The Flowers of Romance album cover
The Flowers of Romance

Public Image Ltd

1981
Virgin

Not shockingly, the band implodes and off goes Wobble. A little shockingly, PiL makes their most scorching recording. “Four Enclosed Walls” is pure coffin-style claustrophobia made sound. “Flowers of Romance” is a very depressed cousin of Adam and the Ants, where the drums provide the melody. There is a real musicality here, which is probably the result of Martin Atkins playing his ass off and being properly recorded, along with Lydon and Levene doing their best mad scientist routines. Everyone plays all kinds of instruments—Lydon even plays bass and violin—and there is a focus here that’s absent from the albums before it. If Second Edition was a pint of Guinness, FOR is a cup of deli coffee, harsh and short.

Sasha Frere-Jones

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