The Flowers of Romance

Public Image Limited

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: 1981
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Ada
• ASIN: B000005JAC
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,869 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #50 in

  Music > Alternative Rock > Alternative Styles > Rock > Noise

Track Listings

1. Four Enclosed Walls

2. Track 8

3. Phenagen

4. Flowers of Romance

5. Under the House

6. Hymie's Him

7. Banging the Door

8. Go Back

9. Francis Massacre

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not like anything youve heard before, November 12, 2003

By	Music Expert "tom807" (East Coast, USA) - See all my reviews

I think it is important to know the circumstances that surrounded this album. First, Jah Wobble, their incredible bassist was no longer in the line-up. Second, was that in the UK this "tribal" thing was happening in the underground. It was very short lived, but spawned albums by Killing Joke, Adam and the Ants, Bow Wow Wow, and some others. Think what you want about the commercial dreck that came from the later two, but they were very popular with the influential British music press at the time. PIL stated that 'losing' Jah Wobble was not going to ruin the band. And furthermore, they could outdo everyone else being influence by this "tribal" thing with only one drummer, and without a bass player. With one hand tied behind their back, in a way. They were thumbing their collective noses (especially Lydon, of course) at the musical establishment - much like the Pistols did, but in a totally different manner.

What turned out was 'Flowers of Romance' -- the most un-pop, un-rock album ever to be considered to be placed within these categories. Drums pound, sometimes in tribal 4/4 time, sometimes in their own time signature, sometimes with no time signature that can be discerned. Vocals wail (to say the least), are clearly audible but much of the time lyrically incomprehensible. Instruments that sound like forty-foot sitars or tablas played by insane asylum inmates, and vocals by a man who does not have all his faculties in order. Yet one senses that perhaps he knows more than we do. It is a fantastic album. One must keep an open mind, though. It is not like their first album. It is not like 'Metal Box'(aka 'Second Edition'). It is most likely not like anything you've heard before. They seem to be inventing their own musical vocabulary. Many might think PIL are being influenced by World Music, but for the life of me I can't figure out which 'world' they are talking about.

One of my favorite PIL albums. One of the strangest, most marvelous albums of all time.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OMINOUSLY AND UNLISTENABLY PERECT, March 9, 2000

By	B. G. Shultz "pyfr" (Rockwall, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is not a CD for anyone who despises minimalism and dissonance. Pounding drums and Lydon's moans are the primary instruments on this album, and the latter is definitely not for everyone. Track 8 is a hypnotic look at lust, Four Enclosed Walls takes an Islamic perspective of the West, and Under The House is the only song I've ever heard that actually gives me the extreme chills (it seems to deal with a person who has seen a cadaver come out from underneath a house. Lydon's vocal delivery is that of a person whose mind has just been wiped out by such an inconceivable sight and the moans in the background are just disturbing). Francis Massacre is angry and frantic, as is the title track. All in all, this album creates a mood of tension and unfathomable darkness that Lydon has never explored since. Get this and Second Edition and you can boast having two of the most horrific yet beautiful albums ever made in your collection.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars BRILLIANTLY EVIL, November 2, 2004

By	J. Brady (PAWLEYS ISLAND, SC United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

These songs are like nightmares committed to tape. Very odd, but I quite like it. One of the strangest albums ever released by a major label. Every bit as good and as influential as Metal Box, although it sounds nothing like it.