on Metal Box are compelling, I think the overall effect has been realized by others down the line with better focus and effect (but not quite legacy and impact). But I guess that's the thing, isn't it? This record pushed a whole new approach post-punk, post-pistols. Dub bass lines, spidery guitar and Lydon still acerbic but more willing to lean back. Take the track Poptones for instance, it charts territory that the American band The Jesus Lizard might scurry through at a different pace. Certainly a band like Unwound sounds like it had a copy of this in their back pocket. And while, this was a record I mostly wanted to put back in the box initially, it's also an album that I can't quite shake. It endures in repetition.

Shtøgg musikk med mye reverb og en vokalist som ikke kan synge. Hørte to låter og så orka jeg ikke mer

Post-punk classic? I think this was just bad.

I’ve never listened to this album before, and now I understand why. It’s just not my thing. Feels like pretentious, fake-artistic nonsense.

I never really cared for PIL, so I mostly didn't listen for almost any of it. Rotten's wail is espescially annoying, it feels very pretentious even tho I suspect it's lack of ability instead of self-sufficient complacency. Listens like a nephew's high school art project, whose parents keep telling him how talented he is and he honestly believes it. For the most part I skipped tracks after about a minute or so, just so I can feel honest about trying to listen to all of it, but also not get angry and frustrated while doing so. Utter bollocks.

1 star. I respect the artists for their influence or legacy but I don't fuck with shitty people and their politics

What if i took a bunch of weird sounds that might be cool as an accent and made it the whole album

An odd anomaly that feels lifeless and unfocused but somehow it grips me and I want to play it all on repeat. 4 Stars

Was pretty good. Didn't mind it. Probably won't listen again.

Not nearly as bad as everyone made it out to be. 3/5

The music is cool on the first few songs. The bass is nice and heavy. Then you get to poptones and it sounds like everyone just played a different song while Lydon yells poptones. His “singing” is shit. The rest of the album is unremarkable 1001 album worthy: No - 46/82

I like the cover-artwork but the music sucks.

#496. This shits fucking weird, bro. Just another filler album to get to that magic number, it seems. 2/5: not Song added to playlist: Memories I've created a playlist on Spotify that consists of the best and/or my favorite song from each of the albums in this book. This list can be found here if you are interested: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7MAXDGLWlwLkFLb8veGfkA?si=FqkQQPgZTFWG0jAUJXLFZA&utm_source=copy-link

Wow... I mean I'm pretty open to most music but I actually had to turn this off. What a load of out of tune garbage

Deranged, confrontational, awesome. music: appreciated. (⌐■_■)

It always throws me to remember that Sex Pistols is a drop in the bucket of Johnny Rotten’s career. Not the sort of guy you’d expect to have a deep well of inspiration to draw from, but he does. This is a great one. It’s so wonky and deranged. Maybe tails off a bit in the back half, after a few real strong ones off the top. Still, like it a lot.

Not for me. 1/5

Not my fave PIL.

in the past couple of weeks, two notable things have happened to me: 1. i had a leak in my apartment that lasted for 10 days 2. i had 2 public image ltd. albums generated for me the public image ltd albums were worse! if there’s another one of these on the list i WILL [redacted].

Surprised how much I enjoyed this one. Will have to add it to a regular rotation

decent post-punk sound, very unique. Would like to listen more, but not on my streaming so hard to listen to.

Johnny has 2 legendary albums? Good for him.

zeer goed album van een groep uitmuntende muzikanten... ook de stem van Lydon is hier soms meer instrument dan echte zang... OK, sommige nummers mochten misschien wat korter zijn, maar da's muggezifterij

I hate John Lydon and I hate post-punk and I hate long songs, but this honestly wasn’t too bad. Kind of droning and trancy. It helps if you only kind of halfway listen to it. The singing is really the worst part. The playing is also bad but not as bad as the singing. This is pretty bad.

Cool sound, reminded me of going to the symphony and having your thoughts trail around elsewhere and then being brought back to the music as it dramatically changes

Not my jam

it's punk rock, so......

Read a comment on YouTube as I was listening saying that Careering had the best bassline ever, and it made me wonder if they had ever listened to any other song. The bass is the saving grace of the album, but he's definitely not a great technical bassist. The guitar is terrible throughout. The drummer is at least mostly on beat? Let's not even get into the vocals. Though, I suppose without Mr. Rotten we've had never heard this album. Perhaps it would be better if I hadn't. What a trash album. I think I would rather put the Nico album back on, then listen to this again. Half-way through the first song I was done with it. It didn't get any better. It definitely didn't need instrumental tracks. I breathed a sigh of relief when this ended.

