PUBLIC IMAGE LTD. REVIEWS:
First Issue (1978)
Second Edition (1980)
Flowers of Romance (1981)
This is What You Want... This is What You Get (1984)
Album (1985)
Happy? (1987)
9 (1989)
That What is Not (1992)
Psycho's Path (1997)
First Issue (1978)
Album Score: 11
A mere year after the short-lived Sex Pistols broke up, Lydon formed Public Image, Ltd. He professed on national television that it wasn’t a rock band at all but a company that sometimes dabbled with music. Whether he said this to antagonize television interviewers or because he actually believed it is up to whoever was watching (my money’s on the former).
Apparently because he hated his fans, Lydon came up very artsy music that had little or nothing to do with punk at all. I suppose the guy was telling the truth when he says he wasn’t that interested in money… anyone in his position could have made six times the amount of cash with any variety of punk clone!! And what sort of music did he release instead??? … er, sloppy Can-esque Kraut-rock that’s done in a bit of a pop vein? Are you mad?? Lucky us, the guy had phenomenally good taste in music, and there’s a certain professionalism to the proceedings.
He seemed against the idea that people thought his music was trendy. The problem with that is this music is about as trendy as it gets. In 1978 the overlooked Kraut-rock groups of yesteryear were gaining notoriety… especially with Kraftwerk at the height of their popularity! Furthermore, his attraction to catchy melodies just widens the appeal. Lydon claimed that this music defied categorization, but that’s just another one of his fabrications! The group acknowledged their Can influence right from the beginning! The song title “Fodderstompf” ought to at least be a hint.
The big hit from the album was the band’s namesake “Public Image.” It is a fantastic radio-friendly pop track with excellent guitars and an extraordinarily catchy melody! “Annalisa” is sloppy enough to be likened to Can but clean and catchy enough to be enormously likable. Even the blatant attempt to match the worst in Monster Movie, “Theme,” is 10-minutes full of relatively enjoyable, lighthearted sloppiness. I guess the band-members knew how to play their instruments too well! Keith Levene, lead guitarist, is very skilled in the art, and Jah Wobble is one of the most respected bass players in the business. Hey, even the drumming is good!!
So this is just good music! A little more creative than The Sex Pistols though not quite as musically solid… Ah, never mind The Sex Pistols! If you’re not willing to listen to this album, at least give “Public Image” a whirl.
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First Issue
Second Edition (1979)
Album Score: 13
Public Image Ltd. focused their efforts and concentrated on producing an album that continued to embrace the repetitive, druggy nature of Can-esque Kraut-rock, but they took a more minimalist route and even put in a disco bass! The result is one of the most desperately unique, entertaining and instantly likable post-punk albums ever. At the time, critics said it sounded futuristic, which is an impression that can still be applied. The group originally released this double album a 16mm film canister titled Metal Box. Later it was released as a usual double album called Second Edition. As far as I’m aware, both albums have the same substance… just with a different title.
The nature of double albums is oftentimes met with a dubious reaction (from me). I’m happy with them as long as the material never thins out! Fortunately for us, it never does here. The material is innovative and consistently engaging from beginning to end. Perhaps some of it is a bit on the lengthy side; I suppose the 10-minute opener, “Albatross,” does get slightly stale. But it does have a nice, evolving texture, anyway, and there’s always Jah Wobble’s creepy bass to keep us engaged.
After that, they thrust “Memories” on us… a very minimal and drugged-up song, and it had the foresight to be danceable! It’s catchy and addictive… It’s musical heroin (which must be better for you than taking the real thing). “Swan Lake” incorporates the famous Tchaikovsky tune in its upbeat mayhem and does all it needs to prove to everyone that this was a remarkably creative band. “Careering” is one of my personal favorites; it features a fantastic atmosphere (that’s ugly!) with a misleadingly lighthearted bass guitar. There are a few songs that are less inspired than others, but they’re still very well conceived! They don’t detract much against this fantastic work!
Rolling Stone magazine was kind enough to give the album distinction as the 469th best album ever made. The 468th album is Elton John’s self-titled debut. Eh, who takes Rolling Stone seriously, anyway?
