(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)

Pop Will Eat Itself were a British band that rode almost every trend of the 1980s. The "Poppies," as they were nicknamed, became emblematic of those 1980s British groups so devoid of substance that each of their albums was simply a hodgepodge of clichés. Their greatest merit, in hindsight, was being among the first rock bands to use electronics and sampling.

They emerged during the madness of "grebo," a short-lived retro movement of the late 1980s. They debuted with the EP Poppiecock (Chapter 22, 1986), showcasing Buzzcocks-style punk-pop, sarcastic and scrappy garage rock (The Black Country Chainstore Massacreee), and breakneck rockabilly (Titanic Clown), which could even be epic (Oh Grebo I Think I Love You). Wild and beyond redemption, they crafted in the following year’s single Sweet Sweet Pie one of the most melodic and driving rock and roll tracks of the era. That period is documented on the anthology Now For A Feast (Chapter 22, 1988).

Singer Vestan Pance changed the band’s direction by shifting the sound of Box Frenzy (Rough Trade, 1987) toward hip hop. The ironic and exuberant raps of Beaver Patrol and There Is No Love Between Us Anymore made them popular with club audiences.

This Is The Day (RCA, 1989) dove headfirst into dance music, with sharper guitars and louder beat-box, occasionally flirting with heavy metal (Can U Dig It) and other times with techno (Def Con One). The Middle Eastern inflections of Preaching To The Perverted and the catchy melody of Wise Up! Sucker help soften the tragic edges of Wake Up! Time To Die, their only canonical hip hop track.

The band, however, ended up committing the classic mistake of mediocre musicians: taking themselves seriously. Cure For Sanity (RCA, 1991) repeats the program of its predecessor, but without any sense of humor. The frenzied Dance Of The Mad Bastards, the syrupy synth-pop of X Y And Zee, the melodic hard rock of Lived In Splendour, and the exotic rap of Another Man's Rhubarb have only the merit of impeccable production.

Once that trend had passed, the band immediately jumped onto the next one: The Looks Of The Lifestyle (RCA, 1992) presents a "crossover" of hard rock (Eat Me), flamenco (Mother), jazz (Teenage Grandad), and hip hop (Urban Futuristic). Karmadrome, Bulletproof, I've Always Been A Coward Baby, and Get The Girl were the singles taken from the album, and perhaps only the first was worth hearing. Despite its commercial ambitions, the album was a spectacular failure, and for a while it seemed that Pop Will Eat Itself were finished. Three anthologies and a live album were released.

Even the single Rsvp (Infectious) teetered between heavy metal and hip hop. Having lost forever the light and jovial spirit of their early years, the band found themselves grumbling through the single Everything's Cool (Interscope) and pontificating left and right on the EP Amalgamation (Nothing, 1994), with RSVP and Ich Bin Ein Auslander.

The band's deep identity crisis is not resolved by the album Dos Dedos Mis Amigos (Interscope, 1994). This time, the ambient elements of Babylon and the techno of Menofearthereaper, while the Nine Inch Nails of Underbelly and the Killing Joke of Cape Connection are poorly transfigured. Two Fingers (Infectious, 1995) is the remix album.

Bassist Richard Marsch would later form the Bentley Rhythm Ace, to which drummer Fuzz Townshend would subsequently be added.

Clint Mansell, the band's guitarist from 1986 until 1996, relocated to Los Angeles and became a prolific composer of film sountracks, particularly for the films of Darren Aronofsky and for the films of Ben Wheatley.