10 Perfect Post Punk Albums With No Bad Songs
3. Metal Box- Public Image Ltd. (1979)
By 1978 the Sex Pistols were over and Johnny Rotten was fronting his new band PIL. Their second album serves to represent the transition from punk to post punk both symbolically and musically.
It's an album that sees the integration of the punk attitude, into a sound that that diverts significantly from the one-punch knock-out approach of the Sex Pistols. Metal Box, opens up with a song that couldn't be further from the brutally direct message of God Save The Queen. Taking on an art-house experimental approach, Albatross, relentlessly sprawls on for over 10 minutes. With a driving drum beat and eerily arpeggiated guitar part, Rotten free sings his way through a range of ambiguous lyrical ideas. It was a bold way to open up the album.
This is as close to progressive art punk as you're likely to get. Continuing with an unsettling drive, the rhythm sections form a steady beat throughout the record, laying the groundwork for strangled guitar melodies and Rotten's bizarre vocals. It shares a similar aesthetic with Joy Divisions, Unknown Pleasures, in the way it perseveres with its overall tone.
Particular highlights come in the form of Graveyard, and Socialist, which attempt to shift the ambience, slightly. This is an album that requires some work to enjoy. If you're only familiar with Rotten's material with the Sex Pistols, you'll be surprised by the creative weirdness he exhibits here.