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Album Details

• Artist: Public Image Ltd.
• Album: Second Edition
• Label: Warner
• Year of Release: 1979
• ME Rating: Indie Classic
• Reviewed by: challey on 2004-11-26

After the Sex Pistols had broken up and Sid Vicious lay dead from a heroin overdose, it was obvious that singer John Lydon (also known as Johnny Rotten) needed to move on. He teamed up with guitarist Keith Levene, and on their second release Second Edition (also known as Metal Box), created some of the most fascinating and brilliant music of the post-punk scene under the name Public Image Ltd.

Bassist Jah Wobble keeps Second Edition from just being an average early post-punk release, however. His pounding bass tones give the music more of a dub and krautrock feel, often resembling early Can or Faust albums. Mixing this with Levene's jangly, piercing guitar tones and Lydon's shouting ramblings makes the album a highly influential and oddly danceable release. The nearly eleven-minute opener, "Albatross," features one of Wobble's signature driving bass lines while Levene plays seemingly unstructured guitar notes that definitely helped to lay the plans for bands such as Fugazi and the Talking Heads. Lydon spits and drones overtop of all this until the song breaks into chaos in its last few seconds. When the music blasts in twice as loudly a minute into "Memories" and Lydon shouts "I could be wrong / It could be hate," it's one of those rare moments in music that's strong enough to give you goosebumps.

It would be hard to name a low point in the album, because there really aren't any. "Socialist" and "Graveyard" serve as an instrumental centerpiece to the album, without slowing the momentum or breaking the mood.

The latter track sounds so similar to East Bay Ray's guitar work (which is often referred to as groundbreaking) that it would be incredibly hard to imagine the Dead Kennedys without this record.

Unfortunately, Second Edition is often forgotten among bands of today when mentioning their influences. While it may not have the culture-changing impact of Nevermind the Bollocks, it's just as strong of a recording, and is one of the essential albums of both the 1970's and the post-punk movement.

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