Public Image Ltd – The Flowers Of Romance (1981)

December 26, 2024

This album is just one giant breakdown and I am absolutely here for it. The underpinning monolith that is Jah Wobble is very clearly absent, but despite this I would not say that PiL has suffered massively for his absence. Perhaps they are even more meandering and dreamy now than before, but they still do a good job of keeping their maddening songs grounded in a solid bass rumble. I can’t say that the other part of the rhythm section – the drums – are as responsible for this as the bass is; the drums too are often sailing off on flights of whimsy, going out of time with the other instruments (purposefully I’m sure) or into unusual swathes of fills and percussions.

Honestly, this is a mess, but it’s great haha