View source for This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This!

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox album
| name         = This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This!
| type         = studio
| artist       = [[Pop Will Eat Itself]]
| cover        = Pop_Will_Eat_Itself_-_This_Is_The_Day,_This_is_The_Hour,_This_is_This!.jpg
| alt          = 
| released     = 1 May 1989
| recorded     = 1988
| venue        = 
| studio       = 
| genre        = <!--NO UNSOURCED MALARKEY-->{{Flatlist|
*[[Electronic music|Electronic]]<ref name="AVClub" />
*[[sound collage]]<ref name="TP" /><ref name="Boehm" />
*[[rap rock]]}}
<!-- in other words if you want it to be grebo or industrial or trip hop, find RSs saying those things -->
| length       = 51:26
| label        = [[RCA Records|RCA]]
| producer     = [[Flood (producer)|Flood]]
| prev_title   = [[Now for a Feast!]]
| prev_year    = 1988
| next_title   = [[Cure for Sanity]]
| next_year    = 1990
| misc         = {{Singles
 | name        = This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This!
 | type        = Studio
 | single1     = [[Def. Con. One]]
 | single1date = 11 July 1988
 | single2     = [[Can U Dig It?]]
 | single2date = 30 January 1989
 | single3     = [[Wise Up! Sucker]]
 | single3date = 10 April 1989
}}
}}

'''''This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This!''''' is the second [[studio album]] by English [[rock music|rock]] band [[Pop Will Eat Itself]], released on 1 May 1989 by [[RCA Records]]. It builds upon the band's 1987 debut ''[[Box Frenzy]]'' in its extensive usage of [[sampling (music)|sampling]], combining influences from [[punk rock]], [[hip hop music|hip hop]], [[heavy metal music|heavy metal]], and [[disco]] music, with samples and lyrics that reference, among many subjects, [[pop culture]] and [[geek culture|otaku culture]]. Particularly influential on the album's musical style were hip hop group [[Public Enemy (group)|Public Enemy]], while the album's own subtle [[post-punk]] touches would later be credited as influential. Some critics regard it as a [[sound collage]]. The album artwork, designed by [[The Designer's Republic]], touches on [[nuclear warfare]] themes.

The album peaked at #24 for two weeks on the [[UK Albums Chart]],<ref name="Pop Will Eat Itself {{pipe}} Artist">{{cite web|url=http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/_/pop%20will%20eat%20itself/ |title=Pop Will Eat Itself {{pipe}} Artist |publisher=Official Charts |date= |accessdate=2014-06-04}}</ref> and at #169 on the [[Billboard 200|US ''Billboard'' 200]] for six weeks.<ref name="Billboard">{{cite web|url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/346175/pop+will+eat+itself/chart |title=Pop Will Eat Itself - Chart history |publisher=Billboard |date= |accessdate=2014-06-04}}</ref> The three singles from the album – "[[Def. Con. One]]", "[[Can U Dig It?]]", and "[[Wise Up! Sucker]]" – were among the band's most successful to date. The album received critical acclaim, with praise for its invention, humour, and self-contained style. [[Cherry Red Records]] released a two-disc deluxe edition of the album in 2011 that includes unreleased bonus tracks.

==Background and recording==
The [[Stourbridge]]-based Pop Will Eat Itself started in 1986 as a [[Buzzcocks]]-influenced [[indie rock]] band.<ref name="Ankeny" /> Though initially associated with the [[C86 (album)|C86]] scene, their rougher, rockier sound led to them being championed by the music press as one of several [[grebo (music)|grebo]] bands that were emerging from Midlands, with the word "grebo" itself having been revived by the band. Band member [[Graham Crabb]] said: "We revived this '70s [slang] word for dork or nerd, and the press had to build this movement around it to describe everyone with long hair and a nasty guitar sound."<ref name="Boehm" /> The band thought their musical style was "pretty much going down a [[cul de sac]]" until they found numerous other "more interesting" influences. Crabb reflected: "We just started listening to a lot of new stuff, stuff we hadn't heard before. We saw [[Run-DMC]] and the [[Beastie Boys]] come over and play, and they blew us away."<ref name="Boehm" />

