This Is What You Nearly Didn't Get

 

Public Image Limited - Commercial Zone (Limited Edition) [XYZ-007 USA 1984 24-Bit FLAC]

Some of you have already guessed this album was coming. I last ripped Commercial Zone on the old Debut Carbon/2M Blue combination in January 2017, after my recent rip of the Japanese pressing on Flowers Of Romance, it was the obvious follow-up. Here is a brand new rip of the album Johnny didn't want you to hear, but Keith did!

Viewed by many as the last true PIL album, Commercial Zone was funded & released by  Keith Levene on his split from the band. The review of the album in Melody Maker upon release sums it up perfectly and is copied below....

THIS is not a bootleg, this is the real alternative to that other record, a private view of the Public Image, a strictly import-only insight into the way they were. This record sets the record straight from the Keith Levene point of view, a collection of original PiL ephemera which puts the tin lid on Levene's involvement in the band up to the acrimonious parting of the ways last summer. Five of the eight tracks on This Is What You Want... appear here in embryonic form, accompanied by one or two Levene works and a couple of apparently unreleased Lydon/Atkins/Levene efforts.

Of the exclusives, Bad Night (no relation to Bad Life) is the most intriguing item, Levene owning up to his Velvet's influence and Lydon wailing in a particularly discordant, yet peculiarly appealing manner. And doubtless the faithful will make the sacred pilgrimage to the local disc relic of PiL history, featuring as it does an authentic sounding Public Image, the last of the real McCoy before the advent of the last cynical studio bound release.

The Slab is a moody but melodic instrumental worthy of Irmin Schmidt which surfaced on This Is What You Want as  Order Of Death. Mad Max evolved into Bad Life, and Lou Reed Part 2 became Where Are You - all different enough in execution to warrant a listen if only out of curiosity. Commercial Zone is not such a bitter PiL to swallow - perhaps this is what you want?

Andy Hurt - Melody Maker (August 1984)

A1  Mad Max

A2  Love Song

A3  Young Brits

A4  Bad Night

B1  The Slab

B2  Lou Reed Part I

B3  Lou Reed Part II (Where Are You?)

B4  Blue Water

B5  Miller High Life

Thanks to 'penguinflight' for donating the vinyl for this rip.