#493 Public Image Ltd. - Metal Box (Second Edition)

Some list of 80's albums. These days I'm just looking for anything getting any acclaim at all that I haven't heard before.

If punk was angry, and hardcore punk was very angry, and post-punk was icily confrontational, this is hardcore post punk. Public Image Limited does not give a shit about you or your listening experience, the songs exist as lumbering, tumbling beasts that chew innocents between the gears with nary a chip in a tooth. Where Gang of Four had sheetmetal guitars, here the chords are jagged tin thin, killing by a thousand clean cuts, while the bass lumbers relentless, John Lydon sounding like he's being beaten and insinuating a beating in equal measure. It's the dark alley where no one mugs you, but the alley never ends and the threat of mugging is ever-present.

The songs go on and on, with a shift here, a gear change there, but the tempo is relentless and inexorable, the groove indominable, defying any desire you have for release or reprieve. At times it rocks. But for the most part is steadfastly refuses to do so, and while that restraint is admirable, its better for admiring than listening to.

This was also an obvious inspiration for dancepunk to come generations later (especially Liars, but especially The Rapture circa Echoes) and while this is far more groundbreaking and more pure, Liars in particular improved on the formula by alternating deep alienation and the occiasional thrown bone. This album's a beast of impressive engineering, but it isn't any damn fun to listen to, so I'll cut it off with a hedgey 3.5/5

You might like this if: you like relentless, unflinchingly icy grooves, droning and wailing into the night