Having been inspired by groups such as [[Age of Chance]],<ref name="Quietus">{{cite web|last1=Angus|first1=Batey|title=Three Decades On: One Thousand Years Of Trouble By Age Of Chance|url=http://thequietus.com/articles/22546-age-of-chance-one-thousand-years-of-trouble-review-anniversary|website=The Quietus|accessdate=15 September 2017|date=5 June 2017}}</ref> the band immersed themselves with [[sampling (music)|sampling]], drawing material from artists as disparate as [[Iggy Pop]] and [[James Brown]], while Crabb would quickly join [[Clint Mansell]] as the band's second frontman after his previous tenure as the band's drummer, while a drum machine took that place. The success of the band's debut album ''[[Box Frenzy]]'' (1987) led to increased interest of the band's second album.<ref name="Ankeny" />

''This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This!'' was produced by [[Flood (producer)|Flood]], who one critic felt brought his notable production talent to the fore of the album, helping shape it into becoming "its own sprawling but self-contained universe".<ref name="Raggett" /> Dave Pine engineered the album with assistance from Karl Broadie.<ref name="booklet1">{{cite AV media notes| title = This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This!| others= [[Pop Will Eat Itself]]| year = 1989| type = liner| publisher = [[RCA]]}}</ref> Nonetheless, numerous songs on the album feature different engineers and producers; for example, "[[Can U Dig It?]]" was produced by [[David Steele (musician)|David Steele]] and [[Andy Cox]] of [[Fine Young Cannibals]] and formerly [[The English Beat|The Beat]],<ref name="Rolling Stone">{{cite magazine|last1=Tannenbaum|first1=Rob|title=Chewing the Fat With Fine Young Cannibals|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/chewing-the-fat-with-fine-young-cannibals-19890420|magazine=Rolling Stone|accessdate=7 November 2016|date=20 April 1989}}</ref> while "[[Def. Con. One]]" features production by Robert Gordon and turntable scratching from DJ Winston, both influential figures in the birth of [[Sheffield]] bleep [[techno]].<ref name="booklet1" /> "Wild guitar" is contributed to two songs by The Buzzard, while "Stun guitar" is played by Frank Booth on "Preaching to the Perverted."<ref name="booklet1" />

==Music==
[[File:Public Enemy-01-mika.jpg|thumb|[[Public Enemy (group)|Public Enemy]] were a key influence on ''This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This!'']]
''This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This!'' features the band's unique "mesh and mix" of [[pop culture]] from the United States and particularly the United Kingdom, and combines [[metal music|metal]] guitar riffs, [[disco]] backing and conspicuous drum stomps.<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/this-is-the-daythis-is-the-hourthis-is-this!-mw0000200724|title=This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This! - Pop Will Eat Itself - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic|website=[[AllMusic]] |publisher=}}</ref> Influences of [[rap music|rap]], [[heavy metal music|heavy metal]] and the band's early influence of [[punk rock]] are spliced with numerous "found" auto artefacts "collected from all over the junk-culture landscape", including [[Motown]] snippets, advertising slogans and the "play-by-play call of a [[John Elway]] touchdown pass.<ref name="Boehm">{{cite news|last1=Boehm|first1=Mike|title=Pop Will Eat Itself, the Band, to Dish Up New Kitchen-Sink Look Tonight at Coach House|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-10-12-ca-458-story.html|newspaper=LA Times|access-date=2 October 2017|date=12 October 1989}}</ref> Throughout the album, there are what [[AllMusic]]'s Ned Raggett described as "intriguing surprises", including multiple moody [[gothic rock|goth]] and [[post-punk]] elements.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> The music press found the band's sound hard to categorise. Band member [[Graham Crabb]] explained: "Nobody's really come up with a description of what we do, and we're quite happy about that. It gives us absolute freedom."<ref name="Boehm" />