I didn't finish the album. I didn't want to. It made my work miserable and I want to listen to something else. The greatest part of this album, was when I turned it off. This album feels like an extension of "Live at The Witch Trials". In other words, it's terrible. I think if you wanted to torture someone, you would lock them in a room replaying Metal Box and Live at The Witch Trials over and over again. There's nothing to salvage this album. There's nothing to analyze. There's nothing to like (the bass lines were decent, but repetitive). I can't even imagine how the producer of this record feels listening to these tracks over and over again getting the mix "just right". Although given the quality of the tracks, that probably didn't happen. I can't believe that even Rolling Stone magazine rated this as a top 500 album. Seriously, what is their criteria?! 1

Reconstruction time again

PiL is interesting - but not in a good way.

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). 2.5⭐️

Sounds kinda new-wave/goth. A little weird and discordant, but in a way that was interesting rather than off putting.

WOW. It was hard to find this album, but YouTube came in clutch. I absolutely love it. An hour of rage, driving bass, and hard hitting percussion. Took years off my life in a good way.

The best part of this alb is the guitar and bass work. John Lyndon vocals are all over the place and for me, not that great. Standouts for me were Graveyard and Socialist

That first song was extremely annoying, but things did get slightly better afterwards. I’ll give this 2 stars rather than 1 purely because this seems like it was pretty unique and experimental at the time (and still now tbf).

I actually enjoyed the first 5 minutes of this… until I checked and there were still 5 minutes left…. of the first song

Great bass lines. The rest is a bunch of free-from crap. If you've heard the first ten seconds of each song, then you've heard the entire song. And Lydon is the male equivalent of Yoko Ono's vocal range.

7/10 loved the riffs and how they incorporated parts of the ballet music into Swan Lake

What a depressing attempt at an album. This is everything I hate about post-punk summed up. A 10-minute intro track trying to be avant-garde, while never departing from the same monotone bass line or harsh guitar lick? I'll pass, thanks. Oh but wait, the vocals will certainly impress you. You like to hear grown men whining about albatrosses right? Oh, you don't? Well no worries. The rest of the album is for you, I guarantee it. What's that? Oh, you also don't care for songs that never deviate from the same 2 chords and have incoherent keyboards just noodling in the background? Okay okay. But just you wait...the third track will blow your mind. Sorry? Oh, you don't like that we're 18 minutes into the album and only on the third track out of 12? Hm, weird.

Murky to the point of almost sounding subaqueous, I can definitely hear how this would not be everyone's cup of tea, but I can't help but at least appreciate the bitter aftertaste.

post punk is not for me

A weird mix of quite unpleasant and very interesting. That's both my review of this album and the Thai street food I ate on the same day, which was definitely either an egg or a radish.

Horrible

Dreadful. Dreadful human being.

Eh, so yep Lydon’s vocals are terrible. And I did think at one point they could be improvising and then I checked Wikipedia and I was right. I don’t really get it. The bass grooves are the highlight

Expected to like this a lot more than I actually did. A lot of the songs have very grating vocals, which ruined it a bit for me. Favourite tracks: Albatross and Socialist. 2/5

'Avant-garde' or 'Purposefully-shit'? You decide.

Drags on a bit but some of my favorite bass playing I've ever heard

boring

The bass and rhythm guitar on this are pretty interesting, but the writing and vocals are quite annoying.

De hecho, es más interesante que el otro de PiL que ya salió en esta lista, pero no logra superar la barrera que separa a los discos que quiero volver a escuchar. Es abrasivo, muy a propósito, claro, pero difícil de igual forma. Nada amable. Curiosamente, y si no están de acuerdo puede achacarlo a mi inexperiencia, escuché harto a Thom Yorke en la voz de John Lydon.

