Public Image Limited ‎– Metal Box

I did have two copies of this but my idiot brother decided to give one away to one of hid friends when I was abroad in the Army.

I've been listening to this album for over 20 years and have only just had the opportunity to listen to the 45-RPM cuts. I was overcome, goosebumps shimmering over my entire skin, tears filling my eyes, and was filled with yearning to melt into each track. The difference in definition (in comparison to the 2xLP reissue) is not subtle.

Imagine a cake, with heroin used as baking powder.

By far the most interesting PIL album out there, with Wobble's rhythms... well, wobbling in a weird kind of reverberating, pensive ultra-funk, and colliding with Levene's guitars in perfect visual harmony, like waves crashing on a cliff to form something that is so much more penetrating than either water or rock...
And Lydon, in top form, is the light-house in this film, floating over the music in a warbling, dream-state pitch, whining words of death, despair, and disconnect - like the nanny of your nightmares singing you a lullaby in a darkened dungeon as she puts you to sleep on a bed of sickly-sweet, sticky, foamy marshmallows...

What this amounts to is a unique fusion of dub, experimental noise, and post-punk; with gentle musical touches of atmosphere and texture decorating the landscape like splatters of paint on calm canvas.

And then, on the last part of the album, it starts jumping up and down in a hallucinogenic, half-hearted anger-fit, spouting dismembered punk bits all around the room like some bi-polar sprinkler watering the ruins of a concrete garden... before settling down for a dreamy, synth-poppy, neo-classical instrumental bit, and it's done.

Wow, it's so much pleasure to hear this album again, especially as this particular edition not only looks phenomenal with its logo-embedded canister, but also sounds terrific, unlike previous CD releases (but very much, needs to be said, like the vinyl one I've spent many a Codeine-infused night listening to).

Whether a punk, electronic, Dub, Funk, or Experimental Art-Rock fan - you really have to have this album on your shelf, preferably as either this edition or the vinyl release.

Beautiful.