Public Image Ltd.: Album (Rhino Reserve series) [RHINO]

Why you'll love it

John Lydon fired the band and hired a supergroup: Bill Laswell produced, with Steve Vai on guitar, Ginger Baker and Tony Williams on drums, Ryuichi Sakamoto on Fairlight and Bernie Worrell on organ. The result is PiL's loudest, strangest and most direct record, with "Rise" and "Home". Rhino Reserve gives it the audiophile treatment on 180g vinyl.

This edition

• Rhino Reserve series
• 180g vinyl
• 7 songs

About the album

Album came out in January 1986, and the packaging says it all: plain black and white, just the format name. Inside, Lydon's sneer rides on top of session heavyweights playing like a hard rock band with a jazz rhythm section, with L. Shankar's electric violin and Steve Turre's didgeridoo along for the ride.

"Rise" became one of PiL's biggest songs, and "Home" followed it into the UK charts. Forty years on it still sounds like nothing else in the post-punk canon, which is exactly how Lydon would want it.

Also at Kops: more Alternative

Tracklist

On Rhino, a reissue of the 1986 album.