Metal Box

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Metal Box
Metal Box cover
Studio album by Public Image Ltd.
Released November 23, 1979
Recorded 1979
Genre Post-punk
Length 60:29
Label Virgin Records
Producer(s) Public Image Ltd.
Professional reviews
Public Image Ltd. chronology
First Issue
(1978)		 Metal Box
(1979)		 Flowers of Romance
(1981)


Metal Box also refers to a green cube in the Super Mario Bros. series that has appeared in two video games.

Metal Box is an album by Public Image Ltd. released in 1979 by Virgin Records. The title refers to the album's original packaging, which consists of a metal 16mm film canister embossed with the band's logo and containing three 12" 45 rpm records (although the final tracks/side are 33rpm.) The music was reissued in 1980 as a double album titled Second Edition.

The music is famous for its abstract, avant-garde nature, including a huge bass sound derived from dub music, for a unique, literally "metallic" guitar sound (guitarist Keith Levene played aluminum-constructed guitars), and for its sonic high-fidelity due to the 12", 45rpm format. In 2003, the album was ranked number 469 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Contents

[edit] Packaging

The Metal Box packaging was innovative and surprisingly inexpensive, costing little more to the label than printed sleeves for equivalent 12" releases (although Virgin did ask for a third of the band's advance back due to the cost[1]). After an initial release of 60,000 units, the album was re-released in 1980 as Second Edition, a double-LP in a gatefold sleeve.

Metal Box opened
Metal Box opened
Metal Box CD release 'film can'
Metal Box CD release 'film can'

The original metal canister idea caught on a few years later during the compact disc era. By the late 1980s a number of CDs were packaged in metal canisters, including Prince's special edition of the Batman soundtrack. In 1990, the concept came full circle, when the compact disc release of Metal Box employed a smaller version of the original metal canister, holding a single disc and small paper insert inside.

The Second Edition sleeve art consists of distorted photographs of the band members, achieving a funhouse mirror effect. (The front cover is a photo of Keith Levene.) The song lyrics are provided on the rear cover; these were originally printed in a magazine advertisement and not included with Metal Box. The band initially wanted the album released with a lyric sheet but no track titles; the United Kingdom version of Second Edition appears as the band intended, with lyrics on the back cover, but no titles, and "PiL" logo labels on all four sides of the vinyl. The American edition of Second Edition has track titles both on the back cover and the labels.

[edit] Personnel

A paper insert lists PIL's members as "John Lydon - Keith Levene - Wobble - Jeanette Lee - Dave Crowe," though the latter two individuals were the band's videographer and accountant, respectively. Neither individual was exactly efficient: There is no video for any of the Metal Box tracks.

PIL didn't have a permanent drummer at the time of recording, so the drummers are uncredited. Later interviews with the people involved have established the drummers to be: David Humphrey http://www.bluedrums.co.uk (tracks 1 and 3), Richard Dudanski (2,6,7,10,11), Keith Levene (4,12 and probably 8), Jah Wobble (5), Martin Atkins (9).

Levene played all instruments on "Radio 4".

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Metal Box

The track listing for the original release is as follows:

  1. "Albatross"
  2. "Memories"
  3. "Swan Lake"
  4. "Poptones"
  5. "Careering"
  6. "No Birds"
  7. "Graveyard"
  8. "The Suit"
  9. "Bad Baby"
  10. "Socialist"
  11. "Chant"
  12. "Radio 4"

"Swan Lake" is an alternate version of the earlier PiL single "Death Disco".

[edit] Second Edition

The track order is slightly different from that of Metal Box. Also, this configuration inserts pauses between some tracks where Metal Box did not.

Second Edition employed a gatefold sleeve.
Second Edition employed a gatefold sleeve.
  1. "Albatross"
  2. "Memories"
  3. "Swan Lake"
  4. "Poptones"
  5. "Careering"
  6. "Socialist"
  7. "Graveyard"
  8. "The Suit"
  9. "Bad Baby"
  10. "No Birds"
  11. "Chant"
  12. "Radio 4"

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Reynolds, Simon: "Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984", page 216. Penguin Press, 2005.

[edit] External links

  • Fodderstompf (fan-based site with extensive discographical information)
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