ILX 70s album poll - results

"Entertainment!" is a great album. And "Solid Gold" and "Songs of the Free" are real good ones.
-- Not That Chuck (noemai...), December 16th, 2003.

Entertainment! sounds like the beginning of something, (1st alb) a kind of simple, brilliant template for a band: solid-state MGs revamped for maximum spike + Frankfurt school shouting, GO! (exercise: play "Damaged Goods" and "Green Onions" back to back)
-- g.cannon (misterhungr...), September 26th, 2002.
Entertainment! (Warner Bros., BSK 3446) LP
Solid Gold (Warner Bros., BSK 3565) LP

After these, they fell off hard. But these are classics. Listen to the beginning of "Anthrax" if you wanna hear where just about every Albini-played guitar sound comes from (aside from the times when he rips off Metal Urbain, that is).

-- hstencil (hstenci...), December 9th, 2002.

I listened to Gang of Four's Entertainment! while watching a documentary about the a-bomb. There wasn't much synching going on, suprisingly enough. But then, I was also folding laundry.
-- dave225 (adspac...), November 24th, 2003.

Teenage Fanclub "Grand Prix"/"Songs from Northern Britain"
Scritti Politti "Cupid & Psyche 85"
Comet Gain "Realistes"
Marvin Gaye "What's Going On"
Paul Weller "Paul Weller"
-- Michael White (michaelwhite3...), December 13th, 2002.

(from the "albums that make you indescribably happy" thread)

Marvin Gaye "What's Going On"
I don't think I ever put it on without playing from start to finish

-- webcrack (signon2...), December 17th, 2003.

Marvin Gaye might be the godfather of soul. Extremely pure and spiritual. Almost like someone singing a prayer. A tad annoying. Curtis Mayfield on the other hand is more funky, more urban, more dirty. I prefer his version of soul. And you?
-- alex in mainhattan (alex6...), June 24th, 2004.

I like 'em lots. They should do a cover of Haddaway's "What Is Love?"
What is laaaahhff?!

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So classic it hurts. The Sex Pistols or the Saints may have been better bands (debatable), but within the realm of "punk" music there is no finer LP than Singles Going Steady. Who'd have thought that punk could be informed by pop/psychedelia/Krautrock and thrive? I love how "Orgasm Addict" and a few others throw in the occasional weird 7/8 time signature, just so they can hack through a tangled thicket of syllables and arrive at an unforgettable chorus just that much quicker. "Why Can't I Touch It?" could almost pass for a punk version of "Thank You For Talking To Me Africa". As for being a bad influence, maybe; but they were also a GOOD influence on Husker Du, which is alright by me. And Maher was indeed one hell of a drummer. I have a new favourite every time - last time it was "Boredom", next time "I Don't Mind." (Or make that "I Don't Mi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yind"!)
-- Myonga Von Bontee (scottyfield...), August 10th, 2004.

Not easy listening, though. But Levene is hardly wanking. He, even more so than Wobble, is the anchor of that band. Thus, the suckage following his departure...

-- Naive Teen Idol (matthewjweine...), January 8th, 2003.

It's proudly displayed (well, displayed) on my bookcase, but I swear it's been well over 10 years since I've played it. I do remember liking it, although isn't it meant to be boring and/or annoying in places? Also it plays at 45 rpm, doesn't it? I remember reading somewhere that it was funny/cool that it was designed so that you couldn't get the records out without scratching them, but of course you can just turn the package upside down and let them fall out (not at a great height, of course).
-- Sean (saturns...), January 8th, 2003.

It's sort've become a post-punk Rosetta Stone of sorts (and I don't mean the lamentable goth band) that is required listening for anyone seeking information about the genre/era, but that doesn't mean it makes for the easiest nor most enjoyable listening experience. I'm glad I own it, I'm glad it exists, it's *INTERESTING* (in much the same way watching a disquieting snuff film or autopsy in interesting), but I'd be fibbing if I said I played it a lot or that it changed my life. I tend to prefer a bit more melodic cohesion in my post-punk, thank you very much, ala Gang of Four, early Killing Joke, Joy Division, et al.
Still...."Poptones" and "Swanlake" are uproariously, gloriously ugly in the most intriguing way.

-- Alex in NYC (vassife...), January 8th, 2003.

Erm...
I changed my mind!* Metal Box is actually quite brilliant. For some reason it clicked for me this time. Lydon sounds like Gollum. Levene sounds like he's scratching your eyes out. Wobble is implacable (I like that word today). The electronics are genuinely strange, alienating in that way that electronics were back then--you know, they sound like they're wheezing from some big gray mainframe that takes up half a room. The drums are just like, heavy, man. It's a big granite slab of sound rolling over you.

I think my problem was that I bought the album after reading the usual rhetoric about it, and then I didn't hear what I expected to hear based on that rhetoric. I still don't, really... but I like what I hear instead now.

* Well actually, I still think the suburbia-is-conformist stuff is cliched (suppose it wasn't at the time tho) and just wrong, Albatross is a dirge, and it really doesn't have much to do with dub. Even the bass isn't dubby--it's just fat and high in the mix. I only hear about one moment where he plays anything like a dub bassline (midway through Graveyard I think), most of the time it's more rock. And OK, they phase the drums every now and then. But dub is a process more than anything else, and they don't apply that process anywhere--there's no abrupt mixing in and out of instruments, no space in the music (the opposite--it's claustrophobic), no echoing....they're still playing songs, not deconstructing them. Not that it matters, but "avant-garde dub" is one of those phrases that gets thrown around a lot in relation to this album.

-- Ben Williams (benwilliam...), January 9th, 2003.

They should've replaced Lydon with Mrs. Miller:

-- hstencil (hstenci...), January 9th, 2003.
Great blog. As for me, what Matos said. Either you feel this music in your bones or you don't. Metal Box says everything is NOT going to be alright. It's mocking, too, as if depression or fear were below it, and it makes me feel detached, grooving, fuck everything. The complete antipathy is also highly moral, which sets it apart from the nihilist pigfuck/no wave/goth it inspired. Like Sandinista!, it's more punk than most punk.
-- Pete Scholtes (pscholte...), January 11th, 2003.

no-one's topped Beefheart at his own game -- except maybe PiL, and then only once (metal box).
-- Tad (llamasfu...), January 20th, 2003.