The Trouser Press Record Guide – Fourth Edition (Collier Books, 1991): Populated by such classics as "Anarchy in the UK", "God Save the Queen", "Pretty Vacant" and "No Feelings", Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols is an epiphany. Prototypical punk without compromise, it includes almost everything you need to hear by the Sex Pistols. (...) Now, of course, as the best recorded evidence of the Pistols' existence, it almost defies criticism. Paul Cook, Steve Jones, Johnny Rotten (Lydon) and Sid Vicious (plus Glen Matlock, the original musical architect and songwriter, who was sacked early on, allegedly for liking the Beatles) combined to produce a unique moment in rock history and Bollocks is the evidence.
The A to X of Alternative Music (Continuum, 2004): That laugh at the beginning of "Anarchy in the UK" makes the point clear from the start. Anarchy is suggested throughout the lyrics, but not for the masses. Just for a self-proclaimed "anti-christ" that hates the world so much and preaches such utter destruction and loathing he surely cannot be taken seriously. It's a complex and convoluted guise that actually ends up being the most revolutionary statement of cultural alienation ever delivered in a pop song. And it's all down to Lydon's clear understanding of his peers, his culture and the centrality of irony as the only weapon of resistance at that point in British history. The singles that followed – "God Save the Queen", "Pretty Vacant" and "Holidays in the Sun" – continue with Lydon's central theme of disgust at the state his world is in, and his desire to escape and shut it out. (...) The combination of the right intellectually-considered message and the right physically-felt and hook-laden music made the Sex Pistols the definitive influence on everything else that has followed, and pretty much blows away everything else that came before too. It's a shame that the album Never Mind the Bollocks – Here's the Sex Pistols does not do the band's justice. (...) It was still fast and loose, filthy and furious, just not as focused as Rocket to Russia, Blank Generation or L.A.M.F., all released the same year, and that's a shame because the Sex Pistols were the greatest punk band. Perhaps they are to be remembered as a singles band. Clearly, the band that should have made the debut album no longer existed by mid-1977, and maybe that's the way it should be. Do you really want to know what a fifth Sex Pistols album would have sounded like?
The Rolling Stone Album Guide – Third Edition (Random House, 1992): Truth be told, Never Mind the Bollocks is just too raw and corrosive to qualify as any kind of pop. Thousands of lousy imitations have dulled punk's jagged edge over the years, but the Pistols's recorded legacy still cuts deep into the heart of rock & roll – and still draws blood. Here are the nihilistic singles that brought an empire to its knees during 1976-77 ("Anarchy in the Uk", "God Save the Queen"), alongside the scornful anthems that shocked a previous generation of rebels ("Pretty Vacant", "No Feelings"). Steve Jones rips blaring antiriffs out of his guitar, while Johnny Rotten taunts us with alternating flashes of wild insight and utter rudeness. The astounding cuts "Bodies" and "Holidays in the Sun" suggest that the once (and future) John Lydon sensed something basic about the sanctity of human life, as well as the rotten way human beings have come to live it. ★★★★★
The Virgin Encyclopedia of Indie & New Wave (Virgin Books and Muze, 1998): After reluctantly signing to the small label Virgin Records, the group issued "God Save the Queen". The single tore into the heart of British nationalism at a time when the populace was celebrating the Queen's Jubilee. Despite a daytime radio ban the single rose to number 1 in the New Musical Express chart (number 2 in the "official" charts, though some commentator detected skulduggery at play to prevent it from reaching the top spot). The Pistols suffered for their art as outraged royalists attacked them whenever they appeared on the streets. A third single, the melodic "Pretty Vacant" (largely the work of departed Matlock) proved their most accessible single to date and restored them to the Top 10. By the winter the group hit again with "Holidays in the Sun" and issued their controversially titled album Never Mind the Bollocks – Here's the Sex Pistols. The work rocketed to number 1 in the UK album charts amid partisan claims that it was a milestone in rock. In truth it was a more patchy affair, containing a preponderance of previously released material which merely underlined that the group was running out of ideas. ★★★★★
AllMusic: Never Mind the Bollocks perfectly articulated the frustration, rage, and dissatisfaction of the British working class with the establishment, a spirit quick to translate itself to strictly rock & roll terms. The Pistols paved the way for countless other bands to make similarly rebellious statements, but arguably none were as daring or effective. It's easy to see how the band's roaring energy, overwhelmingly snotty attitude, and Rotten's furious ranting sparked a musical revolution, and those qualities haven't diminished one bit over time. Never Mind the Bollocks is simply one of the greatest, most inspiring rock records of all time. ★★★★★
Rolling Stone: Their music isn't pretty — indeed, it often sounds like two subway trains crashing together under forty feet of mud, victims screaming — but it has an Ahab-versus-Moby Dick power that can shake you like no other music today can. (...) Musically, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols is just about the most exciting rock & roll record of the Seventies. It's all speed, not nuance — drums like the My Lai massacre, bass throbbing like a diseased heart fifty beats past bursting point, guitars wielded by Jack the Ripper-and the songs all hit like amphetamines or the plague, depending on your point of view. Rotten's jabbing, gabbing vocals won't leave you alone. (...) That said, no one should be frightened away from this album. "Anarchy in the U.K." and especially "God Save the Queen" are near-perfect rock & roll songs, classics in the way the Who's "My Generation" and the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" are. And, contrary to popular opinion, the Pistols do have a sense of humor. They're forever throwing out musical quotes, many of them outlandish (the beginning of "Pretty Vacant" echoes the Who's "Baba O'Riley", the chorus on "EMI" is a direct steal from Jonathan Richman's "Road Runner", and "New York" completely trashes the Dolls' "Looking for a Kiss"), from groups they obviously at least half admire.
