Album (Public Image Ltd album)

Untitled

Album (also known as Compact Disc or Cassette depending on the format) is the fifth studio album by English rock band Public Image Ltd., released on February 3, 1986 (1986-02-03).

The packaging concept is a pastiche of generic brand products. One of the ways they achieved this was by using the sans-serif font Helvetica. However striking the execution of this design, there are valid questions regarding the concept's originality. Flipper, a punk band from San Francisco, California, released an album with the same concept and a near-identical name, Album - Generic Flipper, in 1982. Later in 1986, Flipper retaliated for this apparent act of concept theft by releasing a live album entitled Public Flipper Limited Live 1980-1985. At any rate, what meaning is intended for the packaging concept as applied to this particular release by PiL is open to interpretation.

As unusual as the packaging is the album's personnel: world-renowned but uncredited musicians from a variety of genres play innovative, complex arrangements to accompany the vocals of John Lydon, former frontman for the punk rock group the Sex Pistols.

About the album

Album is generally considered a return to form for PiL after the departure of founding member Keith Levene in 1983 and the release of the maligned This Is What You Want...This Is What You Get album in 1984. As assembled by producer Bill Laswell, there's no real PiL to speak of on this album, just John Lydon and a group of guesting musicians, albeit high-calibre musicians like Steve Vai, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Ginger Baker.

With its emphasis on big guitars and big drums, Album was written off by some as PiL going "stadium rock," but others remarked that Lydon's confrontational lyrics, caterwaul vocals, and the abundance of Eastern-style melodies, helped steer this album away from the realm of conventional 80s metal. The album is rife with surprising and very effective musical flourishes, especially on the closing "Ease," a beautiful, monumental mood/rock piece with synth, sitar, didgeridoo and a Steve Vai guitar solo. The lead-off single, "Rise," is both a tribute to Lydon's Irish heritage and an indictment of Apartheid torture practices; in the opening track "F.F.F." Lydon lashes out at a former colleague, almost certainly Martin Atkins ("Farewell my fairweather friend/On you no one can depend"). Lydon continues the apocalyptic themes of "World Destruction" (his 1985 Timezone single collaboration with Afrika Bambaataa and Laswell) in "Round" ("Mushrooms on the horizon") and channels his misanthropy in the catchy numbers "Fishing" ("Talking to you is a waste of time"), "Bags," and the second single, "Home" ("Better days will never be"). Neil Perry gave Album a positive review in the NME: "This is a wonderful, stunning and equally confusing record, and working on the theory that you'd never expect to hear the Lydon sneer backed by prime metal riffing, that's exactly what you get. Not everywhere, of course, as proved by the haunting "Rise." And "Ease", by the way, with its shock-horror two minutes plus guitar solo, is quite beautiful...In short, Lydon and PiL are still breaking barriers. The man has extracted the false phallus from rock's trouser front and is smashing it over our heads."

In the liner notes of PiL's Plastic Box compilation (1999), John Lydon remarked that "In some ways Album was almost like a solo album. I worked alone with a new bunch of people. Obviously the most important person was Bill Laswell. But it was during the recording of this album in New York that Miles Davis came into the studio while I was singing, stood behind me and started playing. Later he said that I sang like he played the trumpet, which is still the best thing anyone's ever said to me. To be complimented by the likes of him was special. Funnily enough we didn't use him..."

Track listing

Listed on the album cover as "Ingredients"

1. "F.F.F." (John Lydon, Bill Laswell) – 5:32
2. "Rise" (Lydon, Laswell) – 6:04
3. "Fishing" (Lydon, Jebin Bruni, Mark Schulz) – 5:20
4. "Round" (Lydon, Schulz) – 4:24
5. "Bags" (Lydon, Bruni, Schulz) – 5:4
6. "Home" (Lydon, Laswell) – 5:49
7. "Ease" (Lydon, Bruni) – 8:09

Personnel

• John Lydon – vocals
• Tony Williams – drums on 1 2 6
• Ginger Baker – drums on 3 4 5 7
• Bernard Fowler – backing vocals
• Ryuichi Sakamoto – Fairlight CMI on 2 3 5 7
• Nicky Skopelitis – guitar on 1 2 3 4 6
• Steve Vai – guitar
• Jonas Hellborg - bass

Additional personnel

• Shankar – electric violin on 2 4
• Bernie Worrell – organ on 1 4 6, Yamaha DX7 on 3
• Malachi Favors – acoustic bass on 3 5
• Steve Turre – didjeridu on 7
• Aïyb Dieng – chatan pot drums on 4

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1986	Billboard 200	115

References

• NME review at Fodderstompf
• Album information at Fodderstompf