Public Image Ltd to Release Super-Deluxe Box Sets ‘Metal Box’ and ‘Album’
A pair of classic Public Image Ltd records will be reissued as super-deluxe box sets. On Oct. 28, they will reissue their second album, 1979’s Metal Box and their fifth, 1986’s Album, in four-CD and four-LP collections.
The new version of Metal Box echoes the original’s packaging by being housed in a square tin with an embossed logo — the 1979 release consisted of three 12-inch singles in a replica of a film canister. In addition to a remastering of the record’s 12 songs, extra discs bring together b-sides, alternate mixes — some of which have never been issued — radio and TV performances and a concert they performed at Manchester’s Factory Records Russell Club on June 18, 1979.
Album found frontman John Lydon using high-profile session musicians like metal guitarist Steve Vai, drummer Ginger Baker of Cream and Bernie Worrell of Parliament-Funkadelic. Like the expanded Metal Box, Album contains different mixes and a live set — this time from Brixton Academy on May 27, 1986 — but also adds “Time Zone,” Lydon’s famous hip-hop single he did with Afrika Bambaataa, and a disc of unreleased demos.
The press release on their website, where you can see the track listing for both sets, notes that both boxes include a 72-page book, a poster and art prints (LP) and postcards (CD). If you pre-order them from Universal’s website, you will receive a limited-edition insert that has been signed by Lydon. Although the CDs contain more music than the LPs because of the extra time afforded, the vinyl boxes will include a card from which they can download digital versions of every track.
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