The Public Image Is Rotten Songs From The Heart

I’m usually a great fan of box sets. I have several, by various artists, and they ALL include special one-off photos, liner notes and the usual fluff in between the covers to keep one satisfied and in the belief that one has bought something “limited release” or special in some way. This one has that but where it falls short is in the quality of the goods contained therein. It starts the moment you open the set, the disks are in the flimsiest of paper sleeves, and the plastic wrapping is thicker than the cardboard. My disk one got sleeve damage due to this, so buyer beware. As to the recordings themselves and the materials contained therein, they are what you’d expect, John Lyndon and Co. doing what they do (or did). Outside of fans this probably won’t be of much interest, as there are a ton of remixes and 12” versions of things. Your average consumer probably isn’t interested in multiple versions of “Rise”.There is a book of course, with printing far too small for any of their fans to read unaided, I sure as heck couldn’t.A few postcards and the whole done up with a little black ribbon inside. I guess in summation, if you’re buying it for the music and the video discs you are getting value but the overall quality of the produced product makes me think of a case of where the pre-production samples were made in the UK, France or Germany or something and the final production items were jobbed out to China or Taiwan. Paper so cheap it might disintegrate with more than a years’ exposure to oxygen, everything technically “there” but of such a cheapness and quality as to suggest a scam. The only reason it gets four stars from me instead of one is that a well-known streaming service took great swaths of this down, necessitating a purchase, which is OK because of the miserable reimbursement rates they pay artists themselves. So to get Mr. Lyndon and PIL any money at all past the lawyers and record company executives that have STILL somehow managed to survive into the present day I have resorted to this. The set isn’t rotten, but it isn’t great, either.

****UPDATE*** After emailing PiL directly about this problem I received a quick response from umusic.com and the promise of a replacement disk 2, which is in progress. Order this product with confidence of good customer support should you find your disk 2 to be defective.As another reviewer points out, Disc 2 is defective. Virgin won’t help so your sole remedy is to return it for a refund. They should just send a replacement disc. Content is otherwise great so I am not returning but shame on them for knowingly selling a defective product. I bet Mr. Lydon would pitch a fit, kick *** and take names if he knew this was going on.

In my opinion this is a good box set full of PIL songs and includes full live concert's on DVD. I'll review the 7 discs that are included in this set and I will also review the box set overall. I'm not doing an in depth look at everything I'm just briefly going over everything.Disc 1 Singles-1978-2015- The title speaks for itself, it's a compilation of PIL greatest hits from over the years. 5/5 starsDisc 2 B-Sides, Rareities & Radio Sessions- It's a very interesting collection of song's on here where some of the songs I have heard before while others I have not especially the song Turkey Tits. 4/5 starsDisc 3 12'' Mixes & Dance Tracks- This one I'm not that crazy about where a lot of the songs are already on this set and some of the songs aren't that good. This disc includes Death Disco 2 times and This is Not a Love Song 2 times which is a little excessive. 2/5 starsDisc 4 Unreleased Mixes & Tracks- I like this one because the songs on here are not on any of the other discs on this set and the songs are very good and I had no idea that they covered "Kashmir" from Zeppelin. 5/5 starsDisc 5 Live at New York Ritz 1989- Great concert to listen to 5/5 starsDisc 6 DVD - Has PIL promo videos of their greatest hits and also a full live concert in Estonia 1988. 5/5 starsDisc 7 DVD- BBC Archive of PILL performing their songs, and also a full performance in Sydney Australia in 2013. 5/5 starsThe box set is of good construction and is made in Germany. Comes with a 2018 concert tour poster, 4 postcards with pictures of PIL, and it also comes with a scrapbook filled with PIL articles from past newspapers and magazines but unfortunately some are hard to read because the printing is so small. The discs don't come in a jewel boxes but instead come in sheaths to put each one in seperately. I would of rather had jewel boxes for the cd's but I'm not going to complain about it. 4/5 starsOverall I think it's a good boxset but I do think they could of added a lot more of their songs such as "The Order of Death" and a whole bunch of others. Instead it's a lot of mixes and different versions of their hit songs and I felt it was a little overkill for me. It was nice to here some rarities and watch PIL full length concerts on DVD. 4/5 stars

Very happy with this set, *BUT* I did get the defective CD 2 as detailed below. I have reached out to umusic am waiting to see what kind of follow up I get.CD2 has a disc mastering error that causes the first 14 seconds of track 9 to appear at the end of track 8, the first 14 seconds of track 10 to appear at the end of track 9, etc. to the end of the disc. In addition, the final track has 14 seconds of silence at the end.The original CDs have matrix/runout AI23423-01. The replacement/repress CD2 The Public Image Is Rotten (Songs From The Heart) (Disc 2) has matrix/runout AI41670-01. Replacements for the defective CD2 were available upon request from [email protected].

I saw PiL recently in Chicago and this was a great souvenir of that concert. I particularly enjoyed the DVD of the "promo" videos which were the videos you used to see on MTV back in the 80's. There were also two live concerts on the DVDs, one from 1988 and one from 2013.I also, as others have mentioned, had the problem with disc 2, but I was able to obtain a replacement from UMC at no charge. The replacement takes a while since it is being shipped from Britain. But I tested the replacement and all is well. I certainly appreciate the outstanding customer service that UMC provided.

Well, this is what you get......Disappointed or Happy?I’m happy!Good value, beautifully packaged box set that samples PiL material from 1978 to their last albbum in 2015.For sure, it’s definitely not easy listening in places, a couple of the cds I probably won’t play again. But I think even the most hardcore of PiL fans would find some of their more er.. experimental material tough going. I didn’t expect to like everything and I don’t.However, you get a lot for your money within this package - cds, dvds, a book, photos and a poster ! Ever get the feeling that you’ve been cheated? Well, I don’t with this release. I paid 60 quid - a fair price considering the content.One for the PiL fans and collectors, newbies tread carefully...seek out a singles album first.

Wow!! Cds and DVDs, postcards, a poster, a hard back book enclosed in well held together box. Everything is here for the PII fan. 12" Remixes, Live Concerts, DVDs. You cant go wrong with this. The price alone stands out.

With six vinyl albums to contend with you would think it a bit of overkill.....nothing of the sort. All six albums are superb pressings and sound great, not to mention the fantastic hardback book with fascinating pictures. Superb collection for anybody curious enough to take a chance on PIL

Just feel its slightly on the expensive side. Delivery etc spot on.

Excellent vinyl box set.Lots of interesting tracks.Also has a Digital download