The cassette played poptones (Metal Box - Public Image Ltd.)

Member Name: dave27

Product:	Metal Box - Public Image Ltd.
Date:	09/10/02 (275 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great songs, Great sounds

Disadvantages: None

Halcyon days they were, the time in the late 1970s when the screaming, mewling, puking brat variously known as punk rock/new wave came gobbing its amphetamine driven way to prominence, as the next big thing, with the Sex Pistols at the head of the vanguard. They were the first, the last, the (nearly) everything, with their pretty orthodox speed rock punctuated by some pretty individualistic lyrics and the astonishing performances and charisma of a startling front man, Johnny Rotten (nee Lydon).

When things started to fall apart and the Sid and Nancy death pact was fast approaching over the horizon, the Pistols imploded while they were on tour in the States at the end of 1978, and Rotten, now reverting to his real name, was the first to slip away from the grubby mitts of Malcolm McLaren, renouncing the worst excesses of punk and opting to move on, driven by his love of reggae and the need for constant change.

Lydon's master of sarcasm and the quick witted put down, coupled with a hypnotic ability to seduce an audience had already marked him out as a New Messiah, one to watch and follow with some anticipation, but now, freed from the new orthodoxy of McLaren and the Pistols, he was relishing his freedom and about to unleash a powerful new musical force.

Lydon created a new band called Public Image Ltd (PiL), assembled with former Clash guitarist Keith Levine, Canadian drummer Jim Walker and the unknown bass player, Jah Wobble. They debuted with the extraordinary sonic rush of the Public Image single, bemusing critics and supporters alike with their renegotiation of Lydon's muse. They also rushed out the First Issue album, which took the Public Image sound and splurged it across two sides of vinyl with some wonderful variations on a theme, although in truth it was quite a patchy collection.

The services of Walker were soon dispensed with and the new, streamlined three piece re-emerged in the early part of 1979 with the int
oxicating Death Disco single, with Levine parodying the melody from Swan Lake over a skipping, insistent, booming bass line and some economical drumming, courtesy of Levine and Wobble. They then issued the Metal Box album, consisting of three twelve inch singles packaged in a metal film can sporting the PiL logo on its cover and nothing else. It was an anonymous but stylish presentation, screaming out limited edition with all its heart. The album was later repackaged as the more conventional Second Edition, a standard double album in a gatefold sleeve.

Ignore the packaging and gimmicks, however, because underneath the surface sheen and toying with images, Metal Box is quite simply one of the finest rock albums of all time, and easily the best thing which John Lydon has ever been responsible for, outstripping even the formidable assault of Never Mind The Bollocks and the clutch of original Pistols singles.

The album is a truly astonishing, unique soundscape, all empty spaces, booming, echo laden bass, skipping disco drums, chopped up, insistent guitar, and soaring through everything, insinuating its evil way into your very soul, THAT VOICE, quite simply one of the most distinctive voices in the history of rock music.

PiL strove to create a whole new vocabulary of sound, pulling off all sorts of tricks on the way. Wobble's extraordinary rumbling, subterranean bass sound was created by turning his speaker to the wall, turning the volume up full and recording the resonant results through another mike rather than dry lining it into the mixer. It was a touch of genius because the resulting big boom was one of the most distinctive features of the record, injecting an impressive and telling atmosphere. Truly wonderful, it was...


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ALBATROSS
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Ten minutes of wonderful, throbbing dance music with jagged, metallic lead guitar sparsely cutting through the booming bass and smooth d
rums, this is just bliss, a quite remarkable achievement, with Lydon presumably nailing the final nails in the coffin of his relationship with McLaren, "Getting rid of the albatross, sowing the seeds of discontent, I know you very well, you are unbearable." The vocals are restrained, distant, aloof, as different from the Rotten days as you could imagine, picking away at the scabs, towering over, and still they go on, drums and bass, hissing and throbbing, while Levine's spacey guitar chips the veneer. This is one wonderful track.

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MEMORIES
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More distinctive guitar, still jangling and distant, but this time flanged and distorted, while more insistent bass and drums interplay set the pace and the framework. It's addictive, seductive stuff which you'd have to be dead from the neck up to resist. Heady stuff indeed, an intoxicating blend of disco rhythms and almost Gang of Four guitar, as individual as anything around at the time. They shared the love of space and dynamics which characterised the first amazing Joy Division album and carved a splendid niche for themselves.