With the album's heavy usage of [[sampling (music)|sampling]], ''[[Trouser Press]]'' called the album a [[sound collage]] and noted the influence of the band's affection for ''[[Blade Runner]]''{{'}}s "[[sci-fi]] [[nihilism]]" and the innovative [[comic book]]s of [[Alan Moore]].<ref name="TP" /> Joe Boehm of the ''[[LA Times]]'' agreed the album was an "assaultive" sound collage, writing that the eclectic album is a "funny [[smorgasboard]] in which a seemingly endless array of pop styles and media messages are sampled, tasted and either spat out or savoured ([[Rick Astley]], [[nuclear warfare]], [[fast food]] and [[alcoholism]] fail to meet the taste test; science-fiction fantasy and pop styles that are [[noise music|noisy]], emphatic, and identified with troublemakers win the blue ribbon)."<ref name="Boehm" /> Robin Reinhardt of ''[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]'' noted the influence of [[Public Enemy (group)|Public Enemy]],<ref name="Reinhardt" /> and Crabb would later state that the influence of Public Enemy's second album ''[[It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back]]'' (1988) was "stamped, trodden and embedded" within ''This Is the Day''.<ref name="Robb">{{cite web|last1=Robb|first1=John|title=Graham Crabb from PWEI's top ten favourite albums : number 1|url=http://louderthanwar.com/graham-crabb-from-pweis-top-ten-favourite-albums-number-1/|website=Louder Than War|accessdate=2 October 2017|date=28 July 2014}}</ref> Band member [[Clint Mansell]] elaborated on this:
{{blockquote|We definitely like the format of [[It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back|Public Enemy's album]] in the fact it all runs together. It doesn't really stop. Some tracks are intermingles and things like that. Our songs '16 Different Flavours of Hell' and 'PWEI Is a Four Letter Word' are sort of short, cut up things. That's something we took from Public Enemy because we really liked it. Sampling is just something we're into really. We were described as being a piece of [[blotting paper]] because we soak so many things. I suppose that's what we do. We're open to a lot of influences and music is changing all the time.<ref name="Reinhardt">{{cite journal|last1=Reinhardt|first1=Robin|title=Wise Up, Sucker|journal=Spin|date=September 1989|volume=5|issue=6|page=19|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PK1uLUXpAzoC&q=pop+will+eat+itself+this+is+the+day&pg=PA19}}</ref>}}

In Kembrew McLeod and Peter DiCola's book ''Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling'', they write that the album made extreme usage of sampling, noting its excessive samples from songs (including two songs by [[Salt 'n' Pepa]], three songs by [[Public Enemy (group)|Public Enemy]], "[[Bike (song)|Bike]]" by [[Pink Floyd]], "[[We Care a Lot]]" by [[Faith No More]], "That's Right" by [[Mantronix]], "[[Shout (Tears for Fears song)|Shout]]" by [[Tears for Fears]], "Jungle Law" by [[Love and Rockets (band)|Love & Rockets]], "[[Foxy Lady]]" by [[Jimi Hendrix]], "Astley's in the Noose" by [[The Wonder Stuff]] and "[[Paid in Full (Eric B. & Rakim song)|Paid in Full]]" by [[Eric B. and Rakim]]), as well as samples of the films ''[[RoboCop]]'', ''[[The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977 film)|The Island of Dr. Moreau]]'', ''[[The Deer Hunter]]'', ''[[Evil Dead II]]'', ''[[Dirty Harry]]'', ''[[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]'' and ''[[The Warriors (film)|The Warriors]]'', as well as a [[Rice Krispies]] television commercial, ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' and the [[Super Bowl XXII]].<ref name="McLeod">{{cite book|last1=McLeod|first1=Kembrew|last2=DiCola|first2=Peter|title=Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling|date=14 March 2011|publisher=Duke University Press|location=Durham|isbn=978-0822348757|page=71|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nOWdriHLHgQC&q=pop+will+eat+itself+this+is+the+day&pg=PA71|accessdate=2 October 2017}}</ref>

