Public Image Ltd This Is What You Want...This Is What You Get CD - Import

PiL's fourth album took three years to reach fruition, much of this time spent gigging and changing personnel. The initial recordings of the follow-up to The Flowers of Romance included the nucleus of Lydon and Keith Levene; Martin Atkins was asked to stay on board, and he brought bassist Pete Jones with him, a mate who was helping him out with his own Brian Brain project. After those initial sessions and a few shows, both Levene and Jones quit within a month of each other. Lydon then recruited the majority of a lounge act spotted at a New Jersey Holiday Inn and toured with them, playing a set heavy on the new material. After touring, Lydon and Atkins wiped Jones and Levene off the tapes for the new record, employing faceless session musicians to fill in.

The upheaval resulted in one of Lydon's worst outings, the most tentative and least powerful of PiL's recordings. A thin, shrill, wheezing horn section replaces much of Levene's guitar, and the basslines sound like Flea without the passion and chops. "This Is Not a Love Song," though accessible enough for the charts, is best left in the year of its origin. Surprisingly for Lydon, the colorful tune has a simple beat and is easy to dance to, but lacks guts. "The Pardon," like a couple other songs on the record, sounds like a bad Flowers of Romance outtake with "modern" production. With Atkins' relentless clippity-cloppity drums and Lydon's bite-free stream-of-consciousness rambling, it eventually fades into the background as a nagging drone. Closer "The Order of Death" saves This Is What You Want... from being a total wreck, a moody instrumental with a repetitive vocal hook from Lydon and a creepy synth line. Recorded for Cop Killer, a movie starring Harvey Keitel and Lydon himself, it's fittingly soundtrack-ish. (The song didn't end up being used in the movie.) Notably, Levene, who at that point owned half of the Public Image Limited name, released the version of This Is What You Want... with him and Jones present as the pseudo-bootleg Commercial Zone, on the short-lived PIL Records. It actually preceded the official version's release by months, and a second issue followed later in the year with a slightly different track listing. ~ Andy Kellman

PiL's fourth album took three years to reach fruition for a number of reasons. The initial recordings included the nucleus of John Lydon and Keith Levene; Martin Atkins was asked to stay, bringing bassist Pete Jones to help out. After those sessions and a few shows, both Levene and Jones exited. Lydon recruited a lounge act spotted at a New Jersey hotel and took them on tour. Upon re-entering the studio, Lydon and Atkins wiped the departed members off the tapes from the prior recordings, employing faceless session hacks to fill in.

This resulted in one of Lydon's worst outings, the most tentative and least powerful of PiL's recordings. A thin, shrill, wheezing horn section replaces much of Levene's guitar, and the basslines sound dreadful. "This Is Not a Love Song," though accessible enough for the charts, is best left in the year of its origin. Surprisingly for Lydon, the colorful tune has a simple beat and is easy to dance to, but lacks guts. "The Pardon," like a couple other songs on the record, sounds like a bad Flowers of Romance outtake with "modern" production. With Atkins' relentless clippity-cloppity drums and Lydon's bite-free stream-of-consciousness rambling, it eventually fades into the background as a nagging drone. Closer "The Order of Death" saves the record from being a total wreck, a moody instrumental with a repetitive vocal hook and a creepy synth line. Levene, who at that point owned half of the Public Image Limited name, released the version of This Is What You Want... with him and Jones present as the pseudo-bootleg Commercial Zone, on the short-lived PiL Records. It actually preceded the official version's release by months, and a second issue followed later in the year with a slightly different track listing.