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SWAN LAKE (DEATH DISCO)
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Albatross and Memories were quite clearly just the aperitif for the main course that was the massiv hit single, reshaped and rewritten for the album. The same, compelling rhythms soldier on, grabbing at your hips and never letting go while Levine goes wandering all over the place with that sardonic, grimly catchy guitar, dancing in and out of the bass riff and endless, endless hi hat swishes, while somewhere out there in the far off distance a distracted, hysterical Lydon celebrates death and destruction: "Never no more hope away, final in a fade, watch her slowly die, saw it in her eyes, choking on a bed, flowers rotting dead." Simplly chilling...

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POPTONES
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The se
gue from the slippery disco of Swan Lake into the wandering majesty of Poptones was one of the most memorable moments of 1979, as Lydon and Co finally skipped away from the relentless disco rhythms to create another seductive piece of classic rock. This time it's rooted more in rock, but the same, jumpy bass lines of Wobble give the song its heart and soul, as Levine flies and dances all over the place, as seven minutes 45 seconds races past, leaving you drained and seduced. It's an oddly gripping piece, with Lydon's phrasing and nasal whine retreating into the memory of Rotten, although the melodic, rolling music could hardly be more distant a cousin. I adore this track and always feel deeply affected by its metallic, rambling grace.

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CAREERING
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Another insidious, addictive rifferama with that uniquely gorgeous bass dominating everything, leaving the way open for off the wall, drilling synths and amateurish percussion to pick out the harsh landscape: "There must be meaning behind the moaning, spreading tales like coffin nails, is this living?" By now the classic PiL sound is sharply drawn out, focused and defined, pinning you back in your seat, overwhelmed by its driving beat and oddly telling vocals.


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SOCIALIST
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A raging, rampant surge of rhythm - no words to give a clue, just breakneck driving sound underpinning twiddly synths and slashing hi hat snicks, gripping but not really a cigar.

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GRAVEYARD
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Another insidious, sinewy instrumental work out with few clues given or sussed.

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SUIT
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An understated, nagging bass riff underpins everything, while Lydon speak/sings his dissection of living with uniforms. I remember loving this song with an unhealthy passion the first few times I checked it out and the a
ttraction hasn't dulled over the years. You need to dig really sinister, muted riffs to appreciate the telling mgic of the repetitive, thumping riff, but then I do.

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BAD BABY
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This song is all huge echoey space while Lydon is somewhere off in the far off distance, moaning on about leaving a baby in the car park. It could be Bodies from Bollocks, except for the restraint and lack of passion. This song is pretty uneventful judged against the rest of the album, but has its good moments, including the twitching, jerky mood.

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NO BIRDS
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It's back into the realm of Death Disco and Memories as the band wander off into a mish mash of sloppy riffing and meandering lines. They all but fall apart at times, but that's probably the intention, as they certainly don't mean to be combining as a tight little three piece. It's a dreadful mess, but somehow discordantly attractive, with bumbling, incoherent drums, and almost ghostly distorted guitar ranging freely across the landscape. Lydon paints a bizarre picture of some distant, Lewis Carroll world, much like that loathed by Patrick McGoohan in the cult classic The Prisoner, and making about as much sense.

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CHANT
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Deadpan chanted vocals, strident drum battering, scritch scratch guitar all combine to create another frankly disturbing slice of post punk heavy metal. It's very unpleasant listening but quite affecting.

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RADIO 4
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Bland European disco manufactured on lush carpets of seductive synths, smothering you claustrophobically. I don't know if they're taking the mick or not, but this is sheerest electro melodies of the highest order, and in stark contrast to much of the other white noise here. Love the bass lines.



Metal Box, I say again, is
a startling, impressive, deep, resonant record of a band at the peak of their powers, with Lydon once and for all escaping from the straitjacket of the Pistols. Aided and abetted by Levine and Wobble's studied lack of orthodoxy and anarchic approach to sound, he created a new signature and a new mood. Delicious and delightful and endlessly engaging, I worship this record. Much of the humour, warmth and emotion of other Lydon material is completely absent, but he was right to take things seriously at least for the moment.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

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