Public Image: First Issue

Yep, still not a fan of post punk

Thought it was a little weird at first, but after a few songs totally started getting the gist. This is one of those albums I wish they had half stars. It’s not quite a four, but it’s better than a three

Boring, boring and more boring. Why this album out of their others? This is not a bad band, but I didn't care for this and those religious rambling songs.

01) Theme - 4,5 02) Religion I - 1,0 03) Religion II - 4,0 04) Annalisa - 4,0 05) Public Image - 5,0 06) Low Life - 5,0 07) Attack - 4,0 08) Fodderstompf - 4,5 TOTAL: 4,00 (40/100) Current ranking: 1051/1075

I definitely didn’t need to hear this before I died

Felt like I was getting punked finding out this was on the list

Would give it 0 stars if I could

I mean sure, fuck organised religion. But also fuck this

Not a fan of the more repetitive parts like the intro or fodderstompf. A lot of what comes between is a relatively fun hard punk run. I moderately enjoyed everything from Religion II through Attack, but didnt find anything i wanted to stick with for a long time. The opener and Fodderstompf are songs i found more irritating than interesting and significantly reduced my enjoyment of the album.

Not really pleased that Fodderstompf is as long as it is but I recognize that isn't very punk of me Highlights: "Theme", "Public Image"

It’s been a while since I got an album that wasn’t just not quite to my personal taste but more objectively just not good. I think if you got some children to do the instrumentals and a drunk college dude to sing/yell about religion you could replicate this pretty easily.

This was a hard chose on how to rang this - the first couple of tracks were just OK but the later tracks were more of what i like from PIL. So i’ll give it a benefit of a doubt and up it a star.

An early example of the heavy, brooding rhythm section plus darting guitar that defined a lot of the post-punk sound. The best songs (Public Image, Low Life, Attack) have some good music, but so much of this is throwaway nonsense. The nine minute opener, Theme, is hot garbage, with no effort made to integrate Lydon's vocals with the rest of the track (check the Wikipedia article for the ramshackle way this album was put together). The closing track, Fodderstomf, is over seven and a half minutes of annoying nonsense. Post-punk (including PiL) would do a lot better in the future.

Fun, punk, Engligh innit. Religion I and Religion II back to back a bit wild on a debut record.

Primera grapa chaval

I hate post-punk and I hate this album especially.

Very very grating. Rating: 1.5

1978 "post-punk" is pretty groundbreaking. I'd definitely mosh to this.

Really bizarre and goofy. Shouting about religion over music that truly sounds like people beating the instruments at random, it's really hard to see the value in any of this. I guess the singers were in punk bands previously and this is an experiment afterwards? I can respect wanting to try stuff out but I'm sad to say that the experiment failed.

I really hope that on his deathbed Lydon surprises us all and tells us it’s all been a joke. That he’s actually a super nice guy, hates Trump, thinks bands like Green Day and Nirvana made some great music, and that he was just doing some performance art to get people to think. Alas, I think that’s unlikely. I do think he’s just an asshole who is profoundly insecure. And this album sucks. There are some reasonably catchy tunes on the album, but even those aren’t particularly interesting or memorable. And the first three songs…a 14 year olds idea of being in an “angry” band.

Sigh....

Gear: Punch Audio Portazo Artwork: 🫪🤵‍♂️🆎 Production (2011 Remaster): 🕰️🫤👌 Music: 🛐🖕🥱 Rating: 📰(📰)/5

Look the lyrics just. I cannot.

Johnny Lydon is an adult who emotionally never moved out of his edgy teen years. Sometimes you need that; most of the time, it's exhausting to hear and kind of sad.

Rubbish. Heard it before? ❌ Listen again? ❌ Rating out of ten? 0️⃣

I do love post punk but I did not love this album, felt a bit too repetitive, too pretentious and a bit all over the place at the same time. But I quite enjoyed the general sound of it. Still quite a nice try to build a new subgenre that was perfected later.

FFS, John 😖

Another good post-punk set from Lydon & co. Not as good, in my opinion, as Second Edition, but still a worthy listen.

