Public Image Ltd - This Is PiL Review

Do you remember that terrible advert for Country Life butter? Sure you do, don’t claim ignorance now. It was the one where John Lydon, once very much ensconced in the filth and the fury, ponced around a farm dressed up like the Mad Hatter, shilling fatty yellow blocks of dairy produce. It was a watershed moment for those who like to throw the term “sell out” around like so much confetti. Of course, Lydon being Lydon, he has since defended his foray into the wonderland of advertising by stating the fee he received funded PiL’s first album in 20 years…but was it worth the hassle?

The most surprising thing about This Is PiL is the fact that it’s actually pretty bloody good. You could be forgiven for being wary about this record’s potential as little else but a cash-in. All of those dead-rubber Sex Pistols reunion shows can have a negative effect on the perception of Lydon as an artist with something to say. That’s neither here nor there however; he and his group prove they are still a vital, urgent and relatively fresh outfit with plenty of axes to grind.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for a few years, you’ll have noticed that the world is beset by social, political and economic turbulence. It’s fertile ground for a man with a sharp mind, and Lydon doesn’t disappoint in aiming his ire at all and sundry. “Deeper Water”, at once hypnotic and addictive, sees unadulterated scorn poured on “bristled bastards that will lead you to the shore, dash you on the rocks.” He also finds time to rail against “ignorant strangers”, backed by sparse, reverb-laden instrumentation that successfully captures the bleakness conveyed by Lydon’s lyrics. In an interview with Rolling Stone, the group claimed “Deeper Water” was laid down in one improvised take. If this is true, then it’s a glowing reference for the talent of all involved. It plays like a stream-of-consciousness poem, and it’s a notion that stays with you for the entire album; peaking with the exceptional and sinister “The Room I Am In.” Lydon once more throws on his Social Commentary Hat, and gives an insight into the manic, lonely thoughts of a drug-abuser living alone in their one bedroom rat’s nest on a grotty council estate. It’s stark and unapologetic, showing that despite living in a nice, comfortable castle in Ireland, Lydon still understands the places he inhabited as a younger man. Perhaps he sees himself as the subject of “The Room I Am In” had things not gone so well for him....full text The legendary band that deigns to return to active service usually deals in familiarity: they sell records and gig tickets by reaffirming what their audience already knows. Anyone requiring evidence that the return of Public Image Ltd is the exception that proves the rule should listen to Human, the fifth track on the first PiL album since 1992. It certainly sounds like PiL: the disco drums, the spiky guitar, John Lydon's inimitable, quavering two-note vocal style. It's what he's singing about that gives you pause. "I miss," opines the former Johnny Rotten, "those English roses … cotton dresses skipping across the lawn/ Happy faces when football was not a yawn/ Playing on bombsites, all the days were long."...full text While John Lydon's Country Life ads may have boggled the minds of old punks, the revenue from these, and PiL's reunion tours, have made this bristling DIY album possible. Further punk-rock points are awarded for being an awkward listen that veers from the ridiculous – Lollipop Opera's oompah-rap – to the unexpectedly sublime. Fool, for one, could pass for a soul tune. Lydon's voice is never just any grumpy old man's. Throughout, he aspires to dub's cosmic poetics. And he never, ever runs out of things to say, about postwar Finsbury Park, "edyoucay-SHUN!" and "the ferocious seas" of his mind....full text