It's almost as if history is repeating itself: a royal jubilee, a limply received Sex Pistols reunion, and now John Lydon has gone and reunited his post-Pistols band Public Image Ltd. PiL (as they're now known in abbreviated form) are best known for pioneering the post-punk sound with their meandering, dub-influenced music that seemed to creak and creep rather than bang out conventional riff-rock; but for all their supposed influence, how many classic albums of theirs could you name? I'd wager three: First Issue, Metal Box, and The Flowers of Romance, but only Metal Box is an airtight case for canonization. Following that strong three-album run, the band embarked on a turbulent course marked by slipshod albums and regrettable production choices, epitomizing themselves as a sort of tragic case of potential gone unfulfilled. But for a band that built its name on ripping up the rule book, what do Public Image Ltd. sound like 20 years since their last album, and over 30 since their first?
It's hard to decide if This Is PiL is a surprise or merely par for the course. Surprising, because it's not terrible-- it's arguably the band's best effort since 1984's maligned but salvageable This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get, and is slightly marred by similar issues of production and questionable songwriting. Which makes it exactly what we should have expected, right? Mixed in with the self-conscious imageering, down to the album title and opening track, which determinedly declares "This! Is! PiL!" over sluggish backing, it's also hard to tell whether or not they're taking the piss-- as on 1985's marketing send-up Album-- or if Lydon is ill-advisedly trying to re-establish himself. Either way, once that intro is out of the way, his band suddenly sounds hungry, alive, and passionate.
There's a lot of fury on This Is PiL, though some of it rings hollow; "The Room I Am In" takes ham-fisted potshots at UK council housing but comes off confused and rambling, with one of Lydon's more ridiculous vocal performances. Meanwhile, the venom on "Fool" seems general and misdirected, and "It Said That" is an incomprehensible mess. All that aside, the album's opening run is enough to remind you what you might have loved about the band in the past. "One Drop" and "Deeper Water" both feature sterling performances from Lydon, and it's eerie how his voice appears to have escaped the ravages of time. He's as shrill and as powerfully bleating as ever. His lyrics are still nothing to write home about, but they sound formidable all the same delivered in that familiar, angry froth of saliva and bile, all harsh stutters and long, drawn-out notes.
After that clunky start, the rest of the band sounds impressively together given that Lydon is the only founding member present, knocking out Joy Division-dark fretwork on "Deeper Water" and taut, squiggly funk on "Human". Part of that rigorousness comes with the no-frills production, which leaves the band in a clean antiseptic room, trading personality or idiosyncrasy for pure functionality. There's no Jah Wobble here, nor even a Keith Levene-- the band works as a faceless vehicle for the songs, so when the writing falters, the whole thing collapses (the annoying "Lollipop Opera"). Otherwise it's the sound of a particularly competent rock band with a deranged singer, replacing the strung-out, mentally damaged echo chambers of yore with mechanical grooves.
This Is PiL's final two songs hint at the experimental dubby glory of the band's heyday, particularly the nine-minute closer "Out of the Woods", which approximates' Metal Box's uneasy stagger for the only truly menacing, challenging moment on This Is PiL. It's an album that doesn't add anything to a cult legend band's legacy, but it does the unexpected duty of salvaging that legacy, showing a savvy mastermind in John Lydon, who's apparently capable of at least mimicking old glories. It would have been a shame if the band's swan song was left as That What Is Not, released 20 years ago now. This Is PiL isn't a magical solution per se, but for now, it'll do-- a reminder of the band's former genius and a treat for longtime fans who should appreciate at least half the album as solid PiL work. Historical importance aside, they're a band built on unreliability and inconsistency, and This Is PiL maintains that reputation.