Sputnik Music: This album represented a call to arms of the nation that was far more empowering than any Silver Jubilee. Think of all the bands that were formed on this premise that music was about emotion, not technical proficiency: knowing three chords was sufficient. Think of all the fanzines that sprung up to describe these bands and the independent record labels formed. It wasn’t just the birth of a punk movement and its splinter groups. A whole series of radicalised and energised music movements broke out, grounded in realism and humanism, such as Ska (The Specials), Skinhead (Madness), Mod (The Jam), Rockabilly (The Polecats), New Wave (Elvis Costello), Post Punk (Joy Division), even Folk (Billy Bragg) and Irish Folk music (The Pogues); all defiant, confrontational and politicised; and all revering the Sex Pistols. ★★★★★
Rolling Stone – 40 Greatest Punk Albums of All Time: When the Sex Pistols' only official album made a frontal assault on the U.K. pop charts, Rotten's snarled lyrics about abortion and anarchy terrorized a nation. The result remains punk rock's Sermon on the Mount, and its echoes are everywhere.
The Quietus – They Meant It, Man: Never Mind The Bollocks, 40 Years On: There is only one punk rock album. This is it.
Uncut – Never Mind The Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols – 35th anniversary box set: Be honest, when was the last time you actually played this album all the way through? It might have been a UK chart-topper, be a fixture on every “classic album” list, and the catalyst for post-punk, Oi!, New Wave, NWOBHM, indie rock, grunge and all that followed, but the Sex Pistols’ only studio long-player is still seen less as a rock album and more as a sociological artefact from an era of flexidiscs and Xeroxed fanzines. It’s regarded as a situationist manifesto; a death warrant for the postwar consensus; a cultural totem to be claimed by leftists, anarchists and Thatcherites alike.
Rolling Stone – Sex Pistols Break Down 'Never Mind the Bollocks' Track by Track: To mark the album's anniversary, Rotten and Matlock spoke with Rolling Stone to break down every track of one of the most venomous albums in rock history.
Miguel Esteves Cardoso, Programa «Café Concerto», Rádio Comercial, 29-7-80 (retirado de "Escrítica Pop", Assírio & Alvim, 2003): Os Sex Pistols surgiram numa altura em que o Rock padecia da mais debilitante agonia, perdido num mar barroco de música sinfónica e de Pop popularucho e traduzido verbalmente para um gongorismo estéril e estúpido. A sua frescura era total: o seu Rock era a energia perdida, as suas letras a contestação reavida. Fizeram o que não se via há muito tempo: chocaram, sacudiram aquilo tudo, obrigando as pessoas a repensarem a música, e, sobretudo, a razão da música. A faixa "Anarchy in the UK" foi tudo isto, fez tudo isto, e ainda hoje tem um inegável cabimento. Insurgindo-se contra os valores sagrados da sociedade britânica, os Sex Pistols não abnegaram da sua nacionalidade, como se costuma dizer por aí, nesse série de atoardas que se usam para justificar a perplexidade ignorante e conservadora de muitos. Não, os Sex Pistols foram nacionalistas ferrenhos, apropriando o Rock'n'Roll e criando um estilo musical eminentemente inglês. Os seus textos não repisavam os motivos clássicos americanos (a auto-estrada, o amor adolescente, o etnicismo) mas debruçavam-se impiedosamente sobre a miséria pós-industrial das grandes cidades inglesas, sem temor nem peias. Foram porta-vozes duma geração de Zés-Ninguéns alinhados na bicha do desemprego e, como tal, não veiculavam mensagens paternalistas. Antes, limitaram-se a retratar a apatia anómica que caracterizava a juventude desfavorecida da Inglaterra, fechando-se no mesmo círculo niilista onde não existia nem fé nem hipótese de fuga. A Rainha, o calcanhar de Aquiles da democracia política inglesa, foi um dos seus alvos preferidos. Em "God Save the Queen", os Sex Pistols alinhavaram uma série de insultos escolhidos que, embora tímidos, conseguiram ofender uma nação inteira. Chegamos a boa altura para deitar abaixo outro lugar-comum: que os Sex Pistols eram sérios, que estavam sempre zangados, que protestavam de sobrolho carregado. Nada podia estar mais longe da verdade; os Sex Pistols nunca abdicaram do humor e toda a sua obra se compreende como uma vasta sátira, na linha duma canção de escárnio-e-mal-dizer dirigida a uma sociedade cujo sentido de humor salvaguardava certos "valores perenes" de imaculada santidade.
