Public Image Ltd. - The Flowers of Romance
#169
By Rob Haneisen
April 10 1981
Public Image Ltd.
The Flowers of Romance
Genre: Torture techno pseudo art
Allen’s Rating: 2 out of 5
Rob’s rating: 1 out of 5
I saw Public Image Ltd in 1994 at Brandeis College outside Boston (I was not a student at the artsy school, I was a public college kid from Fitchburg who liked the Sex Pistols). I remember liking PIL’s performance, although that affection may have been influenced by how horrible the opening act (Big Audio Dynamite II) was.
John Lydon as a performer that night was comical. At one point he reached into the rear of his trousers, pulled out some kind of white object and yelled into the microphone, “Who wants my sanitary napkin?” He then threw it into the crowd.
He also later tried to goad the Boston college kids into revulsion by saying, “You’re such an L.A. crowd.”
Nonsense aside, I thought PIL that night was pretty good – I went in knowing the songs from their latest album and some of their older hits.
Now I know why they did not play one song from “The Flowers of Romance.”
Here’s some quick reactions to what I thought while listening to all nine tracks.
“If they gave a Dalek from Dr. Who a drum machine and said you have 40-odd minutes to record an album, this is what it would sound like.”
“I should at least give them 1 star because to sound this bad you actually have to try hard.”
“Maybe I’m not sophisticated enough to understand that even shit has redeeming qualities beyond smelling, sounding and likely tasting god-awful. Flies. Flies need shit. So this is an album made for flies. Very hungry flies.”
“I would love to have been in the room when the record company was delivered this album. How the hell could they market it? Come listen to 40-minutes of a former punk star lose his damn mind. Oh, and there are drum machines too!”
“Drugs are bad, OK?”
There is not one actual song on this album. Each track is just Lydon wailing in his nasal tone lyrics meant to sound profound when delivered alongside the tortuous throb and beat of a drum machine. Occasionally a synth or bass guitar is thrown in to spread the blame around.
This must be deliberately bad. I mean, the second song on the album is titled, “Track 8.”
In general, I do not like artsy college rock from the 80s because many of those bands forgot they were writing songs, not statements with musical instrument accompaniment. That said, I really like some PIL songs. “Rise” is great. “Public Image Limited” is fantastic. At their best, PIL is kind of the poppier version of the Sex Pistols. This is not PIL at their best. I’m really not sure what this is.
https://open.spotify.com/album/3yCaex5R09GXgwnsOCotg3?si=tPpTq7b1RLux7XCM5jJEWA
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