Customer Reviews

Compact Disc

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

To use a blanket statement, Johnny Rotten was anarchy incarnate. But this overlooked classic proved that John Lydon always knew exactly what he was doing; this album was his revenge on those who never believed or lost faith after PiL's previous two albums.
It's also PiL's first bold step towards a more accessible sound.

"Album" (aka Cassette, Compact Disc) has a distinct pace to it; "FFF" starts the album off with a bang (literally) and is an amazing, acrobatic rocker about so-called friends falling by the wayside during tough times. The song flows directly into "Rise," PiL's biggest hit song.

"Rise" starts off slowly, building up in tension as it goes along. Sex Pistol fans will be shocked; Lydon had never sung before so melodically, so tunefully. But as the song, purportedly about South African aparthied, pounds along Lydon's careful delivery tenses and eventually returns to his snarl from classics like "Anarchy in the UK" or "Memories."

The next cut, "Fishing," has one of those angular, snarling riffs that Post-Punk made famous, but with a Heavy Metal edge. "Fishing" is the heaviest song on this album and Lydon's sneering vocals are in full force, but even at his meanest he keeps things melodic and amazingly catchy.

"Round" follows the pattern of fast-slow-fast-slow that this album follows; it opens with deep bass and slow, rhythmic steel drums. This song remains subdued and only picks up in tempo towards the end as Lydon begins a circular chant about nuclear holocaust.

"Bags" is dismissed by some as the album's weakest track, but it's always been a favorite of mine. Big drums, deep bass, goth-pop keyboard lines, and one of Lydon's best performances. Ever. The man's melodic sensibility is immeasurable. For an antichrist.

"Home" was a pretty big single in Britain, almost as big as "Rise." It's easy to see why. The tight rhythym section plays it steady as Lydon proceeds to scare the living poop out of you. And the heavy metal guitar solo has to be heard to be believed. Great keyboards, maybe a little overcooked with the back-up singers.

Actually, "Home" breaks up the fast-slow-fast pacing that makes this album so brilliant; this has always been, in my opinion, the one flaw here. The pacing of this album makes it much more tense, and enjoyable. This may be knit-picking, but I think this detracts from the album as a whole.

Well, on to Album's closer, "Ease." I'm not really too keen on the quasi-Australian intro of the song; it sounds fine but I think it's a bit too long before the drums crash through, followed by the rest of the band. We're only talking about (maybe) 90 seconds of music, but I think it could have been done in about 30. Once the song get going a meditative mood sets in. The keyboards' high notes make for wonderful drama, and Lydon returns to his tuneful, melodic voice from "Rise." Overall, a fine way to end a classic, albiet blemished, album.

Some people refer to this as "Johnny's metal album," but it's not. No heavy metal album, particularly from the dismal 1980s, ever packed the stark dynamics captured here. PiL has always been about attitude, intelligence, and originality.
This album packs all the above in droves.

A stunning return to form. As assembled by producer Bill Laswell, there's not really a PiL to speak of - it's basically Lydon and a group of session musicians - but who's complaining when these guests include Steve Vai, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Ginger Baker? With its emphasis on big guitars and big drums, "Album" was written off by the unenlightened as PiL going stadium rock, but Lydon's confrontational lyrics and caterwaul vocals, and the abundance of Eastern melodies, help steer this away from the realm of conventional 80s metal. "Anger is an energy" is the mantra of "Rise": one of PiL's finest moments ever, the song manages to be both a tribute to Lydon's Irish heritage and also a scathing indictment of Apartheid torture practices. Lydon's impassioned vocal presence has never sounded so graceful. Elsewhere, the album is rife with surprising and very effective musical flourishes: never is this more evident than on the closing "Ease," a beautiful, monumental mood/rock piece with synth, sitar and didgeridoo (and a killer Vai guitar solo). In a marked contrast to the sporadic quality of the two previous PiL studio albums, there's no filler here: EVERY track is a highlight. "FFF" is a rollicking opener in which Lydon lashes out at a former friend/colleague ("Farewell my fairweather friend/On you no one can depend"). Lydon continues the apocalyptic themes of "World Destruction" (his 1985 single collaboration with Afrika Baambattaa and Laswell) on "Round" ("Mushrooms on the horizon") and the mistanthropic, catchy numbers "Fishing" ("Talking to you is a waste of time/Go crawl back into your dustbin"), "Bags," and "Home" ("Better days will never be"). Easily PiL's most essential 80s moment (apologies to all those "Flowers Of Romance" fans), "Album" is second only to "Metal Box" as the best PiL album ever. It's an extraordinary, non-condescending and underrated highlight of a largely boring musical landscape (a.k.a. the 1980s). NOTE: in keeping with the generic packaging of this release, the LP was titled "Album," the CD "Compact Disc" and the cassette "Cassette."

