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9 | 
| Manufacturer: VIRGIN
Category: Digital Music Album
Buy New: $9.49
Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 23518
Genre: dance-pop-music
Media: MP3 Download
Running Time: 0 Minutes
ASIN: B000TENFXQ
Publication Date: May 30, 1989
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Thanks for the Memories September 28, 2006
Gustave O. Frey (Oracle, AZ)
The only time I ever saw PIL live was in 1982 or 83 at The Chance, a seedy little Carnegy Hall of a place in Poughkeepsie, NY. I was trying to get away from "the crowd" by retreating to the balcony when I ran into the band as they were entering the building stage left. Their faces were averted like Dali's Christ and they were definately not from Poughkeepsie. Some fellow Americans grabbed me so that I didn't follow them backstage and then I guess either be killed or have to go out and do a duet with Johnny.
Though I was never much of a fan of the Sex Pistols, this PIL album appeals to me because it effectively blends the heavy rock sounds of bands like Cream with the rhythms and melodies of New Wave, and weaves them into the greater tapestry of Mr. Lydon's punk.
All of the songs on "9" are great. The best example of the blending referred to above is on "Armada," which I think is a masterpiece. It exemplifies the same kind of extreme emphasis of a chord that Cream does in "Toad," the difference being that "Toad" piles on top of the tonic, whereas "Armada" celebrates the third chord of the standard blues progression, not the first one (the tonic). While both of these major chords are closely related, the third one is more intense and troubled and it makes "Armada" a more energized song. (If, in your head, you take the "Armada" cadences and its tip-toeing, entranced ditties and overlay onto them "Toad's" sustained harmonic resonances in the tonic, you'll be even more impressed with the beauty of this song.) In "Armada," the tonic peddles "pleasant platitudes" and is a chord the band can't wait to dump. What is "magnificent" is the third chord on which PIL's well-oiled guitars soon converge. To some, this music may represent a betrayal of what the Sex Pistols were about, but, to me, it represents its ultimate expression.
For the reviewers who complain about the background vocals on "9," I draw their attention to the masterful use of them in "Armada," where Johnny's 4-syllable "My-Ar-Ma-Da" is beautifully offset by the chorus' "Ar-Ma-Da." Very much the pirate, Mr. Lydon intends to "die on the water." Unlike Clapton's meandering lead in "Toad," "Armada's" lead comes out swinging. The only thing that mars this song is the end of "Armada," where, instead of shifting the emphasis onto the tonic and adding some of Clapton's sweet harmonic overtones, Lydon overstays his welcome on the third and the song crumbles under the weight of its own angst. The song needs to redeem the tonic, which it has heretofore scorned and the only way to do this is to give us a few measures of "Toad's" tonal harmonics at the end. (I've got some great Clapton-esque, wah-wah leads swirling in my head.) Otherwise, this music is pretty refined. I just discovered a somewhat hidden and very beautiful guitar riff on "Armada" that provides some of the harmonics missing at the end of the song.
My other favorites on "9" are all of the songs, especially "U.S.L.S. 1," which employs a great, almost classical, bass line right out of Beethoven. Some reviewer thinks it's about the US military, but I think it might be about the Pan Am flight that Libyans blew up over Scotland. The lyrics in general are great in and of themselves.
A damn FINE Disney soundtrack January 5, 2006
ostari (winston, maine)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I think the guy below was probably looking for some Sex Pistols-esque music, which, as Lydon admitted, really was "a sham". Punk was such a phony genre of music. It's even worse now. Too bad PIL isn't putting out any albums anymore, because they'd be a ray of sunshine and a huge dose of reality to all these I-Hate-Myself-And-Wanna-Die bands that are popular nowadays. It's true that the PIL albums from the generically-titled Compact Disk up to their final That What is Not are very Pop-sounding, but who cares? John Lydon's voice offsets the Popiness of the music a bit with his warbly and unique voice, and the songs themselves have great lyrics on a range of topics. 9 is a solid album, and there are a few songs I really love, like 'Warrior' which is about standing up and defending your land (not to be confused with being Nationalistic), the haunting 'USLS 1', and of course the Disneyfied 'Disappointed' which has those "damn backup singers". I find it funny that people have qualms about the backup singers, because they were nothing new at that point; John had been using them on at least two of his PIL albums before 9.
 DAMN BACKUPSINGERS September 24, 2005
Ben Dover (sweden)
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
this album would be amazing if it werent for those goddamn backup singers.. they make it sound like its a disney soundtrack.
Is everybody (not standoffish with the 80s) happy? October 24, 2004
The Drainpipe (Australia)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Lazy title identifies this as PiL's ninth album release, although it's the seventh studio album (and Lydon's second with the McGeoch/Dias/Smith nucleus). And it's another effective rebuttal to those who casually dismiss the latter-era, LA-based PiL. When plans for Bill Laswell to produce fell through, production chores were taken over by Simple Minds-cohort Stephen Hague (who specialises in lavish, art-of-noise production - and it shows here) and Eric "E.T." Thorngren. Like its predecessor "Happy?", "9" is steeped in unmistakable, archetypal 80s rock production, but if you accept it on its own merits, it's compelling nonetheless: synth-based, catchy, dancey hard rock (highlights include the opening "Happy" [why wasn't it on the previous album?], the airforce-bashing "U.S.L.S 1," the carnivalesque "Sand Castles In The Snow," and the synth-pinball chorus of "Same Old Story"). "Brave New World" has an incredible chorus, and "Like That" has an inherent goofy charm. "Warrior" boasts some embarrassing lyrics and musical touches, but "Disappointed" is one of the most stunning PiL songs, ever: great rousing music and Gospel vocals set to Lydon's cynical appraisal of friendship ("Disappointed a few people/When friendship reared its ugly head/Well, isn't that/What friends are for?"). Lydon is especially playful with his lyrics throughout, with liberal use of well-worn cliches ("The best things in this life are never free", "The devil takes care of his own", "Why should the devil have all the good tunes", "The emperor's new clothes", "The King and his castle," etc). His abrasive vocals don't chafe against the PiL/Hague musical environment of spiralling riffs and rhythms and gothic melodies, which makes this relatively accessible, as PiL albums go: wild and sprightly, but musically disciplined. In retrospect, "9" is probably PiL's most underrated release: infectious, likeable, brilliant.
If you like PiL, you'll love it February 3, 2002
John Chaney III (damn I forgot)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I happen to disagree with Jed, the reviewer above, but I think lots of people may agree with him. He is right about one thing, which is that it does sound like an album made in 1989, which to me is an album that crosses over between sophisticated arrangements and slightly chincey arrangements. It seems like quite a few albums did come out like that, but for me and many, the late 80's were a weak spot in the rock genre anyway. If you can put that aside, you can really start to see that this album was mixed, arranged, and written the way it should have been. I do mean that in a complimentary way. If you like the PiL vibe itself, you'll probably like this album all the way through. If you like only a couple PiL songs, you will probably only like Happy and Disappointed, maybe a few others. I do actually like Lydon's ostentatiousness, in his singing and as a person, and if you don't, then you are probably creepy anyway.
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