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The Greatest Hits, So Far | 
| Artist: Public Image Ltd.
Label: Virgin
Category: Music
List Price: £6.99
Buy Used: £1.68
as of 22/11/2009 09:28 GMT details
You Save: £5.31 (76%)
New (55) Used (21) from £1.68
Seller: zoverstocks
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 18213
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 86196
UPC: 077778619628
EAN: 0077778619628
ASIN: B00000DR6J
Release Date: October 29, 1990
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Public Image | | • | Death Disco | | • | Memories | | • | Careering | | • | Flowers Of Romance | | • | This Is Not A Love Song | | • | Rise | | • | Home | | • | Seattle | | • | Body | | • | Rules And Regulations | | • | Disappointed | | • | Warrior | | • | Don't Ask Me |
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
 Innovation And Individuality July 7, 2006
J. Roberts (Maryland)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Mystifyingly, Public Image Limited are still underrated to this day. John Lydon's more famous band, the Sex Pistols, are still given more attention, but this, in my opinion, is a lot more innovative and expansive. Also, the other musicians, such as Keith Levene and Jah Wobble, were far more talented musically than the 'musicians' in the sex pistols.
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br /From the outset, John Lydon was determined to create something unique and original, which he did with aplomb on songs such as 'Public Image', in 1978. It is worthy of note that PiL's first album was being worked on even before the Sex Pistols had split - such is John Lydon's drive and vision. However, track two on this album is definitely one of the stand-out tracks, 'Death Disco'. This is an irrestible slice of disco fused with punk fused with lord knows what else! It honestly does sound like nothing else! Lydon's distinctive and sinister sounding vocal compliments the music perfectly, and the whole thing is executed marvellously.
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br /'Careering' gives off more sinister vibes, sounding oppressive yet compulsive, but most importantly, like nothing else which surfaced in the post-punk era. Track six is yet another fantastic song, 'This Is Not A Love Song'. For a man who was supposedly so inaccessible during the punk era, this is a mightly infectious song which is actually quite perfect for dancing to. Lydon's vocal is also distinctive and commanding. What a shame that so few have investigated music as excellent as this!
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br /'Rise' features some great lyrics, great musicianship and strong vocals from Lydon. It is often forgotten just what a great songwriter John Lydon is, but this proves that he is extremely accomplished, and also original.
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br /The rest here plays out to the same high standards, though PiL did make a mercifully brief foray into dance music at some point in the nineties, but that can be easily forgiven. Songs such as 'Rules and Regulations' and 'Don't Ask Me' are both infectious and unusual, but deceptively poppy. It is quite remarkable that anyone could have a career which spans the genres of punk, post-punk, pop, alternative and experimental, but John Lydon is that man. If you are looking for a visionary, and a true individual, look no further than this album. It is an essential purchase for all individuals, and music fans.
Anger is an energy indeed May 30, 2004
russell clarke (halifax, west yorks)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Public Image Ltd were a band who passed me by at the time of their original recorded output apart from "Public Image" which I bought on 7" vinyl and still own to this day and is undoubtedly one of the greatest singles ever released. It's a stunning fusion of aqueous bass and wind tunnel guitars allied to Lydons sneering perspicacious vocal. Why it's taken me so long to investigate them further is something that even I can't fathom but I've remedied that by purchasing this neat summation of their career and it's a very fine CD although a handful of tracks are flaccid bass heavy cod funk workouts. "Memories", "Careering" and "Warrior" are all guilty of this lazy approach.brThe early material is based exclusively around those burbling fluid bass lines and skeletal guitar arrangements." Death Disco" which is about the death of Lydons mother is catharsis through music, his vocal is at the very edge of ragged yet it's carried along by the protean music. It's a brilliant track. "The Flowers of Romance" centres on tribal drumming and coarse stalactites of violin. Startling bursts of brass punctuate "This is not a love Song" which is essentially that phrase repeated over and over again yet is a wonderful song, love song or not. It also boasts an irrepressibly funky bass line. "Rise" almost enters pop territory thanks to its sing along chorus while the guitars have a commercial sheen but its last minute with Lydon screaming "Anger is energy" while distorted noise wails around him thankfully adds an acerbic edge. "Home" has a guitar solo of all things is still a compelling mix of heavy duty percussion and sudden bursts of exotic far eastern walls of sound. "Seattle" and "The Body" are further signifiers to a more mainstream direction for the band with more conventional song structures and the introduction of backing vocalists on "The Body". "Rules and Regulations" reminds me bizarrely of Simple Minds circa "New Gold Dream" with its auric splendour. "Disappointed" has more of those backing vocals who add extra melodic impetus to the titanic chorus; it's a glorious pop song. "Don't ask me" is a revelation if you love rapturous pop music which I happen to .This is definitely a wonderful pop song with a swaggering melody and well a sense of joy de vie you just would never equate with John Lydon.brTraditionalists will much prefer the older material which featured the original line up and while that produces some brilliant material the later songs where Lydon for want of a better term lightens up is staggeringly fine too with a keen sense of pop dynamics and an ear very much cocked for melody. Like I said it's only let down by three weak tracks. Take those away and this is as good a summation of a bands output as you'll get. Most of the songs on here won't have been hits but they bloody well should have been. As I said before If only I'd investigated them earlier.
