Whatever free passes he’s earned, John Lydon proved he didn’t need them for PiL’s 2012 This Is PiL, his post-Pistols band’s first album in 20 years. Now, feet found, PiL get back to wrong-footing their listeners. Blasting in with Double Trouble, a bristling, staccato scrapper, the up-and-at-em energy rarely ebbs, peaking in the itchily danceable punk funk of Whole Life Time and the lurching, dub-metallic rage of Corporate. Capping it all is Shoom, a song written in the voice of Lydon’s father that dismisses all existence with a foul-mouthed brio and reveals what it is the world needs: “another fuck off”. If it’s a fuck off as well-delivered and exhilaratingly fun as this, what security council could argue?