Suprised this old album has not been reviewed before, as it is the most accessible piece of work ever put out by Lydon. If it lacks the raw anger of the Pistols era or the drug-induced dysfunction of earlier PiL offerings, it surely makes up for it in the sheer quality of the musicianship and the clarity and force of Lydon's vocal delivery. In some senses this is a top quality melodic rock-pop album; the searing guitar solo at the end of "Ease" is simply outstanding, as are the keyboard textures around the single "Rise". Lydon's voice is at it's most ruthless; the shouting and atonal straining of the Pistols era replaced by a focused, bitter, sneering but composed narrative. Lydon has always been about truth - he has a coruscating intolerance of hypocrisy and a surprisingly puritan moralistic streak. His cynical humour here is at it's sharpest "...logic is lost in your ....cranial abbatoir" he mocks in "FFF"

This is the defining album where Johnny Rotten ends the process of growing up to become John Lydon. Musical maturity allied to the unique vocal core of Lydon himself. It can never surpass "Never Mind The Bollocks" as an album, and there is probably no single song that rises head and shoulders above the rest in the way that say "This is Not a Love Song" does. But it remains my favourite core Lydon offering.

One of the best post-punk albums of the 80s, hands down. Steve Vai, Bernie Worrel, Ginger Baker, Bill Laswell, Ryuchi Sakamoto, and of course, John Lydon. Every track is a stunner, lushly arranged and mixed, brutal drums, throbbing bass. A perfect album. A surprisingly overlooked and underated album.

Rotton (lydon) fufills his talent shown with the sex Pistols on this record.There are three PiL cd's to own this one and This what you want-This is what you get are with out questions to of the greatest alternative projects ever the third Flowers of Romance is scary in a way the talking heads later changed the face of music without the drums of it there would of been no furs first effort of need for the Heads fear of light effort. The track Flowers of Romance is Rottons answer to the death of friend /band mate Sid Vicious "you take the flowers/ I'll take the furniture/ start all over again/flowers of romance" years later the drums of this album still haunt me.Rise off this effort here is amazing. Home is a classic, but for me I will always remeber dancing with my party friends to Round with the background chorus"mushrooms alter the horizon" nuclear war/scare of the time or drugs it takes me back to my college days. Get these CDS!

...this sucker is as "legitimate" as anything Lydon's done before or since. As soon as anyone starts delving into PiL's body of work, it is inevitable that they'll get a lot of static involving "ALBUM/CASSETTE/COMPACT DISC"- much of it from the purists who insist that somehow this thing was a compromise, a betrayal of the pure experimental/revolutionary ethic that PiL had (just read some of the previous reviews likening it to the works of INXS and Genesis.) Stuff and nonsense! Incoherence does not automatically equal credibility- and when you let this screaming, blasting hellcat of an album out of its deceptively generic package, you'll see why craft can and does matter. With this polished crew backing him, Lydon's bile goes down easier, gets past one's defenses against "art for art's sake"- and then eats right in.
Steve Vai's guitar is matched by Lydon's own gruff howling- and Ginger Baker's rhythm makes one want to- well, RISE and stomp along. This isn't for the laserium or beer commercial crowd- one listen to "FFF", "Fishing", or "Bags" , and you'll know why the man once wore a "I hate Pink Floyd" shirt...

Album got me through my final year of college, when I was sure that the rest of the world was sneering at me. Listening to the samples here it reminds me of how far music went from 1975 to 1985, and how little progress has been made since.

Surely we are due for a Lydon, Eno, Fripp, Wall of Noise, Cure, Gang of 4 revival. This was music that was attempting to be something other than the noise at hand.

I still prefer the original PIL album, the first 3 record set in the silver tin. But this seems to have refined the style to something palatable for semi-mass consumption.

What has gone wrong with pop music????

I saw Tony Williams (the great jazz drummer) in the 80's and my friend brought this record to have him sign.
Somehow he knew he played on it? And, Tony SIGNED it! So, I guess he DID play on it.
Pretty weird, huh?
I like this record alot... thats my review.

Balls to the wall KIller album by one of rocks most original bands. I bought this album back in the 80's not really knowing what to expect... I LOVED IT! I've been a fan ever since,well...up and till they broke up. I just purchased their box set, it cost me $80!!!, but it was worth it. "FFF","Home" and "Ease" are three of the most jamming songs I've ever had the pleasure of listening to, finger blistering guitar work, pounding drums, thumping bass, Johnny's acidy vocals...I LOVE IT! BUY THIS CD and crank it up. WAY UP!

Forget comparing anything you hear on this to anything the Sex Pistols ever did. Comparing apples and oranges would be MUCH easier. But if you want to hear some of the best work Steve Vai has ever done, THIS IS THE PLACE! His mind-bending virtuosity, strange as it sounds, is right at home here, spraying the indestructible pulses created by an accomplished rhythm section with scales and riffs you won't believe are possible. If you're a guitar player, save yourself some time and start feeling inferior this instant.