A good compilation of PIL, 1978- 1990.... January 14, 2004
Jason Parkes (Worcester, UK)
10 out of 15 found this review helpful
Greatest Hits...So Far is a perfectly good reminder of what John Lydon did after leaving The Sex Pistols- it verges from the great to the just-OK. The latter tracks are more pop inflected, but far from terrible- I've always been fond of single like Seattle and (particularly) The Body- which is menacing in an MTV-style way (think Psychedelic Furs around Midnight to Midnight or Iggy during Instinct). It's crying out for a cover by Britney Spears, ideally produced by The Neptunes! 1986's Album (nod to Repoman) are utterly wonderful- Home and hit single Rise seem underrated in the Lydon-canon. pThe first six tracks are probably more the PIL people go on about- Public Image Ltd rather than PIL- the original line-up centred around Lydon, Jah Wobble, Keith Levene with contributions from Jimmy Walker, Martin Atkins Jeanette Lee. Public Image is easily one of the greatest single ever recorded and as wonderful as the same era's Shot By Both Sides (Magazine), in terms of angular guitar. EVERYTHING is great about Public Image, from Lydon's lyrics to Wobble's pulsing bassline. Wonderful...p how can someone deem Death Disco bad, in any way????? - this is one of the greatest songs recorded by anyone EVER. Lydon reacting to the illness/death of his mother and the band's chemistry expanding after their debut: the next step on from Can, Chic and Jamaican-dub, at the same time! The lyrics showcase the pointless nature of an elegy ("Words cannot express") Lydon's blasts of keyboard are great also. You can see the influence on a band like Explosions in the Sky- who while being an instrumental band, take the notion of being a four-piece band and exploring their sound through that format, as PIL did. Lots of bands of late have been citing PIL or linked to them the Metal Box-era- though it's hard for me to tie patchy bands like Radio 4, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Hot Hot Heat, Primal Scream some of The Rapture to this adventerous music. Those bands should sound like forward-thinking like PIL, not retro-thinking losing themselves in other people's trip. A balance has to be made between influences and what new bands produce...pNice to see Metal Box/Second Edition having several tracks (Memories, Careering, Death Disco/Swan Lake) included- as it remains their strongest statement in an album sense. The final two tracks not mentioned are 1981's Flowers of Romance and 1983's This is Not a Love Song- both wonderful: the former's performance on TOTP is as iconic as the Sex Pistols doing Pretty Vacant as far as I'm concerned. FOR is a scary blend of rhythm and shattered shards of violin- wonderful, but should have been 26 minutes long really. This is Not a Love Song stretches the notion of what a pop song can be remains underrated- it's as great a single as any PIL had produced. pGreatest Hits...So Far is a good budget primer in PIL- though I'd plump for the budget price twin-set of First Issue/Second Edition as the best intro. Perhaps another compilation, over two discs, should be released- there is much great that is not here: Theme, Low Life, the alternate takes of singles like Memories, Radio 4, Home is Where the Heart Is, Banging the Door, No Birds, Another, Four Walls, Blue Water, The Order of Death (as featured in film Hardware), a live track from Live in Tokyo or the Paris live recording, Fishing, the collaborations with Afrika Baambaata and Leftfield. The recent Plastic Box set wasn't quite that; regardless, a nice primer in all things PIL...
Brilliant, inventive and berserk. April 21, 2001
nostradamus64@yahoo.com (Lancashire, England)
4 out of 13 found this review helpful
PiL's greatest hits, so far is three quarters great, and one quarter quite bad. Some songs are fantastic and see Jonny Rotten at his very best (in particular 'Home', 'Public Image' and 'Rise') and some are absolutely dreadful, such as'Death Disco' and 'Don't Ask Me'. The rest sees some strange things from Rotten, including 'This is not a love song' which has got to be heard to be believed, and 'Disappointed' which involves a 1 minute long choir intro and then Jonny launches into insightful and meaningful lyrics which are strange from a guy who used to fail to write a song without a single swear word in it. Most songs on the album seem to have gigantic musical build ups lasting for minutes on end before Rotten starts singing. This means a lot of the songs are six minute epics. This album should be in everyone's collection, and the only reason why it didn't get 5 stars is because of the two bad songs. But whatever, you should buy this album for the brilliant songs, and fantastic and orignal music. Totally bodacious, dude!
 The ones you already know are the best. December 4, 2005
Things (UK)
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
They reckon that Wiliam Shakespeare wrote many more plays than we know about, there is a good reason for this, only the best survive. You already know PIL#x27;s best songs, the others just fill the track listing!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
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