Public Image – Public Image (First Issue) (1978)

I remember eagerly awaiting hearing this at the time, and not really knowing what to make of it when I did, By the time I 'got it', I'd bought it on vinyl, but it was only last week I finally replaced it on CD. I has for a long time been on my mental list of those to pick up when I saw it, so to get it at a knock down price felt good.

And it's every bit as good as I remember. Opening with Theme, there's a lazy, slow, slightly reggaefied Wobble/Walker rhythm line, Levene's screeching guitar, before Lydon lopes in to set the scene for the album. In Religion, Lydon gets his Roman Catholic upbringing off his chest, firstly with spoken word, his monotone drawl perfectly suiting the lyrics, at once occasionally juvenile and immensely powerful, before the words are repeated with the band accompaniment, building slowly, becoming manic. Annalise is frantic, wild and exciting, before the band's signature tune, Public Image, a sneering retelling of the back story, then the equally powerful Low Life and Attack. It's only on Fodderstompf that it gets tiresome, the single line (We only wanted to be loved) repeated falsetto ad nauseam, when the point was made after a couple of times. I'm sure the irritation is deliberate, but aren't we here to have fun?

But it is a great album, completely departing from the sound previously associated with Lydon, if not the anger and sentiment, certainly delivering more than he had previously, or arguably since.

Link to album tracks

4* - a great album, still as powerful and interesting today