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Second Edition
Flowers of Romance (1981)
Album Score: 14
Avant-garde goes pop? Until now, I thought Kate Bush’s The Dreaming (one of my favorite albums) was going to be the only album I’d ever run across to fit that bill, but now I’ve been happily proven wrong. I guess it’s no surprise that I’d end up thinking that this is one of the greatest albums ever in the world!!!
You’re going to have to be careful about the extent you call this album original since all Public Image Ltd. are doing is extrapolating on the innovations of yesteryear! These guys were obviously the biggest Can fans in the world, and pretty much the whole album can trace its origin to Tago Mago. Other more isolated parts of the album seem greatly inspired by Brian Eno, Syd Barrett, Tim Buckley and Frank Zappa.
Originality is one thing, but entertainment value is another. Simply put: Of all these influences, only Brian Eno was ever capable of releasing an album this entertaining. Innovative or not, these guys have extraordinarily good taste in music and don’t fall into any of the traps that their influences oftentimes did. None of those overbearing sound-effects excursions that Can oftentimes embarked on! This is more accessible than Frank Zappa, saner than Syd Barrett, more exciting than Brian Eno and less pretentious than Tim Buckley. In the end, this seems like a perfect conglomeration of everything that’s good in rock music! (Of course, one would have to disregard any statements John Lydon makes about this not being rock music.) In my universe, this is a case where the students have surpassed the masters. As icing on the cake, all of these tracks are kept well under five minutes meaning that this is a wonderfully compact album that’s filling to the brim with juicy ideas. This attribute alone makes this an improvement from Second Edition even though I’m probably one of the few people who hold this opinion.
I haven’t actually talked about the music yet! The band had a bit of a shake-up when they fired Jah Wobble for apparently using PiL material on a solo album. The result was that the album was left without a bassist! The only two tracks to feature the bass guitar is “Track 8” (where it sounds like a bullfrog) and “Banging on the Door” (where it’s traditionally played). Otherwise, the album is bass-less! … Apparently, they didn’t need it! Even though all of these tracks are notable, “Flowers of Romance” seems to rise above the others with its catchy Adam Ant-esque drums and utterly intoxicating string sounds. “Track 8” has a remarkably developed atmosphere, which it shares with “Hymie’s Him.” Even the weaker tracks, such as the Zappa-inspired “Francis Massacre” is exciting and enjoyable! For more details, check out the track reviews!
As long as you’re out shopping for this album, be sure to pick up the version with the three bonus tracks, which includes an instrumental version of “Flowers of Romance,” “Home is Where the Heart is,” (a throwback to their previous album) and “Another” (a very infectious atmospheric piece). You won’t be sorry!!
Read the track reviews:
Flowers of Romance
This is What You Want... This is What You Get (1984)
Album Score: 12
John Lydon and Keith Levene had some sort of falling out, which resulted in Levene leaving the band before this album was released. However, Levene did have input on the material before he left (he even released another version of it called Commercial Zone that was eventually pulled off the shelves after a lawsuit). With Levene gone, Lydon was in total control of the band. I’d say he did pretty good on his own. This is What You Want… This is What You Get still has that same weird, artistic flare, but it’s quite a bit sloppier and less purposeful as Flowers of Romance or Second Edition.
More than anything, it’s clear they weren’t trying as hard as they were in the past! But that’s understandable due to the abnormally high quality of their previous two albums, and this is faaaaaaaaaaar from being a throwaway album. The atmospheres are much less compelling here and all the songs aren’t nearly as well developed. But none of that changes the fact that I like this album! A major credit to it is their sensational single “This is Not a Love Song.” Known for its simple though infectious melodic structure combined with Lydon’s vocal lunacy and sarcastic lyrics... Well, it’s a fantastic ditty --- simple as that. You’ll probably like it if you haven’t heard it before.
The question of true originality was never a question with this band. It was clear right from the beginning that they had their influences in every art-rock act from yesteryear imaginable! (Deny it all you want, Mr. Lydon.) However, it seems that his interests have shifted a bit. In addition to Can being a main influence, they’re sounding rather like Oingo Boingo (“Bad Life”), The Talking Heads (“Solitaire”), Roxy Music (“Where Are You?”) and a bit of Peter Gabriel (“The Pardon”). I suppose this sort of imitation was the reason Public Image Ltd never turned into a household name! At any rate, nobody can fault them for having such fantastic influences.