Yeah ... this stuff is my current wheelhouse lately ... need to listen to more!

not as bad as i thought

Album #175: Public Image (Ltd.): First Issue Genre (W): Post-punk Singles: Public Image I have not listened to this album before. Thoughts?: This album is dull. I don’t like Johnny Rotten’s constant wailing, I know it’s his style and I shouldn’t critique it, but it was ear grating in this album. Favorite tracks: Public Image

Interesting. Protopunk

2.06 / 5 for this mashup of shite from Johnny Rotten. PIL got way better, but these early albums were rough. I get what he was trying to do here, but the music is basically unlistenable. Should have stuck it out with the Sex Pistols for a few more years.

My first thought on seeing this assignment was along the lines of “We survived 35 years without this in the states, what’s 35 more”? However, on listening, it did have its moments. The opening track encapsulates all that is good and bad about PIL. The second track, a spoken word rant, is just plain silly. That same rant put to a throbbing baseline in track three is not half bad. The next several tracks are actually quite decent in a postpunk way. This was clearly headed in my mind for a good solid three star rating. That is, until the last track, “Fodderstompf”, which, while it raps a little bit, which is cool for 1978, also sounds mostly like the soundtrack for a bad Monty Python sketch where everyone is wearing drag and speaking in a shrill, mock female voice. Docked a full star for that one. I mean John, just because you have the mic doesn’t mean that we have to listen to every silly idea that comes into your head. Or does it?

Punk 🤘😡 (ça m’a fait chier j’aime pas la voix)

Satisfyingly strange and raw. But would I listen to again, doubtful.

Awful; british punk is not my jam

Fodderstompf is my favorite thing at the moment, it’s like they wanted to make a comedy sketch but were forced by a curse to turn it into to a punk track. Also, regarding Religion I + II, it takes a lot of faith in your own words to put a spoken word version right before the full version, just to make sure they can really hear you.

Day1003 - if you’re feeling in a punk mood it goes down pretty well

Not a fan. Really solidified for me at the beginning of Attack where it sounded like they were hawking a loogie.

Another shit brit band.

Personal enjoyment: 3/5 Relevance to this list: 4/5

It has it's moments, the title track in particular is a stand-out, but a lot of tracks come across as the early shoots of ideas rather than something that is ready to be released.

The music itself was repetitious. I'm not a fan of the yelling, and really other than an artist vocalizing his dissatisfaction with religion what more needed to be said? "Annalisa" the music is repetitive, heavy on the drums, and what's with the yelling? "Public Image" first time I could see where this album influenced punk music. "Fodderstompf" what a waste of time. The bonus track, "Cowboy Song" no, just no.

The first song is literally just noise with I WANT TO DIE being screamed over and over again. Religion is something, I am Atheist and I can speak for myself that Religion does not speak for all of us, I like to stay open minded with other peoples' religions. This feels like he is just screaming that all religions suck no matter what. Singer would have been great as backup vocals for Suicidal Tendencies. Somehow drums are the only enjoyable part so far. Im not going to listen to the bonus track bro. The shorter the song on this album, the better, the faster I get it done. Songs are generic at best and loud, nonsensical noise at worst. Highlight - Attack 1/5 stars

Throw the entirety of Great Britain away. Please. I would tell this guy to go back to Sex Pistols but I don’t think anyone wants that either

Very punk. I too hate organized religion.

Honestly hoped it would be better. Too rough for a high rating.

This album just isn’t that good to me, it’s just noise

Music to Ruin Your Day

Fresh off the Sex Pistols' short revolutionary run, John Lydon (formerly Johnny Rotten) goes into full deconstruction mode. While I don't share John Lydon's disdain for religion, I can appreciate the anger at bad religion. (Jesus was known for this as well, for example, let’s turn to Matthew 23.) But ultimately PIL is more likely to deconstruct celebrity, fame, and…image. For this reason, Johnnies Rotten & Lydon are the gadflys of the punk scene: profiting off it while also poking at its underbelly and questioning the whole rotten affair. There are some great sounds here on their first album. I love the vibe of Annalisa, based on a sad story of religious malpractice. This sound would be reproduced and deepened on Metal Box, aka Second Edition. Meanwhile, Fodderstompf apparently draws inspiration from Monty Python, the Beatles, and maybe the Mothers of Invention. (Speaking of gadflys…) If you don't like a song, wait till the next one. There's quite a bit of variety here. That alone is interesting coming off of "Never Mind the Bullocks." And besides, if you literally hate some of the tracks on this record, that's probably what John Lydon was going for.

