Public Image Ltd. - What The World Needs Now… (2015)
Public Image Ltd. - What The World Needs Now… (2015)
“I don't believe in
anarchy, because it will ultimately amount to the power of the bully, with
weapons. Gandhi is my life's inspiration: passive resistance. I don't want to
live in the Thunderdome with Mad Max.”
John Lydon
By: Ghost Writer
Isn't it
amazing that with today's professional troublemakers like Donald Trump or Beppe
Grillo, people like the great John Lydon, a major provocateur now may look
tame, but this are turbulent times and in the global scenario of volatility,
for someone like John Lydon, the timing is just right, and a new album by his
progressive post punk outfit is a sign that Lydon is not backing down.
Public Image Ltd. Has managed to make a successful comeback three years ago, Lydon post Pistols project shows how well and forward thinking was originally conceived, in the 70s and in the 80s well ahead of its time, in the 90s and the 00s amazingly active and now the band seems to be hardly catching up, but successfully managing to escape being a pure nostalgia exercise.
What the World Needs Now is a record that goes perfectly with today world, in which the rage Lydon crafted in his year as Johnny Rotten has become a norm, now Lydon/Rotten doesn't seem like an outsider anymore, guitars by ex The Damned Lu Edmonds roar but are not hardcore enough to meet the demands if the day, to me this is a well-conceived record that simply solves the mystery of making the kind of wild progressive post punk record The Damned always aimed to.
Opener Double Trouble reminds me of the bands initial hit Public Image with the marauding bass line, but this time the crystal spidery guitar lines are substituted by Edmonds barbed wire guitars, a solid rocker perfect for Lydon whose voice is less annoying and defiant with the years, it is not anymore "trumpet" like the great Miles Davis used to describe it, in its place we get the voice of an angry old man, which is not so bad, just listen to Mark E. Smith or Lemmy Kilmister, but things get really weird on Know Now and its powerful bass lines and really hitting rabid guitars proportionating Lydon the perfect perverse backing to spew some venom.
Syd Barrett's spirit is invoked in Betty Page as the riff is somehow stole from Lucifer Sam and the James Bond theme, but the most startling thing is the mutation of Lydon/Rotten into a kind of younger David Bowie which is a curious sign of future things to come for the once musically adventurous Lydon.
But this recording is not all uphill, as C'est La Vie is a slower number and not much of a winner, and Spice of Choice is too much 80s, closer to something Midnight Oil might craft decades ago, but Lydon is an experienced guy and he regains momentum with The One, displaying a quite interesting turn in sound for the band, with the experimentation continuing in Big Blue Sky, a dub ambient musical experience aimed to make ex member Jah Wobble jealous.
Public Image Ltd. Has managed to make a successful comeback three years ago, Lydon post Pistols project shows how well and forward thinking was originally conceived, in the 70s and in the 80s well ahead of its time, in the 90s and the 00s amazingly active and now the band seems to be hardly catching up, but successfully managing to escape being a pure nostalgia exercise.
What the World Needs Now is a record that goes perfectly with today world, in which the rage Lydon crafted in his year as Johnny Rotten has become a norm, now Lydon/Rotten doesn't seem like an outsider anymore, guitars by ex The Damned Lu Edmonds roar but are not hardcore enough to meet the demands if the day, to me this is a well-conceived record that simply solves the mystery of making the kind of wild progressive post punk record The Damned always aimed to.
Opener Double Trouble reminds me of the bands initial hit Public Image with the marauding bass line, but this time the crystal spidery guitar lines are substituted by Edmonds barbed wire guitars, a solid rocker perfect for Lydon whose voice is less annoying and defiant with the years, it is not anymore "trumpet" like the great Miles Davis used to describe it, in its place we get the voice of an angry old man, which is not so bad, just listen to Mark E. Smith or Lemmy Kilmister, but things get really weird on Know Now and its powerful bass lines and really hitting rabid guitars proportionating Lydon the perfect perverse backing to spew some venom.
Syd Barrett's spirit is invoked in Betty Page as the riff is somehow stole from Lucifer Sam and the James Bond theme, but the most startling thing is the mutation of Lydon/Rotten into a kind of younger David Bowie which is a curious sign of future things to come for the once musically adventurous Lydon.
But this recording is not all uphill, as C'est La Vie is a slower number and not much of a winner, and Spice of Choice is too much 80s, closer to something Midnight Oil might craft decades ago, but Lydon is an experienced guy and he regains momentum with The One, displaying a quite interesting turn in sound for the band, with the experimentation continuing in Big Blue Sky, a dub ambient musical experience aimed to make ex member Jah Wobble jealous.
Volume
helps Lydon without a doubt, while he fails in some song, others are definite
winners, and while Whole Life Time uses Chic baselines to build crescendo, I'm
Not Satisfied even though possesses razor edge guitars lacks full power and
remains a The Pop Group rip off, but is the slow burner Corporate the song that
after all this years and decades manages to perfectly re capture the original
essence of the band at its ambitious heights, taking a risky but interesting
step towards the future with the enigmatic Shoom.
If 2012's
This is PiL was a decent return to form by a band many though belonged to the
past, this new record is without a doubt a notorious triumph, Lydon has managed
to rebuild a new hungry and ambitious band of experienced but still reckless
musicians who are following without second thoughts Lydon vision, and the thing
is that Lydon is once again thinking forward...GREAT!
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