This Is PiL

"Lucky you" are the first words that come belching out of Lydon's gob on This Is PiL a track that can either be enjoyable or annoying at the same time it basically consists of "This is PiL, This is a PiL loading zone" over and again. The heavy repetition of lyrics is also prevalent on 'One Drop' and "Terra Gate" especially. The repetition of the same lyric over and over is something of a Lydon trademark from their first album on, twisting the same phrases over and over again all the vile and venom being ringed out of each word (i.e. Religion from their first album.

The lyrics on these early tracks seem to lack any real social comment or anger even Lydons voice moves in and out of the music which seems undermixed and doesn't really jump out at you. The bass is especially not present which is a little disappointing considering the bass of Jah Wobble was the signature sound of PiL. Feeling underwhelmed after one drop it moves into Deeper Water which is a pleasant track once again nothing really remarkable about this one either.

Things start to pick up on 'Human' and 'I must be dreaming' which is almost dub like and very welcome so far. The real meat on this album comes when 'It said that' and the 'room i am in' starts both experimental tracks the latter being a spoken word track which something like early PiL. After that is the 'Lollipop Opera' which is a dance beat over almost what could be considered a rhyming game Lydon's lyrics start to sting like they used to (almost). "Fool" starts after that which is a nice blues ballad which kind of feels out of place it's almost like a breather after the hyperactive lollipop opera.

The best part of this album comes in the last two tracks, the psychedelic 'Reggie Song' and 'Out Of The Woods' which really cooks over a long jam highlights include double tracked Lydon really belting it halfway through.

This is a very loose unfinished sounding record which is made up of really half hearted pop-ish tracks in the first half but takes a turn for the better on Human onwards. The music seems really under mixed and muddy which really hurts the album. Maybe a better track sequence would help the album or just more time spent working on the tracks (especially Deeper Water which goes nowhere for six minutes similar to One Drop and Terra Gate. The final word from me is that it's been a very long time since a new PiL album and a new PiL album is better than no PiL album, without the vitriol of Lydon some of the humour of PiL shines through which is a different thing to hear from them. It's a very long wait for a new album - Heres hoping this is a warm up for the next one which hopefully happens in the next few years and not on Lydon's 70th birthday.

Twenty years ago, PiL, then sporting a lineup of ex- Smiths , ex- Banshees , ex- Pistols , and numerous others, gave the world their stroppy swansong : "That What is Not". Built on thick riffarama and a solid, pounding rhythm section, it was the exact type of broken stadium rock that Lydon had painted himself into a glorious corner with. And then the band split, the Sex Pistols became a nostalgia act, a punk museum, and Lydon's minimal recorded output - a couple of guest spots, a underperforming but determined solo record - slowed to nothing.

Is there a place for PiL in 2012? The last time this band put a record out, I was living in Leicester, studying for a qualification, John Major hadn't yet won an election,cassettes were the future. There was no internet. Nirvana had yet to headline Reading. Mobile phones were as rare as a private helicopter. "Doom" had yet to be released. Culture was a dripfed vaccum in one direction : from them to us. Everything has changed, and yet nothing has.

The same old battles, the same old wars. Fighting against the business and industries.

With the contrary, and utterly sincere Lydon, PiL has always been his personal love, himself, but different, presented through a prism, no pantomime, no caricature, but an aspect. Who would've dared hope this crotechy old grumpy bggr would bring back his best band and fund them with butter adverts? Who would've thought the lineup that toured 1986-87, with the perfect "Album", and the intermittent "Happy?", would be the one he would choose?
Who would reckon that, at 56, Lydon would still be scratching the same itch, bearing the same soul, fighting the same battle? Aurally, the band are still, as ever, exploring the guttural.

It opens with Lydon grimacing, a minimal drum pattern, a rising roar as he proclaims, perhaps more effectively than any other version of the band, PiL as a communication machine, with art, sound, performance. "This is PiL", the title track, sees Lydon proclaim clearly what this is. Edmonds peels out rising riffs and textures. Combined with "One Drop", and lyrically, Lydon is as sharp as ever. No dimming of the flame. A man rightly furious about the state of the nation. It is an urban album : the steam of London burns through every line, the roar of the underground, the closed factories, and the broken dreams. Songs like "Deeper Water", "Terra-Gate" and "Reggie Song" are evocative things. I'm used to people getting to a certain age, and not caring about the world anymore. As life changes, and people change, and the world revolves, the centre remains, and this is the core battle Lydon is fighting : about being human and warm in the morass of markets and mortality.

"Through The Woods", there are moments where the entire song lifts to a giddy crescendo, where the guitars transcend, the bass roars, and everything becomes so much more than just a combination of instruments and ideas to a primal, spiritual roar. Whilst PiL may not have done much in the years, this si their best album in a quarter century. Not since "Album"have the band growled so convincingly. Not since the days of Wobble have this band held such a deep and throbbing bass : and Lu Edmonds is an undersung guitarist - though no one can touch the departed John McGeough for skill, Lu is a worthy successor. The rhythms, deft guitar, and intonation invoke the best of PiL across all decades, from the sparse earlier years to the huge rock of the late Eighties.

"This is PiL" could, and would, rightly, be seen as the definitive PiL record : the place to start. It is a record that will not leave my ears, a consistent, brilliant, vibrant classic. This is the record I have been waiting for Lydon to make the past 25 years.

There are two schools of thought with PiL: The Wobble/Levene incarnation and the subsequent band line-ups without. Technically, a better name for the latter would be The John Lydon Band as the difference between the two is truly radical. The Wobble/Levene incarnation was highly experimental with some of the most extreme sounds ever committed to record while the subsequent version comes across as being more traditional. Some prefer one over the other... some like both... I fall into the latter catagory.

All that said, this is not the revelation one would have expected after nearly two decades of silence. It sounds as if it picks up where the 90s incarnation left off. There are excellent tracks throughout, but nothing can be termed brand new or different. Actually, it is an improvement over PiL of decades ago in that the dated 80s 'dance' sound is gone, and overall, it really is good album worth considerable playlist time. Also, it is great to see new material was written at all. So often bands reunite only to trot out their biggest hits from long ago. Fortunately, John Lydon's band is a vital and living band and not a nostalgia act.

I first heard the regular CD version and thought it was a 4-star release. However, the Deluxe Edition, which comes with a DVD is certainly 5-stars. Besides the really great packaging, the included DVD is excellent beyond measure. Lo and behold, the new songs come across far better live than in the studio.

Highly recommended, especially to those who liked the non-Wobble/Levene band (although the bass thunders on this new release more so than on any other release since Metal Box). It is also a good place to start for newcomers, and from here, check out the rest of the previous releases. Meanwhile Jah Wobble and Keith Levene have recently been collaborating again with a relatively new release simply titled EP (a four-track "extended play" single). When hearing this, one cannot help but wonder what a reunuion of these musical giants would have been like under the banner of Public Image Ltd. Apparently that will never happen, so we are left with the divided talents on This Is PiL and EP, but fortunately, that is not a bad thing.