===Songs===
On "Preaching to the Perverted", Crabb sings "So we steal, so what? So far so good, we're [[Robin Hood]]s."<ref name="Boehm" /> "[[Wise Up! Sucker]]" contains a "sharp, mocking backing vocal" from [[Miles Hunt]] of [[The Wonder Stuff]].<ref name="Raggett" /> One of the songs which "really taps into the heart of PWEI's science-fiction obsession",<ref name="Heller" /> "Inject Me" features a [[breakbeat]] and "murky" beginning,<ref name="Raggett" /> With its "shady" and "creepy" sustained narrative, it starts with what appears to be a "first-person reverie of some slacker [[Addiction|junkie]]", with the song's introductory lyrics whispered by Crabb, whose voice becomes more paranoid and sharper when the verse begins, with science-fiction-style lyrics forming the rest of the song, though one critic noted that "it's unclear whether the whole SF scenario is happening only in the narrator's addled brainpan."<ref name="Heller" /> The beat is sampled from "Jimbrowski" by [[The Jungle Brothers]], itself sampling the beat from [[Funkadelic]]'s "[[Good Old Music]]".<ref name="Heller" /> The lyrics of the propulsive "[[Can U Dig It?]]" are largely a list of things the band loves, including ''[[Dirty Harry]]'',<ref name="Raggett" /> [[DJ Spinderella]],<ref name="Raggett" /> ''The Twilight Zone''<ref name="Heller" /> and ''[[V for Vendetta]]''.<ref name="Heller">{{cite web|last1=Heller|first1=Jason|title=Frequency Rotation: Pop Will Eat Itself, "Inject Me"|url=https://www.tor.com/2010/06/23/frequency-rotation-pop-will-eat-itself-inject-me/|website=Tor.com|accessdate=2 October 2017|date=23 June 2010}}</ref> Jason Heller of [[Tor.com]] said the song contains most of the album's [[geek culture]] references,<ref name="Heller" /> while ''Trouser Press'' compared the song to "We Love You" by [[the Psychedelic Furs]], itself "a catalog of cool".<ref name="TP" />

"[[Def. Con. One]]"  samples [[Siouxsie Sioux]], [[Rod Serling]], the [[Beastie Boys]], as well as paying homage to [[the Stooges]] and [[Funkytown]] by [[Lipps, Inc.]] in a "seamless [[dada]]ist stew."<ref name="TP" /> The song is a "portrayal of [[armageddon]] ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' style."<ref name="Raggett" /> "Not Now James, We're Busy...", described by Raggett as "wickedly bizarre",<ref name="Raggett" /> began as a joke regarding hip hop groups that would continually plagiarise beats and riffs from [[James Brown]]'s discography, but turned into a song recounting Brown's police capture in 1988 after a [[car chase]].<ref name="Boehm" /> Several months after the album's release, [[Big Audio Dynamite]] released "James Brown", a song with the same subject matter on their own sound collage-styled album ''[[Megatop Phoenix]]''. Crabb said: "We were really surprised, 'cause some of the lyrics are so similar. We used some press clips to get the lyrics right. Perhaps B.A.D. did the same."<ref name="Boehm" /> "Wake Up! Time to Die..." features [[feedback]] and "collapsing inward [[drone (music)|drone]]s."<ref name="Raggett" />

==Artwork==
[[File:London - Victoria and Albert Museum - panoramio (1).jpg|thumb|The album artwork is housed at the [[Victoria & Albert Museum]].]]
The artwork of ''This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This!'' was designed by design agency [[The Designers Republic]]. It was the second project the agency created in terms of "creating worlds, like 'the world of Pop Will Eat Itself'."<ref name="CR">{{cite web|last1=Burgoyne|first1=Patrick|title=The Designers Republic Remembered|url=https://www.creativereview.co.uk/the-designers-republic-remembered/|website=Creative Review|accessdate=2 October 2017|date=27 January 2009}}</ref> It incorporates themes of [[Eschatology|Doomsday]] imagery, [[radiation]], the [[Doomsday Clock]], and the planet being destroyed. Ian Anderson of the agency reflected: "There were still lots of politics about [[nuclear weapon]]s, so this was kind of political, but not anything specific, more an entertaining prediction."<ref name="CR" /> The studio's tendency to recycle cultural icons is readily established in the album artwork, which parodies several familiar corporate logos and icons "to generate layers of new messages".<ref name="Harper" /> Anderson called the artwork a mixture of "medieval information technology – digital ([[Macintosh|Mac]] and [[Amiga]]) vs. mechanical ([[paste up|paste-up]] and [[graph paper]])."<ref name="Harper">{{cite book|last1=Harper|first1=Laurel|title=Radical Graphics/Graphic Radicals|date=1 October 1999|publisher=Chronicle Books|location=San Francisco|isbn=081181680X|page=87}}</ref> The album packaging also marks the first appearance of the band's popular [[robot]]-head logo.<ref name="Harper" /> Steve Mason of [[AllMusic]] felt the packaging was inspired by an earlier Designer's Republic album sleeve, that of [[Age of Chance]]'s ''[[One Thousand Years of Trouble]]'' (1987).<ref name="AllMusic2">{{cite web|last1=Mason|first1=Stewart|title=AllMusic Review by Stewart Mason (Mecca)|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/mecca-mw0000206300|website=AllMusic|accessdate=15 September 2017}}</ref>

