" Plastic Box is a a 'metal box' fascinating companion, plotting the evolution and subsequent degradation of the experimental impulse that saw its apex in 1979. Tracks like “Albatross” have always been passed off as autobiographical by Pistols-watchers who believed that Lydon could only ever refer to Lydon, but the power of Metal Box lies in Lydon’s ability to forget: himself, his past, and so to move around the landscape like a ghost, to be free of his own history in order to fully investigate another. But by the time of 1986’s Album, anger was the sole energy, an end in itself, a permanent grimace, and every track seemed to refer to a diminished cartoon version of himself. And so he became just another rock star, like John Lennon writing songs about how he didn’t believe in Beatles, unable to escape his own autobiography, no matter how uninteresting it was to all but the shallowest of consumers of rock spectacle. And in the end, the question goes back to Lydon – ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?" David Keenan - The Wire