PUBLIC IMAGE LTD.
COMPACT DISC (1986)
320 KBPS
A stunning return to form. As assembled by producer Bill Laswell, there's not really a PiL to speak of - it's basically Lydon and a group of session musicians - but who's complaining when these guests include Steve Vai, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Ginger Baker? With its emphasis on big guitars and big drums, "Album" was written off by the unenlightened as PiL going stadium rock, but Lydon's confrontational lyrics and caterwaul vocals, and the abundance of Eastern melodies, help steer this away from the realm of conventional 80s metal. "Anger is an energy" is the mantra of "Rise": one of PiL's finest moments ever, the song manages to be both a tribute to Lydon's Irish heritage and also a scathing indictment of Apartheid torture practices. Lydon's impassioned vocal presence has never sounded so graceful. Elsewhere, the album is rife with surprising and very effective musical flourishes: never is this more evident than on the closing "Ease," a beautiful, monumental mood/rock piece with synth, sitar and didgeridoo (and a killer Vai guitar solo). In a marked contrast to the sporadic quality of the two previous PiL studio albums, there's no filler here: EVERY track is a highlight. "FFF" is a rollicking opener in which Lydon lashes out at a former friend/colleague ("Farewell my fairweather friend/On you no one can depend"). Lydon continues the apocalyptic themes of "World Destruction" (his 1985 single collaboration with Afrika Baambattaa and Laswell) on "Round" ("Mushrooms on the horizon") and the mistanthropic, catchy numbers "Fishing" ("Talking to you is a waste of time/Go crawl back into your dustbin"), "Bags," and "Home" ("Better days will never be"). Easily PiL's most essential 80s moment (apologies to all those "Flowers Of Romance" fans), "Album" is second only to "Metal Box" as the best PiL album ever. It's an extraordinary, non-condescending and underrated highlight of a largely boring musical landscape (a.k.a. the 1980s). NOTE: in keeping with the generic packaging of this release, the LP was titled "Album," the CD "Compact Disc" and the cassette "Cassette."
1. F.F.F.
2. Rise
3. Fishing
4. Round
5. Bags
6. Home
7. Ease
10 comments:
Thanks for this!!! Do you also happen to have their "Live In Tokyo"
album?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_in_Tokyo_(Public_Image_Ltd.)
I remember it had a stunning version of "This is not a Love Song" on it.
Good Ol' Times, eh?
Ciao
This was an excellent post! Now for some Sugarsmack?! (all right, I just can't give up tryng with this largely unknown college rock outfit...)
AAKK! The rapidshare link says 0kb. Can you repost?
Download it mate, you'll see it's worth much more than it shows... ;)
Great post. Fans of this one might also want to seek out the follow-up, 1987's "Happy?" which follows a similar musical direction, but unfortunately ditches Bill Laswell's adventurous production (and the stellar roster of musicians) in favor of a more typical 80s commercial sheen.
The real successor to "Compact Disc" (or "Album" or "Cassette") is Ginger Baker's album from the same year, "Horses and Trees", produced by Laswell and featuring many of the same musicians from the PiL release.
Nothing there! Help! Have downloaded empty file and found it to be...empty.
Please re:post. Many thanks.
"This file has been removed from the server, because the file has not been accessed in a long time."
Re up ?
dead link.
could you re-up it, please?
thanks.
:-)
You will find all the songs from this album (minus one), in remastered version, here:
http://newmoodswings.blogspot.com/2010/04/public-image-ltd.html
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