The agency developed a logo for the band "and then used it like a national emblem".<ref name="Harper" /> The band's iconic T-shirt of the period featured an edited version of the trademarked [[Pepsi]] logo, changed to read "PWEI" with the phrase "Sample It, Loop It, Fuck It, Eat It" surrounding the logo.<ref name="McLeod" /> A copy of the vinyl version of the album, complete with the packaging, as well as the case and inlay for the cassette version, are housed in the [[Victoria & Albert Museum]] collection.<ref>{{cite web|title=This is the Day ... This is the Hour ... This is This!|url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O189217/this-is-the-day-this-vinyl-record-pop-will-eat/|website=V&A|date=1989 |accessdate=2 October 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=This is the Day ... This is the Hour ... This is This! (2)|url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O189266/this-is-the-day-this-cassette-tape-case-designers-republic/|website=V&A|date=1989 |accessdate=2 October 2017}}</ref> Also on permanent display at the museum are the packaging for the single "Wise Up! Sucker", which is based on different spines of blank [[VHS]] tapes. Anderson explained: "Really, it's another consumerist thing, it doesn't have any of the meanings that people have attributed to it [...] I was just sitting at home looking at my shelves when I thought of it. There is a reason though: I liked the tapes' cases more than I liked what was on them, so it was about why you'd buy into one brand over another."<ref name="CR" />

==Release and promotion==
The ''[[Watchmen]]''-themed "[[Def. Con. One]]" was released by the band's early label Chapter 22 on 1 July 1988, reaching number 63 on the [[UK Singles Chart]].<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums">{{cite book
| first= David
| last= Roberts
| year= 2006
| title= British Hit Singles & Albums
| edition= 19th
| publisher= Guinness World Records Limited 
| location= London
| isbn= 1-904994-10-5
| page= 431}}</ref> Later in the year, the band were signed to major label [[RCA Records]], who released ''This Is the Day...This is the Hour...This Is This!'' in the United Kingdom on 1 May 1989 and in the United States and Japan on 18 July 1989. Not all the samples on the album were licensed, as the band found musicians and labels to be "awkward" when they asked to sample their material, whereas "[i]f you don't ask they hardly ever notice you've used them." As such, writers Kembrew McLeod and Peter DiCola noted that it was unusual the album was released on a major label, musing that "it is hard to believe that the record company was clueless about its content".<ref name="McLeod" />

With the band on a new label, "[[Can U Dig It?]]" was the first official single from the album, released on 9 February 1989 and charting at number 38 in the UK Singles Chart, becoming their highest-charting single yet.<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums" /> "[[Wise Up! Sucker]]" became the final single from the album on 1 April 1989, subsequently charting at number 41 in the UK charts.<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums" /> These were followed by the release of the album itself, which peaked at number 24 on the [[UK Albums Chart]] and stayed on the chart for two weeks.<ref name="Pop Will Eat Itself {{pipe}} Artist"/> Meanwhile, it also charted at number 169 on the US [[Billboard 200|''Billboard'' 200]], and stayed on the chart for six weeks.<ref name="Billboard"/> Throughout 1989, Pop Will Eat Itself toured numerous countries in support of the album.<ref name="Boehm" /> On 25 September 2011, [[Cherry Red Records]] released a special edition of the album that features a bonus disc of rare and unreleased tracks.<ref>{{cite web|title=THIS IS THE DAY... THIS IS THE HOUR... THIS IS THIS!|url=http://www.popwilleatitself.co.uk/this-is-the-day-this-is-the-hour-this-is-this/#.WdKCP2hSyM9|website=Pop Will Eat Itself|accessdate=2 October 2017}}</ref>

