Metal Box Public Image Ltd.

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CD

  • Release Date: 09/03/1996
  • Original Release: 1979
  • Sales Rank: 19,013
  • Label: VIRGIN INT'L
  • UPC: 077778747321

Listener Rating: (1 ratings)

Detailed Rating: "Stimulating" See All

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CD - Remastered$36.99
 
  • Overview
  • Tracks
  • Editorial Reviews
  • Customer Reviews
  • Details & Credits
Track List
Click on LISTEN or link to hear an audio clip.
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Metal Box

1LISTENAlbatross 10:34
2LISTENMemories 5:05
3LISTENSwan Lake 4:11
4LISTENPoptones 7:46
5LISTENCareering 4:32
6LISTENNo Birds 4:41
7LISTENGraveyard 3:07
8LISTENThe Suit 3:29
9LISTENBad Baby 4:30
10LISTENSocialist 3:10
11LISTENChant 5:01
12LISTENRadio 4 4:24

About this Artist

Editorial Reviews

PiL managed to avoid boundaries for the first four years of their existence, and Metal Box is undoubtedly the apex. It's a hallmark of uncompromising, challenging post-punk, hardly sounding like anything of the past, present, or future. Sure, there were touchstones that got their imaginations running -- the bizarreness of Captain Beefheart, the open and rhythmic spaces of Can, and the dense pulses of Lee Perry's productions fueled their creative fires -- but what they achieved with their second record is a completely unique hour of avant-garde noise. Originally packaged in a film canister as a trio of 12" records played at 45 rpm, the bass and treble are pegged at 11 throughout, with nary a tinge of midrange to be found. It's all scrapes and throbs (dubscrapes?), supplanted by John Lydon's caterwauling about such subjects as his dying mother, resentment, and murder. Guitarist Keith Levene splatters silvery, violent, percussive shards of metallic scrapes onto the canvas, much like a one-armed Jackson Pollock. Jah Wobble and Richard Dudanski lay down a molasses-thick rhythmic foundation throughout that's just as funky as Can's Czukay/Leibezeit and Chic's Edwards/Rodgers. It's alien dance music. Metal Box might not be recognized as a groundbreaking record with the same reverence as Never Mind the Bollocks, and you certainly can't trace numerous waves of bands who wouldn't have existed without it like the Sex Pistols record. But like a virus, its tones have sent miasmic reverberations through a much broader scope of artists and genres. [Metal Box was issued in the States in 1980 with different artwork and cheaper packaging under the title Second Edition; the track sequence differs as well. The U.K. reissue of Metal Box on CD boasts better sound quality than the Second Edition CD.] Andy Kellman, All Music Guide

Customer Reviews

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  • Ratings: 1Reviews: 1

A New Wave Classicby Ivan-the-Terrible

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August 08, 2009: New Wave evolved from punk rock in the late 1970s. Bands like Joy Division, Talking Heads, Wire, Young Marble Giants, and Pylon sprang up from both sides of the Atlantic to fuel one of the most original movements in popular music history (so far). PiL, lead by former Sex Pistols front man John Lydon, in addition to his close friends Keith Levene (on guitar) and Jah Wobble (bass) was the centerpiece of this movement.

METAL BOX is ubiquitous as a new wave record, perhaps one of the most famous (or infamous) and influential pop records ever. Issued first in the fall of 1979 in England, it was an unusual set if only for the packaging: three 7 inch discs inside a metal can (hence METAL BOX). The 7 inch discs were utilized to give the double record a deeper bass sound, as on Jamaican dub records. This remastered version of the original record attempts recreate the sparse original packaging. There are no bonus tracks, nor liner notes included.

The music is unlike anything ever heard before, or since, in the annals of rock. Jah Wobble (who left the group soon after METAL BOX's release) anchors the entire collection with his heavy-laden bass work. The ten-minute "Albatross", the single "Memories" and the Tchaikovsky-inspired "Swan Lake" are all centered around Wobble's bass.

Lydon and Levene bring their own originality to the CD. Levene had always insisted on playing the guitar differently than anyone else. METAL BOX represents his unique style probably better than any other work he's done (except, perhaps, for the PiL's FLOWERS OF ROMANCE, 1981). Lydon, who scoffed at the "rock star" attention he garnered in the Sex Pistols, had a vision of PiL as a "corporation" rather than a band, i.e. there was no front man. The group was not a "group". This attitude can be felt on the chaotic "Chant" and the haunting, barely functioning loop-rhythms of "Poptones". Basically, what PiL accomplished on METAL BOX was musical antimatter. Songs that were not.

Lyrically, Lydon (who originally published the words to the record in an British newspaper) is at his very finest. Though never a standout lyricist, his words (as well as his delivery) match perfectly with the cold melodies and sparse drums.

The sound quality of the CD is much improved over SECOND EDITION, the CD version of the US release issued in the late 1980s. The instrumentation is clearly distinct, unlike on SECOND EDITION (which sounds very muddy). Overall, the record itself was not recorded with the best equipment or personnel (PiL did not benefit from a great producer like the Talking Heads did with Brian Eno). However, the naked, stripped-down sound suits the music perfectly.

As a new wave record, METAL BOX is a landmark of true originality. Shocking in sound and vision, nothing like it had come before. The same can be said about after. PiL would soon disintegrate into squabbling and drug abuse, to become a mere shell of itself only two years after METAL BOX. This record will always stand as a watershed in music history, hugely influential for many artists to come. Still in a tin can, a behemoth of its time.