Шиза

"Good art makes you feel something" Well I feel personally attacked by the lack of intent to entertain. This should be under the throbbing idontknow

Bevrijd van het punk-stramien ontdekt Jantje Bedorven dat liedjes langer mogen duren dan 2 minuten en albums langer dan 25 minuten. En daar maakt 'ie dan ook gebruik van. Alsof je een vis op het droge legt en gaat zitten kijken naar z'n doodsstrijd. Zo'n beest houdt het langer vol dan je denkt. Steeds als je denkt 'dat was het' krijgt zo'n beestje toch weer een kleine opleving, maar veel meer dan een keer spartelen of met z'n ogen bewegen kan het op het land niet doen. Daar komt nog bij dat het spierweefsel van zo'n vis bepaalde bewegingszenuwcellen bevat waardoor zo'n beest zelfs na het intreden van de dood nog kan bewegen. Deze doodstrijd, inclusief het spartelen na het overlijden, gaat een vol uur door in dit geval. Wat een ontzettend saai en een tikkie vervelend album. Liedjes van 4 minuten lijken een kwartier te duren. Liedjes van 10 minuten veroorzaken al helemaal gaten in de ruimtetijd. Vooruit: De basgitaar is enigszins opvallend, maar een basgitaar kan zo'n album geen uur lang dragen. En terwijl de bassist z'n schouders eronder zet wordt ons Johnny eigenlijk hoe langer hoe irritanter, al begon bij mij de irritatie al bij dat gejank over die albatros op track 1. Track 10 'Socialist' is het enige momentje waarop je bij mij een hele kleine opleving zou kunnen waarnemen, maar hoewel ik daardoor nog één keer spartel ben ik op dat punt dus eigenlijk net als zo'n vis al dood. Ik wilde aanvankelijk 2 sterren geven omdat het geen kutherrie is, maar het album sleept zo lang voort en maakt me van binnen zo kapot dat er maar 1 ster overblijft.

I was really excited for this when I heard the bass line of the first song and thought that this might be something. Unfortunately my excitement for this recorded ended there. The rest was of the album is mostly filled with various noises and screeching. I have to say I am a little impressed that some parts of this album sounds quite modern for being made in '79. If the singer wouldn't have opened his mouth for the entire record and they would have used something other than that awful distorted guitar it might have been a completely different story. 'Albatross' and 'Graveyard' are good examples of where it almost works, but is dragged down due to aforementioned issues. In all this unfortunately falls quite flat and is mostly annoying. Strong 1 for me.

I mean there are some good riffs and baselines here like in "Poptones" and "Swan lake" but the vocals are just too jarring for me. I guess that is the point? For me this was just a slog to get through anytime there were any vocals. 1 star.

Just the instrumentals actually may be a better album. This moan talking is pretty annoying after track one.

I get it… former punk rock gods realize they actually are musicians. Love it!

Did not know PIL had so many albums dating back to the late ‘70s. This one was a lot of noise with a few alright songs.

This was fun.

Very strange, discordant, noisy, but always intriguing. Even if I can't say I liked all of it, it seems like a record that will reveal more of its layers upon repeated listens. Key tracks: Albatross Memories Careering

Utter rubbish

Not a sound I enjoy but a complete sound.

An endurance test. I wish I liked it more.

Ööö ok? Kyllä mä erotan tän musiikiksi ja tavallaan ymmärrän poikain vision, mut lähinnä tää kuulostaa toistolta ja surinalta. En vihaa, mutta sain harvinaisen vähän irti, yks puol tähtee.

Jostain syystä en ole valmis täysin sivuuttamaan tätä. Ehkä siksi, että bändi keksii Billie Jeanin ekassa biisissä? No ei ihan, mutta bassolla saa ihmeitä aikaan.

Awful

Can be a difficult listen at times, but always loved the way the guitar and especially bass sound - very unique - Jah Wobbles dub sound and Lydon's force of personality makes this stand out amongt the post-punk pile for me.

I’m just too old and boring for avant garde stuff these days, that said, there was a nugget of something decent in here which lifted it above the experimental, and I particularly liked the incorporation of the Swan theme

terrible

Uggg, hated every single note of each of song. Horrible "music".

Even though there were many things I didn’t like about this album, I really enjoyed the bass sound and production. Favorite song was ‘Swan Lake’ but many cool bass licks throughout. Vocals took this down a bit, and things were a bit overlong. I enjoyed this more the longer I listened but not really my cup of tea

Rating: 4/10 I respect this album a lot. It takes many risks and it's incredibly unique but the vocals make a lot of the songs unlistenable. Instrumentally very interesting but towards the end that also starts to wear off. Shoutout to Jah Wobble for the cool bass lines. The highlights are great but the lows are absolutely atrocious, this album probably has some of the worst vocals ever recorded.

