Felix NEill

Public Image were never a band for doing things by halves, with their early albums fantastically abrasive and challenging, their later albums more mainstream, pop-driven and hooky. Ergo; less interesting. This live album might be the only time they were really mediocre. The early classics are there ("Religion", "Flowers Of Romance", "Death Disco") but while the recording is excellent, the absence of Jah Wobble is really evident in the thin, trebly sound. Given Lydon's voice, this is not a good thing, as it leads to a uniformity of sound, with bass drums which tap rather than pound. "Death Disco" in particular suffers from the thin sound - where the recorded version is tar-thick and druggily paranoid, the version here has a cod-funk bass and generates no atmosphere or effect other than Lydon's effective caterwauling.

There is an energy to the performance, as you'd expect from Lydon, but also from Martin Atkins on drums. However "Live In Tokyo" is merely professional, which is the last thing you really want from Pil.

Vinyl rip at 320 Kbps.

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