What happens when adolescent punk anarchy grows up? You get Public Image Ltd. This album has all of the sound, power, rage of earlier work with Sex Pistols, but it is now more measured, mature, and specific. It is also a little more sophisticated (not Incorporated but Limited). What I enjoy most about Lydon’s approach is his lack of compromise. In many ways it makes the work challenging, but there is integrity in his commitment to his causes at the expense of musical compromise. He is still willing to assault the audience with his views, and he is fine if you don’t like it.

Fav: Theme L: The rest of them 0.5 What if you put reddit comments to music with the utmost sincerity. Unfortunately behind the public image is some lazy, soulless poetry. Listening to this album feels like trying to get a teenager to get up at 1 P.M. while you're late to take them to one of their activities. It's more than just annoying it feels pathetic and you feel pathetic being upset at the situation. Cover: 1.5 Edgelord cover with those dead eyes, very pretentious Name: 3 Might as well go full into the public image naming Minecraft Parody: Public Skinpack

I liked this one quite a bit. Loud, high energy, sonically interesting. 4/5

Between the Sex Pistols being a bit lame and John Lydon being an annoying old bitch, it's easy to forget that PiL were good. The attritional angular riffs, menacing atmosphere and shitty talk-growling vocals are pure post-punk cool. I think I'd heard a lot of this album piecemeal but not its entirety. I'm not crazy about the first few tracks, but it soon finds its feet. Annalisa and Public Image are back-to-back highlights – the latter is a classic, an absolute diamond. The overwhelming 1- and 2-star ratings are a shame!

Apart from being so familiar with the title track and agreeing with the sentiments of Religion I felt the rest of the album was just Lydon taking the proverbial. The last track was the strangest of all but the whole album made me feel as if I shouldn’t be enjoying it…but weirdly I was. Unable to put into words or even my own brain why I didn’t hate it considering it was such utter rubbish. A bit like my feelings for The Fall (sorry Sam!). I think it was maybe along the lines of hearing the Beatles Revolution 9 for the first time when you think “what the hell is this” but you are actually transfixed by the absurdity and uniqueness.

This album definately improves as you go on - I really dont think it helps that it starts with a 9 min abstract post punk mind f*ck. Also I have to say but I dont think Lyndon is trying to have a good voice so not sure what the point of all the reviews mentioning this are. Not all singers have to have a good voice and whilst I agree its a bit grating at least its got some passion and energy behind it (he is a massive twat though). I really like Jah Wobbles bass groves - these bought the album up by a full star for me. I cannot believe this album was released only a year after Never Mind the Bollocks when they are worlds apart talent wise. This record sounds like the start of something new and exciting.... punk is dead.... welcome to the birth of post punk!!

The first PiL record massively suffers from the fact you can understand a lot of what John Lydon is saying, and as he has the lyrical acumen of an edgy 14 year old it’s all a bit embarassing. Metal Box is so much better because it has the same extremely tight rhythm section and angular scratchy guitar work - with the weird dialled up even further - but Lydon is mostly just shrieking in the background. I still love how everything except the silly old dope sounds, but when you could be listening to the great Mark E Smith ranting genuinely fantastic lyrics over similar post-punk rackets then this record becomes very inessential.

Not the worst music album I’ve listened to, but definetly far from the best.