This is more like hip-hop than punk, with the music providing a blank canvas for Lydon to ad-lib over. It's progressive, occasionally sublime, and sometimes completely discordant. But it's always really good; I especially love those creeping bass lines.

Okay but not for me

I have always liked PIL but only knew a few songs. Listening to this album was great. Johnny's voice is marmite, but musically this album surprised me. Yes there is punk but not quite the Sex Pistols, there is Prog Rock but not quite Can, and there is hard edge funk bass but not quite TC Matic. Interesting rather than enjoyable, but worth a place on the list.

Interesting abum. Really great bass and guitar work, fascinating songwriting, but Lydon is the wrong vocalist for this. Really could have been great without him.

Niet leuk. Geen melodie, zeurderig

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.

Johnny Rotten and company. Some will love this album because of its history, but it’s also dated.

Not quite as terrible as the debut, but Metal Box is still difficult - excessive runtime and the always terrible John Lydon. The rhythm section keeps this from bieng a disaster.

Highly influential and infinitely better than the horrible debut. The instrumentation is great and I can easily hear how some of my favorite groups of the last decade have been influenced by songs like “Poptones”. It’s not an easy listen and there’s definitely aspects of it I’m more into than others - it’s also too long, but that’s not really a surprise.

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.

Living hell

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

This is not music. I don't care what anyone says, because this is not music. My other note when listening to this album was that it was "experimental indeed." That about sums up my thoughts.

Well, this hasn't been the worst thing I've heard on this project? So there's that? Part of me wanted to like this dance-y post punk vibe, but the vocals honestly make this album fairly intolerable. I can even get past the crappy production to a certain extent. But those vocals grate. A very low 2.

Important early alternative....

The only songs that didn't make me want to rip out my ear drums were the songs with no vocals. 1/5

Meh

3 stars for Jah Wobble's bass

Det var virkelig svært at lytte på. Whiny, kunne ikke fatte hvad Johnny Rotten mumlede, alt for ufokuseret i valget af musik. Var virkelig svært at komme i gennem. Nogle gange var det næsten ok hvis der ikke var sang på

The maker of this list had the responsibility to realize there weren't 1000 good albums and save us all some time. This was horrible, I laughed out loud at the end of the first song when stupid johnny rot started wailing or something. Not even Jah Wobble could save this

An improvement on their first album. Post-punk is weird.

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.

THIS. ISN'T. MUSIC. This is the second record of those morons that I've had (the first being the album First Issue). This band was formed by John Lydon of the Sex Pistols..... He must have wanted to moan a bunch on tape and Sid Vicious wouldn't let him so he decided to torture us with his own band. It is truly just shittily played instruments and moaning..... It is awful. Who the fuck considers this music. Absolute garbage of an album. Favourite songs: Radio 4, both because it is the last song on the album, and because the singer shuts the fuck up. Least favourite songs: this entire piece of shit album 1/5

It's awful but that's ok because it's "avant garde" and it's not meant to be listenable or have structure or be bearable and...and you just don't get it, ok?! Impressively boring. Remember, things could always be worse, you could be listening to PIL.

nun ja, post-punk mit ex-sex-pistols-frontman. anspruchsvoll bis ans limit, für mich eher nicht so geeignet. bassläufe sind toll, instrumentals auch, dann aber viel, wirklich viel gleichförmig eintöniges. naahhh!!

Eine Band, ein Sänger. Und dann sagt jemand zum Sänger: probiere doch einfach mal zu singen. Oder niemand sagt ihnen dass es nicht zusammenpasst. Jeder einzelne eigentlich noch spannend.

Pretty fuckin weird really cool really good

I really wanted to like this thing a lot more than I did, but it just didn't quite get there for me. I generally like the post-punk thing, and this seems to be a pretty well-regarded album in that world, but it just didn't do it. I generally liked the basslines (s/o to Jah Wobble the bassist, I did not his your solo album on here but you crushed this one) and guitar stuff, but I really struggled with the vocals. I find them a bit annoying at least on first listen. I can totally see this being something that grows on me over time, and if I squint real hard I can see something like Joy Division-esque here, but right now it's not quite there. This is closer to a 2 than a 4, but I think there's enough good for a solid 3. "Swan Lake" is where it all comes together best for me on here, and a few of the other songs with no or limited vocals are some of the better ones for me. Side note, the fact that they packaged their album in a literal metal box is a pretty good gimmick, I respect it. Favorite song: Swan Lake Other: Poptones, Graveyard, Radio 4 11/24/24

I get it. The rhythm section is interesting and I admire that the group tried to capture some spontaneity on some tracks. And ok its 1979, but it doesn't add up to good music. And it really doesn't add up to something I have to hear.

