Public Image Ltd - 3 new box sets - Metal Box’ and ‘Album’ , 'Songs from the Heart'

If they included Commercial Zone stuff, I'd be interested. Otherwise I can't think of a deluxe pre-"Rise" PIL set I'd be less interested in...

 

I would love to see a release that included CZ but I guess it is very unlikely. What about Flowers of Romance? No idea what other material they could use though.

 

Good point. One reason I like the deluxe Album set is that it has the live show from Brixton Academy, which was very similar to the new band lineup's show that I attended in San Francisco near that time. John McGeoch was the bandleader for that tour. They had a distinctive sound, and played very well. So, it's sort of a nice souvenir for me. They opened with an instrumental version of Led Zep's Kashmir, which was interesting. They made tracks from Flowers of Romance and Metal Box more melodic and richer sounding compared to the sparse, minimal playing on those studio albums. You might say they ruined those tunes, if you were disposed to feel that way. But the songs were recognizable, and offered a different, interesting perspective. Lydon is dependent on his backing musicians for how the music sounds, obviously. That is true for every permutation of PIL, and you can hear different takes on the older material, including the Sex Pistols tunes they played, too, as "oldies." Lydon was extremely antagonistic toward the audience, I suppose because they weren't cheering, clapping, or dancing hard enough. Don't know if it was just his shtick at the time. He vowed never to perform in London again, because the "f-ing scum" in the audience "didn't deserve him." Well, OK, then. Thankfully he finished the show and even did an encore. Probably a put-on then.

 

That gig is one of the high points for me out of the two box sets and certainly the best extra on the Album box.

 

I'm at home today amidst the blizzard, prepping to teach my grad class tomorrow, and I'm not sure what compelled me to put on Album (perhaps the comments above). But I've been playing my way through the box again. First of all, I really agree with the above comments about the live show--it's a tremendous document. But the demos, b-sides, Beebs, and etc., are also a fantastic listen. There is such a more pronounced sparseness to the tracks that make them more of a piece with what came before with PiL--than the released album--that make them a very rewarding listen in their own right, and at least this time through for me, much more pleasurable than the released album (which I also like very much, though I suppose in a different way). It's an enigmatic box set for an enigmatic album, because in an odd way, unlike a lot of these boxes where the demos and alternates, define or clarify the path to the released album, in this box those excellent "other" recordings (and the story in the book) make the released album even more of head scratcher--and it's own engaging and intriguing document. I guess this is a long way of saying: I really like this set very much. Very nice musical company on a "snow day".

 

Steve they should of called school off today, a school bus hit semi up in Clare this morning.
Hoping Happy? makes it's way, curious to see if anything extra exists for this title

 

i just obtained a Japanese Nippon/Columbia original vinyl 2LP set in NM condition (may.2017). It cost $40 CDN but Jah Wobble's bass is like I've never heard: deep, rumbling and dub-wise as it was meant to be heard. Lydon is back a bit in the mix nut thats OK. Great record!

 

What is the best sounding version of "Second Edition" on CD?

 

Probably the one that came out in 2011 that use the same remaster as 2009's Metal Box.

 

I was enjoying listening to This Is What You Want...This Is What You Get last night and it got me wondering if there has been any word about a super deluxe box for this album. I know the Keith Levene situation was pretty contentious but with a presumed inclusion of Commercial Zone this set would be a no-brainer. Any rumors?

 

It's a great idea! Any word on how well the two other super-deluxe box sets have sold so far?

 

Hello everyone. First time poster, long time lurker. CD loyalist...yup, we (I?) exist.

I was just wondering, do you guys think I should pull the trigger on the Metal Box set? I mean...I already own the aforementioned 2011 Second Edition CD and the 2009 Plastic Box, and as far as I can see I already own pretty much all the major highlights in the Metal Box set. On the other hand...this album has been such a huge influence on me as a (failed) musician, and I've always, always wanted to own one of its metal-encased editions....

As far as I've understood from reading this thread, I'd practically be paying 60-70$ for a tin case though. I really really love this album but I think i'd be setting myself up for disappointment by buying this...if it had the Martin-Atkins Olympic Auditorium gig and a blu-ray with the album in 5.1 and PiL's television appearances from the period in it I would've already sold a kidney or a testicle even for it. Right?

