Public Image Ltd - WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW - CD

A fuzzy drum and bass track booms out as a man bellows over the top, "What, you f--king nagging again? About what? What what? The toilet's f---ing broken again?!?" Is it a new single from the Sleaford Mods? No, not quite -- it's the opening tune from What the World Needs Now, the second album from John Lydon's 21st century edition of Public Image Ltd. While Jason Williamson may be upholding the great tradition of world-class ranters in pop music, the artist formerly known as Johnny Rotten is still the undisputed champion, and even as he's pushing 60, Lydon's eccentric speechifying about domestic discord, destructive lifestyles, man's relationship with danger, America's obsession with sex, and a rich variety of other things that get under his skin, continue to signify and give this music its backbone. Lydon's pronouncements here sound more grandly operatic than he did in the '70s and '80s, but the vitriol that made him the most loved and hated man in the United Kingdom is still in ready