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

Nope, horrible.

Day323 - can it be influencial and bad at the same time? i do like the bass playing throughout

I'm glad I listened. The comparisons to Captain Beefheart are fair warning: this album is not for everyone. Then again, most people don’t curl up with Moby Dick for a cozy night in — doesn’t mean it’s not a classic. So ignore the 1 and 2 star ratings. That said, I’m giving this a 3. Some parts feel like a 3.5, maybe even a 4, but just like Moby Dick isn’t exactly a page-turner, this album isn’t what you’d call ‘catchy.’ And when I put on music, I mostly want to just enjoy myself, not decode an abstract painting composed with sound. This is more ‘I appreciate what you’re doing here’ than ‘heck yeah, turn it up.’ (I do love the bass playing. I'm a sucker for that, and the sparseness of the music helps the bass stand out.)

I hate this.

Almost so bad it becomes good. But any album that starts with 10 minutes of awful will never go beyond a 1

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.

If you listened to all of the non-famous Joy Division songs and thought “I want more of the same but for the lyrics to be more unintelligible and the instruments starker and the songs longer and more drone-y” then this is the album for you. Otherwise, feh.

It’s more experimental than I anticipated. But most of the experiments fail.

Made it half way through. I will not add any of these songs to my Spotify playlists. It sounded like the singer was yelling across the room into a microphone. Not my favorite album.

As with so many John Lydon projects, this would be better without John Lydon. Seriously, the guy’s a dick. I can see how this was a classic of its time, but I can’t get past what I know of the lead singer.

Im kinda struggling with this one - I kind of like the music, but John Luton is such a weird little man that I vehemently dislike, so... I know that most of the musicians on this have other albums on here (Jah Wobble, The Clash, Killing Joke...) so I guess I'll wait for them to come around? Yeah, not one for another listen.

Fine. Whatever.

Idc 1.5

ahugavert

Unfortunately 0 isn't an option. I guess I just don't "GET" post punk...

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!

Oh, atonal. My favorite. Oh...Lydon. Well, there you are.

This list doesn't need two PiL records but this is very much the better of the two, dark and intense and not so silly-clubby or dancy as Lydon would get in the latter, lurid stages of PiL. One's never much liked his singing but the austere and relentless guitars have a bigger presence here and so lighten the (annoying) load of the vocals to a certain degree. The overlap with Joy Division and early Cure are undeniable.

noise. bad noise

Loved it

Not as bad as all the reviews on here. Wont listen to it again though. Decent music ruined by the vocals…..again. 2.9

It's always disappointing when stuff like this comes up. I didn't like it but I allowed 2 stars because I didn't absolutely hate it.

Didn’t enjoy it much

Kinda joy division coded. I liked this but I’m still giving it a 3

Someone needs to stop them from performing again.

Self-indulgent guff

good ideas for an experimental punk project, it's just too long, I will never listen to it again, still it's more interresting than a lot of average boring pop song

great album

I listened to like 3 songs before deciding that I just did not want to listen to it anymore. sorry for being a hater but that's my truth

2/5. I must not be getting it. I must be musically challenged because apparently this is a perfect album by everyone who reviews music for a living. I didn't hate it honestly, and did like the instrumentation, but I think if this was just an instrumental album, then it would be much better. I know the choice of singing in this way was intentional but it's not the edginess it wants to be. Socialist is great because it is all instrumental and provides the energy I was expecting from this album. The bass and other instruments provide enough quality that John Lyndon adding his voice is just about as pretentious you can get for no reason. Best Song: Socialist, Graveyard, Radio 4

Hmm, so heres the thing. I dont hate this album, and I dont hate PIL. But I wouldnt suggest this album to anyone, really. Its not great, and its only saving grace is that its a pretty good representation of post-punk. Cant do better than 3 stars, really. 3/5

Punk que da gusto oír su presencia.

