Metal Box -- does anyone hate this as much as me?

ah!

Not sure I'd shell out 40 bucks for that 3LP reissue, but does the CD Metal Box reissue (in the metal case) sound way better that the Second Edition CD? If so, I might go for that.

Other: I thought Pash hated this, now I find he love(d) it. I'm confused.

More other: During an interview at the time, John mentioned that there were loads of tracks dropped, and a bunch of 'between track' snippety bits also unused. Hey, I'd like the long version. This being the first album I bought with wages.

(Thankyou, but I think it's supposed to be Wobble's voice on Albatross or something)

also i always thought the albatross they were getting rid of was the notion of lydon as pop star/spokesman/punk prophet/working class hero (nad that was why Wobble sang it)

actually for a while I thought Lydon sang on 'albatross' but in fact its Wobble's vocals (he does a good impression of Lydon, of course). Lydon comes in at the end of albatross with the 'Only the Lonely' bit.

Not true then, mark?

1) The first time I even heared that rumour
2) It's so John singing, it's silly.

I can't find a source for this rumor either, on Google at least. Ben? Julio? Gaz?

I read what I posted above, and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, in retrospect. I think I think the album itself is ok, if somewhat lacking compared w/the 1st, but it's a terrible terrible "influence" record?

I'd buy another copy to listen to, but I can't get motivated, TBH.

More other: Jim Walker mentioned in an interview that there's also addtional material for First Edition. He talks about a track called. "You Stupid Person" that supposedly was to be the second single. According to him it has "one of Levene's most blistering guitar lines." In Walker's opinion many of the discarded tracks like "You Stupid Person" are much better than what was included on the first album. If these exist I want to hear them too.

It doesn't even sound like Wobble, anyway.

Reading this thread is depressing me - are y'all just flexing your anti-canon muscles? "Albatross" is one of the greatest lead-off songs evah. It has the otherworldy quality of an alien consciousness made flesh, simultaneously spacious and claustrophobic, sensuous and stringent. As a statement of purpose or level-setting of expectations it can't be beat.

Being able to find Second Edition in almost any record store in America during the 80s was a hope beacon for the disaffected drowning in a sea of spandex and glitter. And it still sounds as peculiar as it did then. People can brand Metal Box an arthouse joke, but there's a rigorous approach driving the music.

Compare it with The Flowers of Romance (which I prefer as an album overall) - they won't be mistaken for each other, and each coalesces into a singular statement. If you took any track from one and put it on the other, it would stand out as dissimilar. They aren't some random collections of sound farted out in the studio.

Certainly Lydon et al were pricks to everyone they met who wasn't stuffing blow up their noses at the time, but the same could be said of musicians from Miles Davis to the Beastie Boys. At least PiL pushed the enfant terrible schtick to the max, and made great theatre out of it - the American Bandstand appearance and the riot at The Ritz being prime examples. It's the lack of such chutzpah that reveals most current indie fux0r bands to be mere fashion victim cutouts, shadows of rebellion, when they reach the national stage.

(My EDITOR ought to be doing this sort of thing...)

-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (soto.alfre...), July 11th, 2006.

All due respect to you and Dan, but saying "that guy can't sing!" and "how tedious!" are two of the least interesting observations to be made about Metal Box and The Flowers of Romance. The latter is one of the most out-there breakup albums ever recorded.

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=6F0D4EDC2718739D

Marcello, perhaps while he's cleaning up the "Albatross" paragraph, you can get him to help you with an entry on Edward III's theory that Flowers of Romance is the most out there break up album in history. I'd be extremely interested in reading that.

Still, I'm w/ Mark: "Albatross" doesn't sound a thing like Mr. John Wardle.

My first copy of "Commercial Zone" was a cassette, and this started with the instrumental "The Slab" as side one, so with that you have one long wait (until track three) with totally unfamiliar PIL music, ten minutes in and you could convince yourself there'd been a mistake.

Why?

-- Jesus Dan (djperr...), July 12th, 2006.

As Ned would say, we're entering ninja of the obvious territory.

-- Jesus Dan (djperr...), July 12th, 2006.

Guess I wasn't sufficiently clear; saying "that guy can't sing!" and "how tedious!" about PiL is akin to saying "Phillip Glass is repetitious," "Sonic Youth is noisy," or "The Beastie Boys are obnoxious." The band's making a clear + conscious decision to operate in a certain manner; observing that they're abrasive and difficult listening doesn't do much aside from pointing out the obvious.

Hope you're being ironic when you say something "sucks" immediately preceding an accusation of making lazy blanket assertions!