Out this week on reissue

PIL
Plastic Box
Virgin
***

It’s rare that you ever see John Lydon described as a former member of Public Image Ltd. He will always be, like Plant and McCartney, associated with one band only. That Lydon followed up his culturally cataclysmic tenure in The Sex Pistols with something as intruiging as PiL came as something of a shock; the band’s 1978 debut single, Public Image, was a brilliant pop/punk sleight of hand that fooled many into presuming PiL would be a far edgier, smarter Pistols. As this four-CD set proves, Lydon was having a giggle. Tracks such as Poptones, Death Disco, Chant and Memories are sonically characterful dub/fun, brillo-pad slabs of noise – while Lydon’s warble often reaches sheep bleating-like proportions. The Pistols may have shared certain aspects with PiL (a bleak worldview, a propulsive rhythmic groove, an occasional radiance), but the former’s sneer was little match for the latter’s soul – even if some of PiL’s music is virtually unlistenable.

Download tracks:Public Image, Rise, Flowers of Romance