Public Image Ltd - Metal Box poll

The Raincoats - s/t poll
Swell Maps - Jane from Occupied Europe poll
This Heat - Deceit poll
Mission of Burma - Vs. poll
The Pop Group - Y poll

For the purest album only, no bonus tracks.

METAL POLL
second edition POLL

Been enjoying listening to this run of album polls Bee Ok, thanks.
I wonder if the winner will get more than 5 votes this time.

(xp) Didn't vote in either of those polls - and neither did many other people by the looks of it.

I heard a session tape of the "Albatross" session, someone commented "Jim Morrison", and yes there's a link to his "Riders on the Storm" vocal style.

Could have voted for any track really but went with Albatross

Came to PIL backwards really - when 9 was released local music show Rage played all the clips they had and I was almost instantly obsessed - tried to pick up all the LPs I could and for some reason there was an import copy of Second Edition at the Sydney city HMV and as soon as I heard it I knew it was the motherlode - it was a friday after school… had no idea about the band members, didn’t know about post-punk or dub (did people even talk about post-punk then?) but the power was undeniable and I just loved the atmosphere so much, truly brain-altering music and a great thing to hear unsuspectingly age 14 or 15

heard this album at a crucial age as well. poptones haunts me to this day, so jaunty yet creepy (or creepy yet jaunty). and that riff is one you just want to
go on and on, and does!

My head says "Albatross" or "Poptones" but my heart says "Memories" because I still get goosebumps when that part hits

yes same

CHAWNT
CHAWNT
CHAWNT
CHAWNT

Thread 2 has my "when I got this" story...

First four tracks are all immense.

"Radio Four" ranks among my favorite instrumentals.

"Swan Lake", one of the most evil songs ever.

what was it about 79/80 that produced so many amazing records that sound like nothing else

(xp) What's evil about it?

what was it about 79/80 that produced so many amazing records that sound like nothing else

― Luigi No...No!!! (Boring, Maryland)

mass unemployment in the US and UK

Don't know about the US but mass unemployment in the UK wasn't until later in the 80s.

xps I mean "evil" in a good way. The sheer intensity and the eeriness of the Tchaikovsky melody.

Words cannot explain.

voted poptones but not any bad choices here

I am admittedly American (but know too much about the UK for my own good) and i have a crackpot theory about the public affordable art colleges the UK used to have and student grants that allowed people to live cheap without working and form bands.

oh yeah I've read that theory a few times and it makes sense -- look at the early '70s period too.

Also the dole until governments started cracking down on benefits claimants.

... which they started doing after they'd squandered North Sea Oil moment on keeping unemployment figures unnaturally high.

Very very hard to pick a favourite here, but I might go slightly outside the box and go with Radio 4, as uncomplicatedly beautiful as they ever got.

Swan Lake into Poptones into Careering is one of the best stretches of any album ever.

Punk rock opening up music to people who otherwise would have been unlikely to get involved in making music. Obviously.

... or would have toiled away in obscurity otherwise.

I was just wondering when the Enterprise Allowance Scheme started - didn't really get going until 1983.

Introduced nationwide in 1983 against a background of mass unemployment in Britain, it went on to fund 325,000 people, including Creation Records head Alan McGee, Superdry founder Julian Dunkerton, artist Tracey Emin and the founders of Viz magazine.

METAL POLL
second edition POLL

― Kim Kimberly, Wednesday, July 15, 2026 9:54 PM (yesterday)

I did my research too and still missed it. I searched Public Image Ltd, PIL and Metal Box. When I searched Metal Box I'm sure "METAL POLL" showed up but didn't even click on it because I didn't think it had anything to do with this album. Those polls happened in May of 2009 and September of 2009, within months of each other. Anyways, sorry for not catching it.

I should have searched Second Edition but didn't even think to. I was going to even aka that in the title of this poll but decided not to because it didn't seem like the name of this album. I'm probably wrong there tho.

nah this one's fine as is, it'll probably get way more votes this time. unimpeachably great record.

xxp i just posted the old polls for reference... it's definitely worth doing again.

Thanks for pointing it out

I had heard “Rise” and the Sex Pistols, then Second Edition. My initial reaction was a solid WTF.