This Post-Punk album feels like being stuck in a damp basement with a band that refuses to let the confrontation and abrasion settle, constantly grinding the same uneasy atmosphere into my ears while someone angrily talks, shouts and mutters at me. Jah Wobble's bass keeps rumbling underneath the music, the drums pound with a heavy, sometimes awkward persistence, and Keith Levene's guitar cuts through everything with sharp, discordant sounds. John Lydon's voice rarely feels like it's trying to sing so much as confront me, whether he's barking, sneering or delivering words in a deliberately detached way. The repetition leaves me feeling trapped in the same confrontation long after the initial shock has worn off. The music's mixture of punk aggression, dub bass and experimental noise makes it feel less like a performance designed to entertain me and more like someone deliberately making the room uncomfortable and refusing to let me leave.

Did not care for iit

Terrible

This was very bad.

Scary music, very scary music

Nice. I like to hear an album with a good amount of experimentation. Seems to be a foundational work of post punk. I like this better than the sex pistols actually. Good job Johnny

The single I bought on release and still love to this day. The album was a tough listen when it came out as it was unlike anything we’d heard or expected. Reviews I remember as being tough. Today regarded as a classic and influential album and the start of post punk.

Punk industrial post hard core sound. Repetitive in such a weird cool way

This was great. Not easy, but great. Deserves a higher rating.

Annalisa and Public Image are pretty good

People here really tend to hate punk and post punk, don't they? I suppose I get it, but sometimes don't you just want something angry and energetic? John Lydon's current situation aside, he was definitely a pioneer. Kind of ironic and unfortunate that he went from a pioneering punk artist to a Trump supporter; those two things seem so at odds. Opening an album like this with a 9+ minute rant is a pretty bold move. The groove on that song is fantastic though. Then you come to Religion I and Religion II which are the same song but one without music and one with. That's kind of an odd choice too. It's a good song, but Religion I seems a little superfluous. One thing I really like about this album is how different it is from the Sex Pistols. It would have been so easy to get a new band and make basically the same record and I'm glad that's not what this is. It is perhaps not as good as Never Mind The Bollocks but it is clearly broken off in a different direction. Cleaner, more well rounded, tighter. Although I do feel like they kind of ran out of ideas and had to just throw in some filler, hence Religion I and half of Fodderstompf. A good record, though not a great one. I prefer Metal Box. 3.5/5 but I'm going to round down.

Hurt my ears and aggravating.

What even is this lol. I can see the possible appeal and the innovation of the band but honestly only one or two of these songs are listenable for me

As a friend of mine very generously put it: noise pollution.

I like the long dirges that just sound like Metal Box, and I *really* like Public Image. That's most of the album really, yet I can't help but to feel something is slightly off here. Anyway, Fodderstompf is simultaneously idiotic and brilliant, and for that alone, this album deserves at least four stars.

3/5

Between the worst opener and closer I’ve ever heard on an album are a bunch of other pretty bad songs.

I really wanted to like this. but I just cant, I never want to hear this again

very weird and unsettling

The opening track feels like a sad caricature of the moody shoegaze style (which I like very much, at its best!) and then the energy gets punk-ier with time. Still: I think others do this genre/style much better. But props to this album if it paved the way for better things ahead in the ‘80s? …

(3/7) "public image" was nice but a lot of these are loud and unremarkable

Best thing about the album was the fact that it only lasted about 40mins. I quess I am missing something here but this was garbage.

Loose and punky but pushing limits toward post punk

The six words that strike fear into my heart every time I see them on this site 'album by the English rock band'. And this is extra special because it feels like some of the most drug addled 'I am a golden god' stuff. Over a bunch of repetitive crap.

Wonderful punk. Creative, loud and funny.

not my style but fondational.

I hate this. 👎👎

A rough start but I kinda liked it after the first 2 tracks.

It’s almost like a jam band version of 70’s punk. One of the songs sounds like same riff for EMI extended.

Not a fan of this album at all. Whilst there are some palatable elements such as the driving bass guitar & crunchy guitars, I can’t stand the wailing & shouting over the top of repetitive punk tracks. I get that punk is meant to sound angry, aggressive & raw, but this album comes across as a bit of a mess for me. It’s getting a generous 4/10.