Much more importantly, Lydon is vastly intelligent, and he uses his influences well. He shares that quality with David Bowie. With Bowie’s career in such a rotten state in the ‘80s, it’s very nice to have Rotten around! For some reason, PiL fans tend to not have too many good things to say about this album, but for me this is too much fun and, comparisons aside, well-made to snub. It’s not the perfect album, but who cares about that? Everything worked, the spirit’s there and I have a hard time putting it down. Get it today!
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This is What YOu Want... This is What You Get
Album (1985)
Album Score: 12
There’s a funny back-story involving this album title. John Lydon was angry at director Alex Cox for making an untruthful film about his deceased Sex Pistols band mate Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy. So, as retaliation, he decided to call this album Compact Disc, Cassette or Album depending on the format… which was a take-off from how things were labeled in one of Cox’s earlier films Repo Man. … But then there was a punk band in 1982 who had previously thought of this concept, and they weren’t too happy with Lydon taking their idea. So, Flipper released a live album Public Flipper Limited Live 1980-1985. There’s a lot of passive aggressiveness in the entertainment industry, apparently!
There really is no more PiL; this is more of a John Lydon solo project with some contributions from high caliber musicians as drummers Ginger Baker (former member of Cream) and Tony Williams (worked with Miles Davis), guitarist Steve Vai and Ryuichi Sakamoto (Yellow Magic Orchestra) on the synthesizers.
I’ve seen this album described as both a return-to-form and a sell-out; both labels could be fair though misleading. This is a return to form in the sense that music seems much more polished than This is What You Want… This is What You Get and a sell-out meaning that it’s by far the most mainstream PiL album to this point. At any rate, the album is great, and its “mainstream” tendency means that you have a good chance of liking it.
For the most part, Lydon was going more of an arena-rock direction, and ended up making one of the finest albums of the genre that I’ve ever heard. The album consists of seven tracks, and each and every one of them are fantastic. The arena rock is off to a big start with “FFF.” The drums are loud, the guitars are crunchy and you won’t do it justice if you don’t crank up the volume. “Rise” is the most well-known song here, which features a highly developed and engaging atmosphere with a catchy melody to boot. “Fishing” resembles hair metal except it’s actually good, and “Round” has one of the most unusual (and awesome) guitar solos on the planet. My weird choice for the best song of the album goes to “Bags.” That puts a bit of a kink into some listeners’ theory that the group had sold out; it has an atmosphere that rivals anything from Flowers of Romance and a wild and driving beat to dance to. You won’t be disappointed!
The final two tracks constitute the weakest. While “Home” has an awesomely loud drumbeat and features craazy vocals from Lydon, it doesn’t grab me like the others. I meet “Ease” with similar concerns. That one’s more of a mid-tempo rocker, and it seems a tad too long and doesn’t catch fire. All in all, these are great songs, though, and I wish all albums’ weakest spots were of this high quality.
Read the track reviews:
Album
Happy? (1987)
Album Score: 12
I am happy as a matter of fact! Public Image Ltd. experienced another major change-up for this album. John Lydon assembled an actual band this time (as opposed to just having glorified guest musicians on Album), and he has completely streamlined his sound. Anybody who thought This is What You Want… This is What You Get haven’t heard this album yet… This is the sell-out. But what a sell-out it is! This is by far the most mainstream PiL album… every one of these tracks might have had a comfortable fit on the Top 20 hits radio. Except, of course, none of these songs were Top 20 hits. It was 1987, and people only listened to baaaaaaaaaad music. Such a shame.
Happy? continues to confirm my suspicion that John Lydon has enormously good taste in music, and I’m certain that every single one of these songs are catchier than 95 percent of the Top 20 hits released that year. (It was 1987, so that’s a pretty safe bet!!) Listening to this makes me wonder how fair it is to actually call this a sell-out. Can’t high-quality pop music be just as valid as high-quality art music? That’s a topic for an essay that I’ll never write. Let’s talk about this album!