Anyone tell me what the 12 of death disco is?
A Part 1 ½ Mix 6:42
B Part 2 Megga Mix 6:51

Part one is a fuller version of the single a-side (The lp version has more overdubs)

Part 2 is "Fodderstompf" reduced to a reverb heavy rhythm track and bass. Has been described as the most boring record ever, but I do enjoy it, often loud in the car. Supposedly was one of the tracks from the "US Remake" version of the first album.

Hope that helps.

Fuller as in longer

Cheers Mark.

Been enjoying listening to this run of album polls Bee Ok, thanks.
I wonder if the winner will get more than 5 votes this time.

― bert newtown, Wednesday, July 15, 2026 11:43 PM (two days ago)

Glad you're enjoying it!

what was it about 79/80 that produced so many amazing records that sound like nothing else

― Luigi No...No!!! (Boring, Maryland), Thursday, July 16, 2026 7:25 AM (yesterday)

I know, right. This set of albums has been a lot of fun. I'm sad this is the last one for this series. I will do another set in the future tho.

The Suit rearranged my brain the most. Didn't know what a dub bassline was yet, and the venom was the closest to Rotten

It's hard for me get past the fact that "Albatross" is sung by John Lydon. Every other song, he sings on, sounds like John Lydon.

Well, like i say, he was definitely going for a Jim Morrison performance.

Voted "Careering", could have voted for almost any track though.

I need to listen to this again but first answer is Poptones. The base on this record is insane, Jah Wobble is so great on it. I know he hwas done tons of other stuff but does any of that work approach these heights?

and I see there are quite a few threads on him and his work, this one looks good Jah Wobble S/D

Happy birthday, Keith Levene!

xxp bass of course not base!

Something I've often thought on listening to "Bad Baby".

Only John L could think that 10:30 is rising early.

post-punk gave us these amazing guitar gods like Levene, John McGeoch, Andy Gill

geordie walker

Alan Rankine

Could not find a full length concert clip for this tour but did find this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWTwT4N-9BU

This might be even better:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKFLu-HiL-4

I used to have this on compact disc - it came in a little metal CD-sized container, with a bit of sponge to stop the disc wobbling about. Even in the heady days of 1996, when vinyl was dead, I remember thinking that it was naff (the container, not the album). I ended up using it as an air rifle target because it was obviously never going to be a valuable antique, although I see that one seller on Discogs.com is asking £47.36 for it.

I was drawn to the album by Greatest Hits So Far, which has one track from the band's first record, but three - "Careering", "Death Disco", and "Memories" - from Box. I remember reading Lester Bangs' review in Psychotic Reactions, and this bit struck me (about "Memories") because that's the bit where the drums suddenly go through a Leslie speaker, or a phaser, or whatever:

"Then, on the album version, the whole sound shifts, into a new and hotter realm. It's something I have never in my life heard anyone do in the middle of a track, and as the grooves begin to burn themselves away he resumes".

Interesting opening lines, too. "I don't give a fuck about John Lydon. I suspect him to be a pompous little putz. Let him blab in NME. Still, I think he knows what he's doing, and PiL is the proof. Because The Metal Box is one of the strongest records I've heard in years."

I have a 3CD in a tin version from 2009, the best Japan could offer for a mini-LP style reproduction. It restores the original sequence but does feel a bit shruggy as an object. With the vinyl original you feel like you're going to destroy the records every time you try and get them in an out of the tin. This is part of the reason I sold mine, but I kinda wish I'd held on to it because it's "the thing."

Voted "No Birds."

I wanted a 3cd version but using 3" size cds in a 3.2" circular pill box.

But, hey.

I also have the 2000s 3CD tin version, I don't even own Second Edition. Just making it difficult for myself.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I got the 3CD tin version too but it's basically data backup because I ended up burning a CD that has it all on one disc in the same order (and two substitutions, using the 12" mixes of "Death Disco" and "Memories" instead of the album versions). I must say, I see the benefit of having it broken up into three LP's: I've fallen asleep during the back half, and needing to change sides probably keeps you awake and focused for the entire duration.