Someone should have introduced the singer to the rest of the band. They maybe could have got together and made some music. Instead they went with the approach of some dudes playing (somewhat decent) guitar & drum lines and another dude (sort of) singing different songs to a different melody. After hearing their first album a couple of weeks ago, I expected this to be completely shit. Turns out it was not quite as bad as I expected. Still pretty bad, but not to the same level as First Issue. 2/5

weird af

Yes

Whatever mixer decided to put “Albatross” as the lead track took a giant gamble. Too long, repetitive, droll and quite annoying. Could have skipped the entire album after that. After listening, I should have. Instrumentals were not good, lyrics were mid. Coming from this group I expected better. The debut was better, but this definitely got the sophomore slump. Barely a 2, and that’s generous

Light torture. Socialist and Radio 4 are okay.

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.

Okay, I'm prepared for the incoming pretentious, fart-sniffing, pontificating allegations. And I ain't beating them. I'm also not going to go to war with everyone. I'm just going to put my best case forward for this album. Talking Heads released their first feature-length album in '77, which was wildly ahead of its time in predicting the sounds that would define the 80s, but also in its sampling, editing, and production techniques. This only grew on future albums. Similarly, even earlier, White Light / White Heat by the Velvet Underground came out in '68 and captured the textures, fuzz, and punk that would explode in the early 70s with Branca, Sonic Youth, the Swans, and all the other subsequent alt-rock and punk projects of the late 70s and early 80s. What does *Metal Box* have to do with any of that? It released in '79, riding that end-of-decade wave of innovation. No one was making sounds like this, except for Eno and maybe, before him, Halim El-Dabh with his piece Wire Recorder Piece or even John Cage’s experiments, though to a much lesser degree. There are probably others, but those are the ones I know of. I was disappointed by No Birds because it felt like it was going somewhere but didn’t. I felt as though not only is the album deeply experimental, but it has nothing to show for it at times. Thankfully, I didn’t feel that way throughout. In fact, everything up to and including Albatross didn’t amount to much more than an early use of dub techniques in this manner. However, Poptones blew me away. This track came out nearly 45 years ago, and it sounds like an experimental track that could come out today. It’s so unique and chilling, capturing that post-punk rawness while being strangely beautiful. Careering pushed me. The hollow echo and the jarring rhythms really got under my skin. And that was the point. By experimenting with dub, post-punk, and heavy distortion, PiL created soundscapes that were previously unthought. Music doesn’t have to be catchy and danceable—it can be abrasive and off-kilter. This track filled me with a sense of unease. Very cool. Graveyard, minus the vocals, if used for the soundtrack of a contemporary horror film, would receive praise for its building of tension. The imagery associated with it is haunting. Some people are amazed that Aphex Twin developed some of his early works in the mid-80s. Radio 4 came out in ’79, come on, you gotta admit, that’s pretty cool. I feel the same way about The Suit as I do about Graveyard. It could fit into a modern horror soundtrack and no one would bat an eye. It may even receive praise. The walls of sound on Metal Box are a premonition of the looping soundscapes of no-wave and influence that would dominate the early 80s and have a lasting impact on alt-rock and industrial music going forward. This album reminds me of Eno’s Another Green World. And while he might have beat them to the punch, this album is certainly remarkable and influential for its time and certainly deserving of a spot on the list of post-punk classics. What people need to understand is that this album, while not to most people’s taste, isn’t a flaming garbage heap. It’s not just banging noises together. I’ve been to awful live noise shows; anyone can bang some stuff together and call it music. That’s a 1/5. This isn’t that. This is well-composed, influential, ahead of its time. It had structure and nuance. 10/10 Fav tracks – Poptones, Careering, Graveyard, Radio 4, Albatross, The Suit, Memories Least fav – No Birds -- Just kidding, this album was fucked.

Funny that they are called public image because I would probably have to go into total exile if someone heard this blaring from my headphones

Trepanation is a process in which a hole is drilled into the skull. Derived from the Greek word, τρύπανον, meaning “to bore” or “to auger”.

Fuck the vocal performance on this thing is bad, which is a shame since I actually liked some of the instrumental. The guitars on this heavily inspired Albini and a lot of noise rock which I gotta give it rep for but otherwise an unenjoyable experience. 5/10 Fav tracks - Swan Lake, Poptones, Chant, Radio 4 Least Fav - The rest

This album coming out the same year as Thatcher coming into power is pretty telling.What a way to bring in the 80s, fuck me. This HAD to be the sign that lead paint causes brain damage right?