It starts out with the catchiest song of them all, “Seattle.” The jangly guitars appropriately produce sound similar to rain falling on the rooftops. Lydon’s vocals still seem “out-there,” but in a way that’s generally conducive to a Top 20 hit (he likes to half-scream in a rather wimpy voice in a way that I can barely understand the lyrics… it’s very unique). They hardly let up after “Seattle” and the entirety of the album consists of good songs.
“Rules and Regulations” goes so far as to feature the prominent use of 1980s synthesizers, loud drum beats and female back-up vocals, but it has a thick and dark atmosphere and an infectious bass-line. For the most part, the remainder of the tracks follow suit with that one! However, just to prove that the album doesn’t suffer from saminess, I’ll go through the rest of the tracks and point out its most notable attribute. “The Body” has a memorable chorus, “Save Me” has a great atmosphere (though musically weaker than the rest), “Hard Times” has an interesting texture, “Open and Revolving” has an enviable chord progression and development, “Angry” has some great vocals and “Fat Chance Hotel” has a catchy riff. This is an album where every song is special! This is pop music for the thinking man (and woman)!!
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Happy?
9 (1989)
Album Score: 10
The beginning of the end, methinks? John Lydon not only succumbing to the style of the mindless ‘80s rock star, but he’s now writing like one. The songs are becoming less distinctive and more like adhering to the generic norms of the 1980s… Of course their two previous albums, Album and Happy? also adhered to those norms, but they managed to sound fresh and better than everything else that surrounded it! While there’s no doubt in my mind that 9 is better than most 1989 pop albums, it just doesn’t have the same sparkle that I’m used to hearing from PiL.
But it does have it’s shining moments, so let’s talk about those. “Disappointed” was arguably this band’s most successful single topping the Billboard Modern Rock Chart for one week. With its spiteful lyrics and utterly soaring melody … Lydon has rarely topped himself with that one. It’s the sort of song that I can put on my iPod and keep pressing the “repeat” button (and yes, I’ve done that)!! The album opener “Happy?” (not to be confused with the album Happy?) is a fun and bouncy track with Lydon’s crazy-man vocals (now a bit restrained) as the sheer highlight. Also, I’m fond of the dark though playful “Warrior,” which reminds me of Kate Bush. (That’s something I hadn’t discussed until now… if I were the type of reviewer who makes blanketed statements about influences, I’d say that Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush and PiL’s careers were very intertwined with each other in the 1980s.) The album closer “Armada,” which features some apparent Middle Eastern influences, is one of the more distinct and tuneful tracks. Also, “Sand Castles in the Snow” (apparently titled “Spit” originally), is a wild and crazy track that might have made a good grunge song with different instrumentation. All things considered, these tracks make 9 into a recommended album and essential for any PiL fan!
But what about the rest of the songs? They embody everything I was complaining about in the opening three sentences of this review; they are without personality like most 1980s rock bands were at the time. Give him credit for trying something with “U.S.L.S. 1” … sort of similar to the atmospheric, droning songs that they did in their hey day. Lydon speaks above some typical 1980s backing music. The problem with that is that there is nothing catchy or interesting about it… It’s very bland! The only thing interesting about it is Lydon’s voice. “Worry” manages to be even blander with Lydon’s vocal styling as its saving grace. I struggle to find much distinctive out of the following three tracks “Brave New World,” “Like That” and “Same Old Story” … they’re all fine songs and might have been highlights in any other album from the era, but for PiL, they’re lacking extremely. This makes me pose the question: was Lydon losing access to his heart?
Read the track reviews:
9
That What is Not (1992)
Album Score: 9
This is a lot like 9 except with more guitars and fewer distinctive highlights. In fact, there’s only one song I’d recommend to anyone who likes PiL’s earlier albums… it’s called “God.” It’s heavy on the personality, the arrangements are interesting and sometimes weird and the lyrics are hugely blasphemous, which some of his fans like. Good old PiL. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much the extent of this album’s inspired creativity. The rest of the songs suck.
