Public Image Limited - Flowers Of Romance (UK 1981)

Classic Albums from My Past.

PIL's third studio album and with out Jah Wobble it is quite an anomaly in the PIL discography. Percussion heavy and quite stark bordering on avant-garde, it took me by surprise back in the day but it certainly is a very cool album and you'll not find many others like it. "Banging the Door" and "Go Back" are the most accessible songs and are classic examples of the fertile Post-Punk scene in the UK in the early 80s. The album has held up well across the years and I appreciate it's weirdness more now than I did in my youth. Rating 4/5. 

Public Image Ltd - This Is PIL (USA 2012)

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

1. “This Is PiL”

2. “One Drop”

3. “Deeper Water”

4. “Terra-Gate”

5. “Human”

6. “I Must Be Dreaming”

7. “It Said That”

8. “The Room I Am In”

9. “Lollipop Opera”

10. “Fool”

11. “Reggie Song”

12. “Out Of The Woods”

So I have been checking out some latest releases that were reviewed in my latest issue of Uncut Magazine for my review purposes and seeing what might be my next CD purchases, during which I stumbled upon this new set from our old mate John Lydon. Not actually released yet but I was very interested to see what P.I.L were up to in the 21st Century and what Johnny Rotten had to say after 20 years since their last proper album, but when this started playing on the Ipod at work I was quickly disappointed with what I was hearing. Musically the set was OK, the usual P.I.L Stuff, nothing revelatory or overly exciting but it appears John doesn't have much to say these days except blowing his own trumpet on the title track over and over again and getting pretty annoying on the likes of “Lollipop Opera” and some other tracks. John has also lost most of that Johnny Rotten sneer and high pitched whine that made hime so distinctive in the past and sounds like some normal old bloke now. Overall this set sounds like the old codger is just putting out some product to help the cashflow. Rating 2/5.

Public Image Ltd - Second Edition/Metal Box (UK 1979)

An Uncle Roddus Album review

I thought I might give this one a quick review in light of the recent reissue of most of P.I.L's back catalogue of which I spotted a review in my last issue of Uncut Magazine. I was first attracted to P.I.L purely on the fact that it was Johnny Rottens' band. I had heard most of their first few albums but had not ever owned a copy of this one. Some of this post punk, funky, dubby alternative music was already familiar to me from several tracks being on the live "Paris au Printemps" album I had on vinyl. Fuelled along by Jah Wobbles' deep bass lines and Keith Levenes' screechy guitar, this lot sometimes sounds like a bit of a jam session, especially on the extended "Albatross". A good album with plenty of cool songs and contrary to the avant-garde tag I keep reading about this album, plenty of melody, especially from Wobbles' bass. Rottens'  monotone robotic narratives can get a bit tedious in places and so too the music on this 60 minute set. A bit over rated overall but worthy of a Roddus rating of 3.5/5