==Reception and legacy==
{{Album ratings
|rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
|rev1score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}<ref>{{cite web|author=Ned Raggett |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/this-is-the-daythis-is-the-hourthis-is-this%21-mw0000200724 |title=This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This! - Pop Will Eat Itself {{pipe}} Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards |publisher=AllMusic |date= |accessdate=2014-06-04}}</ref>
|rev2 = ''[[The Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]''
|rev2score = {{rating|4|5}}<ref name="Larkin">{{cite book|last1=Larkin|first1=Colin|title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music|date=2011|publisher=Omnibus Press|location=London|isbn=9780195313734|page=1988|edition=5th|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_NNmFiUnSmUC&q=pop+will+eat+itself+colin+larkin&pg=RA26-PA1988}}</ref>
|rev3 = 
|rev3score = 
}}
''This Is the Day...This is the Hour...This Is This!'' received critical acclaim.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sold Out: Pop Will Eat Itself + Venus Fly Trap, Bedford Esquires|url=http://www.bedfordesquires.co.uk/events/pop-will-eat-itself-guests-25th-may-bedford-esquires/|website=Bedford Esquires|accessdate=2 October 2017}}</ref> Ned Raggett of [[AllMusic]] said the album was "brilliant" and "underrated", adding that "the band's sound has never been thicker and more detailed, and while the sampling and arranging are always clearly a product of their late-'80s times, like the [[Beastie Boys|Beasties]] did that year with ''[[Paul's Boutique]]'', PWEI comes up with its own sharp synthesis."<ref name=autogenerated1 /> He said that "the brilliant, shuddering singles alone" are worth the album's price, and commended Flood's production skills, saying he "brought his considerable production skills to the fore and helped shape an album that was its own sprawling but self-contained universe".<ref name=autogenerated1 /> He later described the album as "Pop Will Eat Itself's crowning moment—an exciting, energetic, and very modern English response to the Beastie Boys' own culture-gobbling antics."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/cure-for-sanity-mw0000311466|title=Cure for Sanity - Pop Will Eat Itself - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic|website=[[AllMusic]] |publisher=}}</ref>

''[[Trouser Press]]'' were very favourable to the album, calling it an "aurally exciting sonic collage" and concluding that, "bright, vital and bitingly funny, this record teems with invention".<ref name="TP">{{cite web|url=http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=pop_will_eat_itself|title=TrouserPress.com :: Pop Will Eat Itself|publisher=}}</ref> Jason Ankeny of AllMusic called it the band's masterpiece.<ref name="Ankeny">{{cite web|last1=Ankeny|first1=Jason|title=AllMusic Biography by Jason Ankeny|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/pop-will-eat-itself-mn0000852810/biography|website=AllMusic|accessdate=2 October 2017}}</ref> It was cited as the first of three consecutive groundbreaking albums by the band in ''[[Rough Guides|The Rough Guide to Rock]]''.<ref name="Mills">{{cite book|title=The Rough Guide to Rock|date=30 October 2003|publisher=Rough Guides|location=London|isbn=1843531054|page=806|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ctjc6UWCm4C&q=pop+will+eat+itself+this+is+the+day+1989&pg=PT813|accessdate=18 August 2017}}</ref> On the [[BBC]]'s "Keeping It [[John Peel|Peel]]" feature, they described the album as the band's "most effective outing",<ref>{{cite web|title=Pop Will Eat Itself|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/johnpeel/artists/p/popwilleatitself/|website=BBC|accessdate=2 October 2017}}</ref> while Jason Heller of ''[[The A.V. Club]]'' called the album an "[[electronic music|electronic]], sample-heavy classic."<ref name="AVClub">{{cite web|last1=Heller|first1=Jason|title=Hear Pop Will Eat Itself's buzzy "Mesmerized," a track from the C86 box set|url=https://www.avclub.com/hear-pop-will-eat-itself-s-buzzy-mesmerized-a-track-1798268441|website=The A.V. Club|access-date=2 October 2017|date=9 May 2014}}</ref> At the end of 1989, ''[[NME]]'' ranked the album at number 22 in its list of the 50 best albums of the year.<ref>{{cite web|title=1989 - NME|url=https://www.nme.com/bestalbumsandtracksoftheyear/1989-2-1045381|website=NME|date=10 October 2016 |accessdate=2 October 2017}}</ref> Graham Crabb later reflected that the album was "probably our best piece of work".<ref name="Robb" />