I like two of the songs well enough but this is not my jam. 1.5

Too much punk

Hej guys… 🫩 Dagens album. Ja va fan. När jag såg imorse att de va punk på schemat blev jag exalterad. Men sen möts man med post punk… en genre som jag inte ens visste fanns förrän idag. Och från de jag förstått så är detta ett pretentiöst försök från detta sex pistol medlemmar att skapa något banbrytande. Och anledningen varför detta album anses som ett mästerverk är på grund av hur banbrytande var. Vilket är något man verkligen märker… anledningen varför jag säger pretentiöst är för att de medvetet skallar tillbaka på alla regler som gör musik bra. Det finns inga refränger. Inga solos. Och inga melodier som är catchy. Det är repetitivt. Och okreativt. Helt ärligt så blir jag arg av att lyssna på det här albumet, jag kan förstå att det här kan liknas med modern konst där man också bryter mot alla regler, vid en viss punkt så måste också musiken vara underhållande. Vilket det här inte är. Varje låt börjar bra med ett bra koncept av en trumkomp och en baslina som låter hyfsat okej. Jag gillar hur sakerna låter och effekterna på sakerna och även faktiskt texterna då och då. Men det är bandets vilja (på grund av att vara pretentiösa och bryta mot regler) som förstör. De repeterar samma jävla skit i 8 min. Skillnaden mellan det här och modern konst, är modern konst är underhållande på något sätt… Det här är bara experimentellt skit som folk som har ett gudskomplex över deras egna musiksmak tycker är bra. Jag vill genuint tro att det här är ett skämt och ett test mot kritiker. Man hör SÅ tydligt att dem har talang, men medvetet spelar ett spratt på oss alla. Den enda bra med detta album är att det är bättre än gårdagens och att dem tydligen kan göra bra musik men är för lata för att göra de. Dem har bra ljud och idéer, men drar ut på dem. Ser mycket fram emot att läsa Simons recension av detta album, för de kommer vara mer underhållande än att lyssna på det här. Därför ger jag, Grabbensomintekollarpåexplosioner detta album en 2/10.

I knew some of the songs--most obviously, Public Image, which rules. But I've never listened to the whole album. I didn't expect to like it so much, but damn, it's great. Relentless, powerful, thrilling.

This is one of the best works post Sex Pistols split, it actually tries to invent something new and in tone with how the post-punk movement acted: with a good sense of self and some necessary arrogance. I just don't understand why in the middle of the record they go back to playing conventional new wave.

This website should be called 1000 albums because why was this one included? No bangers, nothing worth listening to, music wasn't fun or interesting, not an ounce of editing was done as the songs just ramble, what else do you want me to say

take the sex pistols, the world's most successful industry plant. convince them (well, john "it's not great britain, it's great butter" lydon) that anyone cares about their opinions. ramp the art-rock pretentiousness up to 15. get ricky gervais to co-write "religion more like suckligion you dumb cunts". make it last 15 years. god it's just fucking awful. seriously, wow. we really needed a spoken word rant about how religion involves sucking off fat priests and then the exact same rant but 4 times longer over some generic post-punk riffs.

Not sure I liked it, but was intrigued by it

I've heard Public Image Ltd. before, but never this album. Wow, what a jump from the Sex Pistols. "Theme" is incredible, and a fantastic mission statement for Public Image Ltd. and a great way distance themselves from Lydon's previous band. The lyrics are nihilistic, anti-religious, one's own 'public image' and commercialism, with attention to then-current events and politics. The songs are driving post-punk, with noise tendencies, so all of this is right up my alley. They even have lighter fare like "Public Image" that has a surprisingly alt-rock sound for 1978. I did not expect "Fodderstompf" It seems like a joke song, but I kind of dig it. There's so much to like about Public Image: First Issue, but my main complaint is that the strength of the songwriting varies enough that any goodwill built up by "Theme" was shaken by "Annalisa" (it seems like a relapse into Sex Pistols tendencies), but thankfully, this was the only real weak spot. As much as I despise John Lydon as a person in 2026, he was once a very capable frontman and musician. I appreciate his willingness to experiment with new sounds, but I don't think Public Image: First Issue is one I'm gonna keep coming back to.

Done interesting sounds here and worth a listen. A little strange though for me.

This didn't do much for me. Not a fan of the singer's voice although the musicians played their instruments well.