Albatross or Poptones surely. Radio 4 so haunting of a coda now firmly lodged in all my memories of this utterly classic album. Will be listening loudly from top to bottom on my commute tomorrow. Cheers all and thanks to Bee as always.

xpost I managed to get the 1-disc promo of the 3cd version. Kinda missing the point, but the tracks are all remastered so there's that.

I used to have this on compact disc - it came in a little metal CD-sized container, with a bit of sponge to stop the disc wobbling about. Even in the heady days of 1996, when vinyl was dead, I remember thinking that it was naff (the container, not the album).

I've still got this version. The more that the metal container rusts, the better it looks.

Haha i have that version too and was wondering whether to derust it, maybe seal it with some gloss top coat!

metal box was almost impossible for a suburban aussie teen to hear in 1979. Even reading about it came 3 months after the fact via the sea mail delivery of the nme.

I got the nz version of second ed 2x vinyl eventually...

Levene is astonishing.

I think its poptones for me.

bought second edition on cassette in 1990 while doggedly collecting all the alternative albums on the rolling stone 80s albums issue, it is certainly the weirdest thing on that list, surpassing beefheart, zen arcade and daydream nation. pulling up that list i see pil was listed near the end, between cyndi lauper and that forgettable robbie robertson lp. i’m sure i had heard rise on 120 minutes but not the sex pistols (i was 16 and this was kansas). loved albatross in particular but enjoyed the whole thing. i’ve probably changed favorite tracks through almost all of them, except graveyard and maybe chant. past few years i’d say it’s socialist.

i’ve tried to listen to the original metal box track list but i prefer the second edition running order, i’d love to know why the order was changed, was that levene’s doing or someone else’s.

albatross is near the top of a list of about 30 songs i’d love to have an early fadeout function for on streaming services, i have it on a playlist of dirgey postpunk but you don’t need 10 minutes of it when you’re not playing the album.

i’d love to know why the order was changed, was that levene’s doing or someone else’s.

I think it just had to do with the track lengths and how they worked out on LP vs 45 RPM 12"

but yeah if there was an aesthetic reason I'd love to know

I finally got an original box a few years back from ex-ILX poster 69, but I also keep a sweet Japanese pressing of Second Edition because it has all the lyrics and different art.

That's actually a good point. Mastering for the original 45 rpm 12" and 33 1/3 double-LP vinyl probably makes a bigger difference here than anywhere else. I've never heard an original 12" copy, but wasn't the original release cut as hot as possible for a 12" record? Given the need for wider grooves and other complications like inner groove distortion, I could see them moving things around or at least someone advising them to due to all those issues. Since you have to flip the original 12" records so much, with sides usually having only one or two tracks, the "flow" you'd normally think about for an album doesn't really play out as much either, so I could see technical issues determining the track list even more.

I should've looked at Second Edition first - I didn't realize all they did was swap two tracks around. Same factors apply, but probably not as much as I thought.

can confirm that the OG cut is hot as hell, it's great

Fell in love with this record with the Second Edition version- the first difficult music I took on after a year or two immersed in punk. Later, as a broke ratbastard, I saw my first copy of the canister in a market stall and shoplifted it.

Several years later I was living off walkmans and boomboxes and I lent my vinyl to my brother. When I got my LPs back someone had made off with the Second Edition.

Then in the early 2000s a beloved record store got its inventory burgled - thousands of new CDs. I put the Metal Box in an eBay auction to raise money for them and alleviate lingering guilt, but I guess vinyl was dead enough at that moment there were no takers at $50!

Some time shortly after that the canister started corroding. One of the discs is a little warped now. The original owner stuck an NME advert with the lyrics in the canister, written out exactly like on the Second Edition gatefold.

I don’t think I’d clutch it leaving a burning building but it’s the rare chunk of classic music I’ve never tired of.

