PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED: FIRST ISSUE: US MIX, RSD '25

For the first time ever, the original mixes intended for America of PiL's debut LP have been released for Record Store Day 2025.

Public Image Limited: First Issue (US Mixes, Record Store Day 25)

Virgin Records/Universal

2025

Public Image Limited: First Issue US Mix.

There’s been surprisingly little written about last week’s Record Store Day release of Public Image Limited fantastic debut. I need to rectify that.

When it was originally recorded it wasn’t released in America. The feeling from PiL’s US label, Warner Bros, was that it wouldn’t be palatable for an American audience, so they asked for remixes and re-writes. The band did so, using some of the sessions of Metal Box, the following year, as an opportunity to rethink elements of the debut.

Even so, the tapes were never released, seemingly lost forever, languishing in a temperature-controlled vault somewhere in the Arizona desert. Therefore, First Edition was only available on import in the states until Light In The Attic’s great 2011 reissue.

So for PiL fans, the first ever public airing of the US Mixes and revised track-listing is a really exciting development and is far and away the most anticipated release of RSD 25.

The original tapes had been misfiled and unpacked for nigh-on 50 years… and here, at last, they are.

It’s nail-biting.

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First of all there’s the far punchier track-listing. The original record ran thus:

Theme

Religion I

Religion II

Annalisa

-

Public Image

Low Life

Attack

Fodderstompf

The US Mix discards the Religions and Fodderstompf. It also adds a new version of Death Disco/Swan Lake, a high point of Metal Box and one of PiL’s most timeless singles:

Theme

Annalisa

-

Public Image

Low Life

Attack

Swan Lake

The artwork is cannily adjacent to the original, with a different photo of John on the cover clearly taken from the same session. The other classic Madison Avenue style photos remain the same - though oddly, drummer Jim Walker is not featured at all. That fact, and that my B-Side has a really bubbled label that is barely stuck on, makes me slightly question the attention to detail of the packaging. The print quality of the actual high-gloss sleeve is lovely, though.

The track-listing seems so much snappier because of the loss of the Religions. Neither of which are my favourite tracks on the original album, so personally their loss is no biggie - but losing Fodderstompf is a surprise. No better replacement than Swan Lake, though.

That slight adjustment alone makes the US Mix version feel like a very different beast - and guess what - it IS more approachable. It’s surprising how impenetrable the Religions made the LP.

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Side One is given over to Theme and Annalisa alone.

On first listen you wonder WTF they have done. The new version of Theme is totally remixed and the phasing of Levene’s guitars and Walkers drums is overdone to the point you wonder if it’s even on purpose, but eventually it settles in to a version that is probably less great than the original, despite Wobble’s bass appearing gratifyingly higher in the mix.

Not a disappointing start, but a slightly odd one.

Annalisa is fantastic, though; it feels punchier, more raw. The guitars are really abrasive, scratching away at my tweeters like a toddler with head-lice. Again, Wobble’s bass is either higher in the mix or the drums are more spacial, leaving more room for it.

One or the other.

The real difference comes after the song finished though; it segues into a long instrumental piece of seemingly random discordant piano tinkles, the thin strum of guitar and a harpsichord-like sound, just with Lydon moaning and groaning beneath it all. It’s actually quite beautiful, and elevates Annalisa to epic status. I can’t work out if it was an addendum recorded post release or just cut off the tale of the original mix, but regardless, I thoroughly approve.

Keith Levene.

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Side Two crashes straight in with the immortal Public Image and it sounds HUGE.

Wobble’s bass is, surprisingly, dry as a bone, but Lydon is drenched in reverb, giving the song a (complimentary) live feel. Levene’s guitars are deeper in the mix too.

Now it’s really bass-driven. Somehow it sounds less of a single and more of a fantastic album track. There’s some wonderfully dubby delay on “Goodbye!” at the end, too.

Low Life is driving - again employing the same reverby vocals and driving bass attitude to the mix. Although Jim Walker’s drums are embedded more deeply in the mix, they appear to push the songs more apparently. Weird.

Presumably familiarity helps to define the moments that less clear than they were. It would be interesting to hear what someone thought who had never heard the original versions if the songs.

Again, the track dissolves into delayed chaos - this time distorted too, straight into Attack, which sounds like Lydon is singing down a phone-line. In the best possible way. Is it sped up?

Might be.

Attack has always been the trad. punkest track on the LP and the new mix only enhances that - they fucked it up in the best way - more distortion on John’s vocals and again - bass high, guitars and drums more in the background.

It makes PiL sound coolly lo-fi, though interestingly, as A/B the tracks, I’m starting to miss Jim’s more pronounced drums.

It’s making me wonder how the mix is more “accessible”, as it was intended to be. It’s not. Perhaps that’s why WB declined the release.

We round off - not with the dubby incessance of Fodderstompf, but with a peppy, clear and crisp re-recording of Swan Lake/Death Disco. At least, I think it’s a re-recording. I’m hearing detail in the vocals and guitars that I’ve previously missed.

I wonder who’s drumming? Jim had left for most of the Metal Box sessions, so it’s probably not him.

That might be why he’s not featured on the artwork.

It’s a REALLY good version of Swan Lake. It might suit First Issue better than Metal Box. The debut needed another real standout track to draw focus through the cacophony, and Swan Lake serves that purpose well. Whereas on Metal Box, even though it’s a highlight, there are a ton of them, so Death Disco gets a little more lost than it does here. Levene’s guitars are fantastic.

What a loss.

The absent Jim Walker.

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All in all, there are positives and negatives to the US Mixes of First Issue, and ultimately it should be seen as a companion piece, anyway, not a replacement for the original.

The running order is great. It’s really surprising how it changes the feel of the LP and makes it punch. If that’s commercialism, sign me up. It feels definitive.

As for the mixes, as interesting as they are, the originals have more clarity and are of a higher fidelity. It’s great to hear the songs in a new way and they feel very live - but ultimately - and perhaps because of familiarity - the old ones are the best.

I’m surprised Virgin and the band thought they were more approachable. Perhaps they were having a laugh. I think there’s a golden point though, where some of the cleanliness of the original mixes could have benefited from some of the dubby chaos of the US versions - they add a spice and unpredictability to the songs which compliments them well.

I think this version of the album is a great success - and it’s good to hear it alongside the original. Does it replace it? No. If you only have one version, should it be this one? Probably not.

But is it worth owning as a companion piece? Absolutely. If you love PiL and have even a slight fondness for the original album, I’d recommend tracking a copy down. It’s a limited pressing - not tiny numbers - 5500 - so you should be able to get a copy fairly easily if you want one.

And I think you probably do.

PiL are playing everywhere (at least, the UK and Europe) over the summer. John’s doing a spoken word tour of the provinces in the autumn. Go see them. Go see him. It’ll be ace. It’s PiL, FFS.

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PiL Official