You may not think this is very good, and you would be very wrong. You may think this is very good, and you would be wrong. While we've all come around to the fact that the Sex Pistols were not the most important, original, authentic or even interesting punk band, their influence is undeniable and don't lie, you still like listening to No Feelings and dancing/singing along to it in your room in pajamas. However, PiL are an even harder band to make a case for. Were they influential? Yes. Ok, but why? Were they original, authentic, interesting and important? Yes to all but the last one. I wouldn't say they were in no way important but what I think makes PiL the more authentic John Lydon project is their excess. We really didn't need a bunch of white kids making what they thought was cultured, experimental music when it was really just them getting high and jamming and getting attention for their shelved punk-rockstar careers. But in a way you think Johnny knows this and likes to rub it in all the more because of this. How else can you rationalize dumping the rest of the band in the mid-80s only to rip-off a Flipper album title, make charts with a pop single and hire an all-star band including Tony Williams, Ginger Baker, Shankar and former P-Funk organist Bernie Worrell? Clearly our snot-nosed idol understood just how far he could to push his notorious celebrity, and continues to. All that being said, this album is great either for when that too-stoned, cabin fever paranoia sets in or you start believe you're the messiah come to tell about the end of days and other reasons for all the rest of mankind to become Rastafari.
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