When I say “suck” I mean that they’re still pretty good, but they’re hugely disappointing compared to the remarkably high standard PiL set with their 1978-1987 albums. I probably wouldn’t have complained too much if this were by almost any other group. It was enough that I thought half of the songs in 9 were too common sounding for PiL; 80 percent of the songs on That What is Not are too common. Making matters worse, they all have the similar sound and tempo. …Er, what’s this, then? A PiL album that’s samey?! John Lydon has never been this boring!!! … Well, his eccentric vocal styling still contains a bit of a punch and keeps some of these songs from boring me too much. The songwriting is what took the nosedive.
But as I said, all the songs are decent. The album opener “Acid Drops” sounds almost epic and appropriate for an album opener. The guitars are well played and polished --- just that the melody leaves a bit to be desired. “Love Hopes” is a minor highlight and certainly the most grunge sounding of the lot. The tempo is sped up to nearly furious heights, and the guitar crunches are mighty! Still, it sorely lacks PiL’s special sparkle, which is why I couldn’t bring myself to embrace it. “Unfairground” starts rather atmospheric, a glimmer of a reminder of their classic albums, but it merely turns into another bland hard rock song. Blah. Nobody needed PiL to be bland… Their personality and diversity used to be their highest attribute!! AND IT’S GONE!!!!
A big exception to everything I just said is they keyboard-led “Good Things” that seems tacked on at the end. I’m guessing it was a leftover from the previous album, but here it seems more like a last-ditch effort to save the album. It’s a combination of the classic eccentric PiL sound with Latin. Lydon opens it with sarcastic Speedy Gonzalez sounds, and the proceedings are very fun.
So that’s it. Two good songs by their standards. You probably don’t need to hear the rest of it unless you’re some sort of fan and you believe you can handle the disappointment.
Read the track reviews:
That What is Not
Psycho's Path (1997)
Released by John LydonAlbum Score: 11
PiL broke up and John Lydon must’ve taken some time for some sort of “artistic recovery” to come back in 1997 and release his first solo album. (Though it’s understood that PiL was pretty much all him anyway.) The good news is that it’s definitely a return-to-form after PiL’s lackluster swan song That What is Not and nearly as good as those old classic PiL albums. Yup, this marks a return of the intoxicating grooves, thick and developed atmospheres, wild diversity and Lydon’s crazy, spacey lead vocals (though that never changed).
“Grave Ride” opens things on a dark and familiar route… it wouldn’t be out of place on one of his ‘80s albums (except the snare drum might be louder). The groove is complicated though interesting and the atmospherics are fully developed. It’s completely entertaining from beginning to end! Even better than that is “Dog” that features one of the most complicated textures ever released by Lydon… It’s weird, alluring and decidedly special. Its follow-up “Psychopath” has an interesting groove, but nowhere near as compelling as the previous two tracks.
“Sun,” the fourth track, is a major highlight… Probably the only song with real pop potential (though it didn’t go anywhere), it has a catchy melody and interesting groove. It’s much more lighthearted than the other songs, but it still contains that sparkly quirkiness that ranks up there with Lydon’s best.
The album tends to drag a bit for the next three tracks, though they’re good tracks. “Another Way” has a nice atmosphere, though it drags on for too long and actually gets somewhat boring (imagine that). He tries techno on for size with “Dis-Ho” and it proves to be the uttermost worst song on the album… The atmosphere isn’t compelling at all (though there was a formidable attempt) and little about it is entertaining (apart from the fact that pretty much anything Lydon does is entertaining).
Things pick up as soon as “A No and a Yes” pipes up… one of the album’s more inspired grooves (it’ll have to face tough competition for that title). Again, it sounds a lot like his 1980s work, but I hope I impressed on you that those albums are divine. And the album ends with a fond throwback to Flowers of Romance, by far the weirdest song of the album, “Armies.” That’s the sort of song where Lydon makes the strangest, most alarming atmosphere imaginable… It’s not pretty though it’s not supposed to be. (It’s also not that catchy, which is why I couldn’t award it anything higher than an A-.)
For some reason, the music critics lambasted this upon release due to the fact that music critics suck. The only reason anyone would hate this album is if they hate classic PiL records… For the most part, this is just as good. (I’m giving this record an 11, but it was verrrry close to a 12.)
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Psycho's Path
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