Metal Box (Second Edition) album cover
Metal Box (Second Edition)

Public Image Ltd

1980
Virgin

Here it is—the big fuck you, John Lydon really and truly leaving Johnny Rotten behind. That doesn’t mean you have to eat the vegetables your elders keep forcing on you. This may be legendary but a chunk of it is fairly lax. These are jams, one or two figures stretched out for five to ten minutes. Lydon is disgusted, Wobble is liquid tar, Keith Levene is diagonal and crispy, and a variety of drummers (including Levene) fill in the blanks. “Swan Lake” and “Poptones” are masterpieces of menace, no less spooked out today than they were forty years ago. “Radio 4” is also a complete gem of synth work from Leven, an imaginary theme for a station that did not yet exist.

Sasha Frere-Jones

Who also suggested

If you select your preferred streamer here, we will save your preference and link to that platform if possible. This can always be changed in the Settings menu.

Apple Music

If you’d like to prioritize Bandcamp if available, tap the Bandcamp logo.

Since some albums are only available on one service, you’ll still see logos for other services if the album is only available on that service.

Next