I got SE in 1998 as one should: as a free CD as part of one's Columbia House membership. I still lived at home and while my mind unwound listening to "Poptones" -- a track as long as a complete orbit of the earth around the sun -- my mom knocked on my door wondering what the HELL I was listening to.

shout out to the plastic box for including the poptones/chant/careering peel session, the death disco 12”, the graveyard vocal version (“another”), and especially home is where the heart is, which was assembled for the flowers of romance single but feels more like a metal box track. annoying it didn’t include the memories 12” (or flowers of romance 12”)

lol Alfred <3

One day I think in 1993 I was in a Strawberries where a clerk was opening all the longboxes they still had and resealing the individual CDs. I had already bought a copy of Second Edition on a trip to Canada, which didn't have a longbox (despite being a US import there). So I asked the clerk if I could have the SE longbox when he unwrapped that one. It was on my bedroom wall (with a couple dozen others) for many years.

I have the 4 Men With Beards pressing of Metal Box from 2006 and to its credit, 20 years later, the tin looks the exact same as the day I bought it, none of the corrosion that an original Virgin copy experiences.

If I ever feel like listening to these songs though, I generally skip it or my vinyl copy of Second Edition and play the singles or a bootleg 12” I have of different versions of “Albatross” and “Death Disco”: https://www.discogs.com/release/780079-Pil-Albatross-Death-Disco

whoa that looks super cool

I've got the 4 Men With Beards one and have never tried listening to it against another copy after all the people chimed in years later to claim it's just a vinyl pressing of the CD :/

I get why it has an anti-rust coating but maybe it'd be cooler if it rusted a little

test

I'm voting for "Poptones" AKA "Starship Trooper" because I remember it was the most striking the first time I heard it.

I'm a little surprised at all the love for "Albatross", I find it more of a low-key scene-setter than a standout. It's improved in this format by sharing a side with "Memories" instead of sitting on side 1 of 6 all by itself.

I've been listening to the Live At Rockpalast 1983, with the pick-up band that isn't as bad as people say (though the record itself is in mono in accordance with its TV origins, I guess). The most interesting track is a breakneck run through "Chant":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ5MTYbi-Bo

I ended up voting for "Memories" just over "Swan Lake" and "Poptones."

i think i remember *knowing* in 1983 junior year that my second edition cassette was what i oughta to pay attention to, tho it was not obvious music. that and chronic town. which was hella obvious. music obsessions at that stage move so fast.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

the tracklist for second edition on vinyl is strange, sides a and b are just sides a, b and c of metal box in order, each side 15 minutes of music; but side c is less than ten minutes long and only one song with vocals, just socialist/graveyard/the suit. side d is bad baby/no birds/chant/radio 4, which is a more reasonable 18 and a half minutes. if bad baby had been on side c, it would have been more balanced, but perhaps with a 33 it doesn’t matter… naturally there are some cassette and eight track issues that move things around a bit more to achieve savings on tape length. can you imagine the album starting albatross/no birds/graveyard?

I bought this album on CD for $10 when I was 18 and owned and read The Rough Guide To Rock like it was a novel. It beautiful but I never understood its resonance, I guess-- reading that Radiohead were inspired by it left me flummoxed, like how, precisely? I don't hear that at all. Oddly enough 'that moment' on "Memories" influenced me enormously as a musician, there was nothing more life-changing than having everything snap into focus and John sing "I could be wrong", like, best-recorded expression of indecision in history

birdisthe word wrote:
Mastering for the original 45 rpm 12" and 33 1/3 double-LP vinyl probably makes a bigger difference here than anywhere else. I've never heard an original 12" copy, but wasn't the original release cut as hot as possible for a 12" record?

I have the original 3x45 12" metal can and can confirm that the mastering is such quality that my mid-level home stereo set sounds like a club sound system when playing those 12"s.

That's a good quantity of voters, well done and a timely (re)

I dunno about hot mastering or versions but it definitely made more sense when i cranked the vinyl UP

I have the original 3x45 12" metal can and can confirm that the mastering is such quality that my mid-level home stereo set sounds like a club sound system when playing those 12"s.

― jvc, Tuesday, July 21, 2026 3:55 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

The last time I really cranked it, I had my volume just shy of half and the windows were rattling

Those of you with a pressing of the original Metal Box, do any of you have any of the Front Line releases from that time period? As the triple 12” was inspired by the bass on reggae records, I wonder if Virgin had been able to achieve that from all the reggae records they’d been releasing in the lead up.