Metal Box

From Free net encyclopedia

Template:Album infobox

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 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.

Template:RS500

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. But 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.

Image:PIL - Metal Box original open.jpg

Image:PiLMetalBox.jpg

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.

[edit]

Personnel

A paper insert lists the album's personnel as "John Lydon - Keith Levene - Wobble - Jeanette Lee - Dave Crowe," though the latter two individuals were the band's videographer and accountant, respectively. There are at least three uncredited drummers: Martin Atkins, Richard Dudanski, and David Humphrey. The credits also do not mention that Lydon was the vocalist, Levene played electric guitar and synthesizer, and Wobble was the bassist.

[edit]

Track listing

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"
[edit]

External links

  • Fodderstompf (fan-based site with extensive discographical information)
Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/Metal_Box"