Second Edition

Public Image Limited | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: 1980
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B000002KJZ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,461 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Albatross

2. Memories

3. Swan Lake

4. Poptones

5. Careering

6. Socialist

7. Graveyard

8. The Suit

9. Bad Baby

10. No Birds

11. Chant

12. Radio 4

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Among its many virtues, the second album by John Lydon's post-Sex Pistols group has the most brain-devouring bass sound ever, courtesy of Jah Wobble, whose dubby throb overpowers Lydon's drugged-out wail and Keith Levene's spidery, modal guitar lines. Lydon's words and singing evoke unending horror--they're the voice of a man in hell who can barely understand what's happening to him--and the songs here cycle through a few notes over and over until they're abruptly cut off. "This person's had enough of useless memories," he moans, and Second Edition isn't just a repudiation of rock's chords and catharsis, but a despairing attempt to forget. --Douglas Wolk

Product Description

Digitally remastered edition of this 1979 Post-Punk classic. Rising from the ashes of the Sex Pistols in 1978, Public Image Limited were by definition one of the pioneers of Post-Punk groups. With John Lydon's vocals complemented by ex-Clash guitarist Keith Levene, drummer Jim Walker and Jah Wobble on bass, the group created a more Dub orientated style and their innovative music earned them five UK Top 20 Singles and five UK Top 20 Albums in a period stretching over three decades. Second Edition (a repackage of the original Metal Box) contains all the remasters from the Metal Box project, housed neatly in a single CD. EMI. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth Your Time, May 4, 2000

By 

daibhidh "daibhidh" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Second Edition (Audio CD)

This album has already been canonized by critics, so what can I add to it? I find it to be both abrasive and compulsively listenable, with the strange fusion of John Lydon's warbling with the band's music. It's a weird combination that somehow works. "Albatross" leads off and goes on for ten minutes, but after some initial dissonance, I found myself enjoying it. "Memories", "Swan Lake", and "Careering" are more familiar tunes for followers of PiL. Some of the instrumental numbers are quite interesting, including "Socialist" and "Radio 4" -- both of which you can readily imagine in science fiction soundtracks. The dance element to PiL is always apparent in this work, if not for Lydon's voice jolting you back to reality amidst the lingering grooves. Considering what else was out in 1979, this album is far ahead of its time, and holds up well even for jaded listeners of more modern "alternative" bands.

Lydon has said in his biography that he considered the Sex Pistols' lone album to be too conventional, and that if he'd had his way, what he'd have put together wouldn't have been listenable. This album gives me a sense of what Lydon may have been envisioning -- it is and isn't listenable. For people who want readily accessible, easily classifiable music, this album would probably offend; if you're after a more nuanced musical experience that's kinda weird, then this one is for you.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The sounds of alienation and possibility, December 19, 2005

By 

Ludwig J. Pluralist "avantepopgospeler" (Beacon, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Second Edition (Audio CD)

This record is a wonderful mix of post-punk experimentation, electro-dub rhythms and neo-Germanic noise-drones. I listened to this on vinyl so much around 1980 that I wore my copy out and needed to buy a second copy.

Following the Sex Pistols crash in San Francisco in early 1978, and Johnny Rotten's reclamation of his actual name of John Lydon, and the first PIL record (featuring the up tempo song Public Image) released later that year, the band set to work on a true expression of their possibilities as a band, releasing this record two years later, in 1979 in the U.K (as Metal Box) and in 1980 in the States. Combining Jah Wobble's dub reggaefied bass and Martin Atkins drumming, PIL's rhythm section would be much more `rubbery' and 'slinky' than the Pistol's more rocking beats. And whereas Steve Jones helped give the Sex Pistols a heavy power chord sound, Keith Levine provided a much more experimental, noise-oriented sound. All of this then provided the texture for Lydon to free associate some truly innovative lyrics, which dealt with themes of decay and destruction - all told, the perfect post-punk record from a band that would, briefly, pave the way of post-punk innovation before settling into an unexpected hitmaking complacency.

This, then, is a place to hear a bright moment of change on the face of popular music. This is Public Image, Ltd's magnum opus and it still sounds great, so it's not simply one for the archives. It's a record to be listened to still, and to be reflected on.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars corrosive and then . . ., September 5, 2005

By 

Boxodreams "[e-mail]" (district of columbia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Second Edition (Audio CD)

context: you're barreling along your punk and merry way, careening recklessly to snarling spiky four-chord men, and suddenly stopped dead in your tracks to see the headstone with RIP at the end of the line in the form of alienation, existentialism, deeply dub-inspired heart hurt and a voice you recognize yet no longer recognize. Stop! Stunned. Then, the door opens -- a new way. Grow.