DESCRIPTION:
Public Image, LTD
Album: The Flowers of Romance (US)
Warner Brothers Records BSK 3536
Released 04/10/1981

12" single
The Flowers of Romance (extended version)/Home Is Where the Heart Is
Virgin Records VS 397-12 (UK)
Released March 1981

Side One
Four Walls 0:11
Track 8 4:52
Phenagen 8:07
Flowers of Romance 10:42
Under the House 13:37

Side Two
Hymie's Him 18:04
Banging the Door 21:23
Go Back 26:08
Francis Massacre 29:53

The Single
Side A
Flowers of Romance (extended) 33:24

Side B
Home Is Where The Heart Is 39:05


So, the Sex Pistols blew up. Johnny Rotten went back to his real name, John Lydon, and formed Public Image Ltd.

The Flowers of Romance is PIL's third album. It's relentlessly non-commercial. In fact, at times it seems almost studied, calculated, in its desire to put the listener off.

I wouldn't begin to classify it . . . the Wikipedia article applies the genres experimental rock, post-punk, and post-rock. It all seems silly. If anything I'd call it World Music Before World Music Was A Thing.

The music is percussion-focused, but not in any visceral way, as in hip hop. There are a lot of found sounds, odd instruments, etc.

I find the biggest problem to be Lydon's voice. His whiny, sing-songy tone was perfect for iconoclastic punk, but much less so for music that is going to take itself this seriously.

Overall, The Flowers of Romance has some good ideas and is . . . intermittently interesting. But percussion, odd sounds and noises, and John Lydon's voice, minus any real songwriting, don't add up to a really good album.

The 12" UK single has an extended version of the title song from the album plus a non-album track, "Home Is Where The Heart Is."

Critically, the album was not so badly received. This is the sort of record critics are loath to really pan, lest their critic brethren brand them as Philistines. Britain's NME had this as the #15 album of the year. I wouldn't want to hear #20, is all I can say about that.

So, have a listen. One can admire the band's unmitigated chutzpah in turning this in to the record company, if nothing else.

The visuals are some shipwrecks, a storm on Lake Huron, and wildlife in the Serengeti. Somehow they just seemed to fit.