The Flowers of Romance is the third studio album by English post-punk band Public Image Ltd, released on 10 April 1981 by Virgin Records.

The group's first studio album recorded following the departure of bassist Jah Wobble, The Flowers of Romance found PiL delving further into an experimental sound.

It was recorded mainly by frontman John Lydon and guitarist Keith Levene, both of whom made heavy use of percussion, tape editing, and various effects.

Drummer Martin Atkins was hired for the sessions and contributed to the songwriting, but left on 31 October 1980 to play a gig in New York City with his band Brian Brain the following day.

[1] A final session at Townhouse occurred in early December 1980 to remix the proposed single "Flowers of Romance" and record a few overdubs.

[1] The title of the album makes reference to The Flowers of Romance, an early punk band featuring both Keith Levene and Lydon's former bandmate Sid Vicious.

"[4] Simon Reynolds has described the album as highly experimental and preoccupied with moving beyond the defining standards of rock music, making it an influence on the post-rock movement.

Producer Nick Launay recalls: "On 'Four Enclosed Walls', for instance, we placed Martin's Mickey Mouse pocket watch on a floor tom, so it would resonate and have more tone.

The AMS was so primitive you couldn't actually edit it to get it in time, so I randomly kept locking in different beats as he played them, till I got one that sounded cool.

"[7] Lydon contributed Stroh violin and saxophone and, according to a Rolling Stone article about the album, simply banged on anything handy for percussion, including the face of a banjo on "Phenagen".

Having grown up in the south of Spain I was really influenced by Spanish Gypsy music, Flamenco, and I don't mean the tacky touristy type.

I thought the combination sounded so cool, I put a mic on to the TV speaker and recorded it to tape randomly till it made some sense.

"[7] Regarding "Hymie's Him", Levene recounts: "There was this weird bamboo instrument that I used on 'Hymie's Him' – Richard Branson had gotten some in Bali and gave me one of these things [...] I had been offered to make this film soundtrack for Wolfen.

[Director] Michael Wadleigh [...] said, 'This is how wolves feed in the dark, this is the plot of the movie – what I need is an urban jungle sound.'

Andy Kellman of AllMusic wrote of the album's release: "Stark and minimal are taken to daring lengths, so it's no surprise that Virgin initially balked at issuing the heavily percussive record.

Record Mirror critic Mike Nicholls praised The Flowers of Romance as a work of "worthwhile experimentalism from the forefront of the anti-rockist avant-garde".

[19] Steve Taylor of Smash Hits commented that the album implores listeners "to abandon all expectations of hearing something that even resembles the last PiL record", concluding: "Enjoyable is hardly the right word.

[25] Reviewing the album in 2003, Chris Smith of Stylus Magazine described The Flowers of Romance as "a dark, spartan affair, one that is decidedly not for all tastes [...] But, twenty-two years later, there's nothing quite like it.

It may not offer the kinetic glamour of Remain in Light or the gleeful spazziness of the Contortions, but I believe this to be one of the most interesting records produced in the fallout of punk.

[28] Melvins drummer Dale Crover has cited Flowers of Romance as an influence on the band and on himself as a solo artist, noting in particular PiL's use of drum loops as influential.