Customer Reviews

Second Edition

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

It's difficult to review this album, because there are no real musical signposts, other than John Lydon's appalling, anti-social lyrical venom. Dub reggae bass, off-kilter, but danceable rhythms, glacial synthesizer, and razor-wire guitar are the main touchstones. Standouts are "Albatross", "Memories", "Swan Lake", "Poptones", "Careering", "No Birds", and "Bad Baby". "Graveyard" is the best of the instrumentals. "Albatross", "Memories", and "Swan Lake" all use disco-esque beats, but in innovative ways. "Albatross" is mixed and produced like dub reggae, so Jah Wobble's hypnotic bass gets inside of your stomach. "Memories" is disco filtered through bipolar disorder. "Swan Lake" has Keith Levene's guitar on shred-metal/clusterbomb mode as John Lydon shrieks like a rabid cat, surprisngly becoming a freakish hit single as "Death Disco". "Poptones" is a bubbling, off-time loop which lets Lydon rant about being a rape-murder victim. "Careering" is about the military tensions in Northern Ireland, featuring a very odd drum track and a chilling synthesizer line at absolute zero. "No Birds" has a marvelous performance from Richard Dudanski, the drummer for most of the album (Levene drums on three tracks, including "Poptones", and Wobble drums on "Careering"). "Bad Baby" has a tense, indecisive keyboard line, and future Pigface boss Martin Atkins makes his first appearance on record here with some great drumming. Extremely highly recommended - probably the greatest postpunk album ever made.

From Wobble's enormous and relentless bass thunder at the bottom to Levene's maximum treble teetering over the top with Lydon wailing in the centre of the mix this album is a culmination of all that went before. The anger and frustration of punk, the rhythmic innovations of dub and the newly ex-Rotten's urge to thoroughly shed his past and make something truly new. Back in bleak '79's London I remember thinking when I first got the Metal Box with its extravagant yet oddly utilitarian packaging that it would be a divisive and critical work - either utterly pretentious and misconceived or a complete masterpiece. It was the latter and sounds stronger now than ever. Is there better test of real art?

PIL, 2nd Ed? (Metal Box)...I am buying this Disc "again" today. Old copy scratched and unplayable as the original "Metal Box" LP(s) in my basement. Woderfully angular guitar and madcap etheresque vocals tied to the ground by the infectious throbbing grooves laid down by Jah Wobble. Levines Jagged lines slice through like slivers of glass, as Lydon whines infectuously about the dark side of "normality". "Pop Tones" is as effective today as when i was a teen and "Careering" still frightens part of me.The insrtrumentals IE: radio 4 show the power of a band that could convey thought without lyrics. A marvilous document of an incenterary time. Pil's Finest Hour by far !!! If the Pistols were "pre-fab-shrink-wrap punk" THIS documents Lydon and Co's TRUE intent. Jagged, Throbbing, un nerving, un relenting. Bad Mood/Good Fun think while you dance music. Part of what i call the "Holy trinity" in this undefinable catagory of sound. The others....Gang of Four "entertainment!" and Mission of Burma "Vs."...... After a few listens you may find yourself dancing to the theropists office!......a MUST HAVE !!!!

Who would figure that from the wreckage of the Sex Pistols John Lydon and company would invent post-punk? PIL are much more self consciously arty than the Pistols, yet no less cynical or angry. This album may be their finest work and oddly enough influenced in equal measure by Jamaican dub, improvisation?!?! and German prog (krautrock) like the motorik band Neu or Can. The song's structure comes almost entirely from the ryhthm section alone. Generally an hypnotic bass/drum pattern is laid down over which Keith Levene improvises guitar and synth patterns almost like some kind of punk rock jam band. If something works, he'll emphasize it with and an overdub. Within the mix is John, now Lydon's caterwhauling vocals. He's no less angry, but lyrically more adult and conceptual. His vocals used to drip venom, now they are at times tortured if not semi-psychotic. He used to scream at the world, now he mourns for it. The songs seem to go on until Lydon has nothing more to say, or when the band gets tired/bored. Interspersed are several instrumentals such as the drumless album closer Radio 4. In general Second Editions music has more to do with texture and ryhthm than melody. It's a loose experimental album that shows the lads heading into art rock territory. Now to some this might sound like an aural disaster, I find much of these whacked out dub, funk, post punk experiments to be at the least interesting and at best compelling. Sometimes they fall flat on their faces, sometimes they seem to be almost daring the audience to go along for the ride. Disciplined this album is not. But when their peculiar high wire act works, it works well. Second Edition was made near the height of Lydon's disdain for his audience and the trappings of pop stardom. The culmination of which was when PIL played New York behind a curtain while chanting "Silly f--king audience, silly f--king audience" After his experience in the Sex Pistols I can't say I blame him for his attitude. As for Second Edition, you'll either like it, love it or hate it, but you won't be indifferent to it.

Amazing record, no doubt. One problem here though. Put simply, don't buy this album on CD, if you can help it. Get the Vinyl format instead. CD's can't even begin to handle the complexity of the sound on this album, not to mention absolutly the deeeepest bass grooves EVER laid on track. "Second Edition" was recently reissued on Vinyl in a round metal canister with 3 vinyl records (that's how it was originally released in '80). And by the way, the album also goes by "Metal Box" hence the round film canister. Get the vinyl "Metal Box", that is if you value quality, you'll thank me.

"Second Edition," first released as the Metal Box, was the second album by Public Image Ltd., Johnny Lydon's post-Sex Pistols band. I'll admit that it's the only PiL album I liked in its entirety, and "liked" isn't quite the word for it. I LOVED this album, still love it, and will continue to love it until I croak. The Lydon/Levene/Wobble lineup was primo. No one made music like this before "Second Edition," and no one has since. Not for those who like their music unadventurous and bland. Nearly 30 years on, and this one is still in my top 10.

There is nothing I could say about this album that hasn't been said before. An amazing, influential post-punk album, this is the first PIL CD I ever owned. Weaving together cool guitar lines, loud dub bass, and awesome steady drumming(Martin Atkins of Pigface, Ministry, Killing Joke, etc), along with the offbeat vocals of none other than Johnny Rotten, former front man for the Sex Pistols. Even though it is the same singer, the vocals in the two bands sound completely different, in PIL it is more of a spoken word type of singing.
My lasting impressions, as far as comparisons go, would be a nice mixture of mostly Joy Division(bleak side), with a little bit of Talking Heads(upbeat side). Don't be put off by the first song, it is the only one that ventures into the 10 minute mark, and beside, it is a great intro to the CD. After hearing 'Memories' and 'Careering', it is very obvious where Luke Jenner and the Rapture got their musical influences from. From a different musical point of view, the song 'Poptones' reminds me of Fugazi every time I hear it, very cool. There is only one song that I dislike a little bit, and it is 'Chant' (probably too much chanting). After that is the closing song, 'Radio 4', (another modern day post punk band you may have heard of). This song is nothing like the rest on the CD, it is a beautiful sounding instrumental, reminds me of something you would have heard on Radioheads' "Kid A" album. If you could imagine hearing Joy Division with more instrumentation, or if you just enjoy post punk in general, I would recommend checking this out 'cause it rocks.