Public Image Limited Part 3.

When guitarist, Keith Levene (I think) said that ‘Flowers Of Romance’ was “probably the least commercial album ever delivered to a record company” he was wrong. But ‘Flowers’ is difficult, even by PIL standards.

Apart from John Lydon’s lyrics and unique vocals the stand-out features of the first two PIL albums were Jah Wobble’s Dub-inspired heavy-as-lead bass and Keith Levene’s sharper-than-a-jagged-piece-of-metal guitar.

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‘Mystery man’ is from one of those strange albums that the music industry throws up every now and again – a fantastic album that no one has ever heard. 

Released in 1991, despite a few rave reviews and inclusion on a couple of critics’ best-of-the-year lists, ’24 Years Of Hunger’ barely registered before sinking into obscurity and deletion. Which is where it has remained ever since. 

One of the reasons it didn’t break through is that ‘Mystery Man’, the most arresting song on the album, was over-looked as a single in favour of two other very good but less dramatic songs. In hindsight, sounds a little like someone was playing safe whereas they should have taken the plunge. 

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Tricky’s becoming one of those Great British musical anomalies/geniuses. After rapping with Massive Attack on their first album in 1991 he could easily have become a bit-part player in their success. Instead he’s released a string of albums and singles that are characterised by dense, layered music and his unique whispering-style singing and an almost pathological desire to take risks. Continually pushing the boat out into unchartered waters that most successful musicians wouldn’t dream off. It doesn’t always work but when it does he produces breathtakingly powerful pieces that sound like no one else. And he now looks like one of the most significant artists to emerge from the Massive Attack/Portishead/’Bristol Sound’ phenomenon.

The original ‘C’Mon Baby’ is from ‘Knowle West Boy’ which is another album that was inexplicably (unless I’m missing something?) left off the 2010 Mercury Prize short-list.

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