In his book ''Cinema Detours'', Mike White said the album was the most notable of several examples of pop culture to use lines from the film ''The Warriors''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=White|first1=Mike|title=Cinema Detours|date=29 April 2003|publisher=lulu.com|location=Morrisville|isbn=1300981172|page=166|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jm0wBQAAQBAJ&q=pop+will+eat+itself+this+is+the+day&pg=PA166|accessdate=2 October 2017}}</ref> ''[[Brainwashed (website)|Brainwashed]]'' cited the album one of several late 1980s albums that "[turned] the sampler into an instrument of unparalleled complexity", noting that the band "were mining [[cartoon]]s, commercials, and [[funk]] [[seven-inch single|45s]]" on the album.<ref>{{cite web|title=Meat Beat Manifesto, "Armed Audio Warfare"|url=http://brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8098%3Ameat-beat-manifesto-qarmed-audio-warfareq&catid=13%3Aalbums-and-singles&Itemid=1|website=Brainwashed|accessdate=2 October 2017}}</ref> Ned Raggett also commented that the "fair dollop of moody goth/post-punk touches" on the album inadvertently predicted where the group [[Massive Attack]] "partially ended up".<ref name="Raggett">{{cite web|last1=Raggett|first1=Ned|title=AllMusic Review by Ned Raggett|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/this-is-the-daythis-is-the-hourthis-is-this%21-mw0000200724|website=AllMusic|accessdate=2 October 2017}}</ref> Parry Gettleman of the ''[[Orlando Sentinel]]'', meanwhile, said the album found the group "gorging themselves on grungy hip hop".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Gettelman|first1=Parry|title=Visage Books Godfathers And Pop Will Eat Itself For September Shows|url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1989/08/13/visage-books-godfathers-and-pop-will-eat-itself-for-september-shows/|website=Orlando Sentinel|access-date=2 October 2017|date=13 August 1989}}</ref> Jason Heller of [[Tor.com]] called the album the band's "opus" and "a writhing pile of punk, rap, samples, and geek-culture references". Particular praise was reserved for "Inject Me", saying "the [[Isaac Asimov|Asimov]] reference and bleak, narco-apocalyptic atmosphere make 'Inject Me' a mini-masterpiece."<ref name="Heller" />