 

Still difficult to decide; I'm afraid I can't help you, but I can give you my idea of deciding:

My opinion was that the Metal Box set didn't add much to the album which I allready got. That's why I purchased only the Album box set, but even that box set didn't impress me much (I was hoping for other studio sessions, like that with Miles Davis). Still I got sometimes the idea for purchasing also the Metal Box set, just because of owning it, as a kind of collector ("there were two PIL box sets, so own these both!") and lover of both albums of PIL. Up until now, I am however only owning the box set around Album. And I think it will stay that way.

 

I'm quite the opposite...still deciding if I should pull the trigger on the Album box...I'm guessing it's only a matter of time!!

 

I sure hope so. I had an original pressing I bought back when I was in college and didn't quite push it far enough into the stacks when I last listened to it a couple of years ago. Sure enough, something smashed into it and broke it into pieces.

 

Really wanting a "super-deluxe" This Is What You Want... box.

 

Only you can decide....

 

I love Metal Box, and really dig the Japanese 3 CD remastering from a few years back.

I find the super deluxe set underwhelming. The outtakes are OK but not revelatory. The live album is bootleg quality. On the whole, I'd call this box inessential. I could have skipped it and be fine.

 

I love both albums, gave both deluxe editions a skip, and don't feel like I'm missing anything.

 

I still didn't buy any of them. Kinda expensive for this Brazilian guy living in Brazil. Especially Metal Box.

I own Metal Box in the original 3 x 12" 45rpm version that looks and sounds amazing, plus Memories 12", and the Second Edition vinyl release from 4 Men With Beards that sounds good, but I have no CD, so it would make sense to buy this box (I only have the 1999 Plastic Box).

I have two Album LPs (Brazil and Japan both from 1986), also one "Cassette" (USA) and one "Compact Disc" (UK), but none of the remaster, so it would make sense as well.

I'll end up buying both some day...

 

Two of the absolute greatest drummers to ever pick up sticks, Tony Williams and Ginger Baker, play on ALBUM...Tony Williams' spot on "Rise" is nothing short of breathtaking, the guy puts on a clinic. Not to mention the presence of the super talented Bill Laswell (veteran of Last Exit, a seminal free jazz supergroup, and so many other great gigs) and Steve Vai (who yes, has certainly appeared on some stinkers, but let's not forget was a regular with Frank Zappa who referred to him as "my little Italian virtuoso," and Lydon was reportedly extremely happy with what he did on ALBUM). I'm sorry but you simply aren't making any sense here. You might prefer METAL BOX but there is no way on earth that a "superior band" made it. Quite the reverse.

For my part, I've revisited both of these albums recently and while METAL BOX sounded superior to me back in the day, and is still a fine album, I personally don't find that it has aged quite as well as ALBUM. What once sounded very avant garde no longer does, and it is really not very well-recorded (lots of bass, sure, but not much else), which robs the music of some impact. Lydon also sounds in very weak voice or, again, is just not well-recorded and so robbed of energy. ALBUM has more memorable songs and sounds amazing, wonderful ambient drum sound especially - lots of "room" - but really the whole thing sounds like they just set up in one large well-miked space and let it rip - perhaps the most natural and kick-ass sounding rock album this side of the Pixies' SURFER ROSA. A bloody masterpiece that sounds more current now than it did then. Nothing else PIL did comes anywhere close in my opinion.

Anyway all that to say I'm loving the deluxe edition of ALBUM, but more than happy to just stay with my metal container issue of the original METAL BOX CD, no need for that Deluxe edition.

 

My first contact with PiL was in 1989 in Brazil when I was 14, the first PiL record that I heard and then bought was Album. From an emotional point of view it is my dear PiL record, and technically is also a great record. Metal Box is a master piece as well, very rough if compared to Album but I would say it is as great as Album. Both would be the best PiL records to me. Flowers of Romance and That What is Not would come follow in second.

The extended version of Ease just blew me away. I'm a drummer (not professional) and those drums are just perfect, perfectly written, perfectly played and perfectly recorded.

 

vinyl on sale...
Metal Box (Super Deluxe)

 

That's a great price for someone who hasn't picked it up yet.

 

I was at that show and it wasn't a put on. Throughout the show Lydon and band were being spat at (which he hates). You can hear where the band leave the stage. At that point the audience erupted. Stormed the stage, started to try to wreck equipment etc. I saw bouncers/security clubbing fans with chair legs. If the band hadn't returned to the stage and carried on the place would have been further trashed.