Public Image Ltd – Second Edition (1979)
This CD wasn't going to be left on the racks in Harborough Market, and came home with me for a couple of quid. It had long been on my wish list. Of course, had I been a vinyl purist, I'd have been looking for the original, entitled Metal Box and on three 12" singles, currently a snip at a mere £150+ on Ebay.
The CD is also available in a mini metal box, but it sounds like a storage nightmare.
So let's consider this as it was first intended, in three parts (although this is, of course, one conventional CD).
The first disc contained three fantastic songs, the laidback Albatross, before the pace switches up for Memories, followed by, in the same vein, Swan Lake - a remix of the hit single. All perfectly combine Jah Wobble's thumping basslines, owing more to dub reggae than rock, Keith Levene's jangling guitar, and John Lydon's manic singing/shrieking.
If you thought this was as good as it could get, then the second disc kicked off with the lazy sound of Poptones, allegedly originating from Yes's Starship Trooper (certainly the theme bears much resemblance to the opening bars) possibly the peak of the band's short catalogue, and certainly my favourite. Careering keeps up the standard, mostly just Wobble's bass (and drum track) and Lydon's vocals, with Levene experimenting with a synth backing.
The third section opens with the futuristic sound of Socialist, a repetitive electronic instrumental, not dissimilar to what XTC were doing on their Homo Safari electronic instrumentals, however much of the rest feels incomplete and many of the songs minimal and unformed. Graveyard is a very ordinary guitar led instrumental, while The Suit is a monotone drawl. Bad Baby has quite an empty sound, in contrast to the bangers which started the album. There's a bit more life to No Birds, but the sound is still thin and trebly. Chant/Radio 4 brings the album back to a conclusion, a manic ...er... chant, followed by a gentle pastoral synth piece.
Certainly, I'd contend the first half of this album is the finest music John Lydon ever made, but it needed his collaborators Wobble and Levene to realise it. PIL at their best.
4* - this second album was far more than just the gimmick of the packaging
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