== Track listing ==
{{track listing
| title1 = PWEI Is A Four Letter Word
| note1 = memory used 8927byte, 93.3BPM
| length1 = 1:12
| writer1 = Adam Mole, Graham Crabb
| title2 = Preaching to the Perverted
| note2 = memory used 9683byte, 100BPM
| length2 = 4:16
| writer2 = Mole, Clint Mansell, Crabb, Richard March
| title3 = [[Wise Up! Sucker]]
| note3 = memory used 14895byte, 96BPM
| length3 = 3:17
| writer3 = Mole, Mansell, Crabb, March
| title4 = Sixteen Different Flavours of Hell
| note4 = memory used 5486byte, 96BPM
| writer4 = Mole, Mansell, Crabb, March
| length4 = 2:03
| title5 = Inject Me
| note5 = memory used 6798byte, 97BPM
| length5 = 4:31
| writer5 = Crabb
| title6 = [[Can U Dig It?]]
| note6 = memory used 27707byte, 129BPM
| length6 = 4:32
| writer6 = Mansell
| title7 = The Fuses Have Been Lit
| note7 = memory used 15789byte, 120BPM
| length7 = 4:03
| writer7 = Mole, Mansell, Crabb, March
| title8 = Poison to the Mind
| note8 = memory used 6894byte, 95BPM
| length8 = 0:58
| writer8 = Crabb
| title9 = [[Def. Con. One]]
| note9 = memory used 18988byte, 118BPM
| length9 = 4:00
| writer9 = Mansell
| title10 = Radio P.W.E.I.
| note10 = memory used 8526byte, 96BPM
| length10 = 3:37
| writer10 = Crabb
| title11 = Shortwave Transmission on 'Up to the Minuteman Nine{{'-}}
| note11 = memory used 12345byte, 96BPM
| length11 = 1:01
| writer11 = Mansell
| title12 = Satellite Ecstatica
| note12 = memory used 19978byte, 132BPM
| length12 = 3:33
| writer12 = Crabb, March
| title13 = Not Now James, We're Busy...
| note13 = memory used 48990byte, 120BPM
| length13 = 3:09
| writer13 = Crabb, March
| title14 = Wake Up! Time to Die...
| note14 = memory used 84893byte, 148BPM
| length14 = 6:42
| writer14 = Crabb
| title15 = Wise Up! Sucker ('12 Youth Mix)
| note15 = memory used 84891byte, 96BPM
| length15 = 5:44
| writer15 = Mole, Mansell, Crabb, March
}}

==Personnel==
Adapted from Discogs.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.discogs.com/Pop-Will-Eat-Itself-This-Is-The-DayThis-Is-The-HourThis-Is-This/release/3202984 |title=Pop Will Eat Itself - This Is The Day...This Is The Hour...This Is This! (CD, Album) at Discogs |publisher=Discogs.com |date=2013-07-18 |accessdate=2014-06-04}}</ref>

===Performance===
{{div col}}
* [[Clint Mansell]] – vocals
* Graham Crabb – vocals
* Adam Mole – guitar
* Richard March – guitar
* "The Buzzard" – wild guitar (tracks 3, 6, 13)
* Frank Booth – stun guitar (track 2)
* Winston "DJ Winston" Hazel – turntables
{{div col end}}

===Technical===
{{div col}}
* [[The Designers Republic]] – artwork
* [[Cenzo Townsend|Enzo Townsend]] – engineering (track 9)
* Dave Pine – engineering (tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10–14)
* Robin Goodfellow – engineering (tracks 3, 6)
* Karl Broadie – engineering assistance (tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10–14)
* [[Flood (producer)|Flood]] – production (tracks 1–5, 7, 8, 10–14)
* Mr. X & Mr. Y – production (track 3)
* [[Andy Cox]] & [[David Steele (musician)|David Steele]] – production (track 6)
* Robert Gordon – production (track 9)
* Alan Wilson – mastering
{{div col end}}

==Charts==
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|-
!scope="col"| Chart (1989-1990)
!scope="col"| Peak<br />position
|-
!scope="row"|Australian Albums ([[ARIA Charts|ARIA]])<ref name="aus2">{{cite web|url=https://imgur.com/a/xZwKI4x | title=Pop Will Eat Itself Album chart history, received from ARIA in May 2024|publisher=ARIA|via=Imgur.com|access-date=5 July 2024}}  N.B. The High Point number in the NAT column represents the release's peak on the national chart.</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|128
|-
!scope="row"|[[UK Albums Chart]]
| style="text-align:center;"|24
|-
!scope="row"|[[Billboard 200|''Billboard'' 200]]
| style="text-align:center;"|169
|}

==Release history==
{|class="wikitable"
|-
! Region
! Date
! Distributing Label
|-
|UK
|1 May 1989
|[[RCA]]
|-
|US/Japan
|18 July 1989
|[[RCA]]
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Pop Will Eat Itself}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Pop Will Eat Itself albums]]
[[Category:1989 albums]]
[[Category:Albums produced by Flood (producer)]]
[[Category:RCA Records albums]]
[[Category:Albums with cover art by The Designers Republic]]
[[Category:Sound collage albums]]