This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get is the fourth studio album by the English post-punk band Public Image Ltd, released on 6 July 1984 by Virgin Records. It includes the single "Bad Life" and a re-recorded version of a "This Is Not a Love Song", which had been a No. 5 UK and international hit when released as a single in 1983. An early version of the album was released in 1984 by founding PiL guitarist Keith Levene as Commercial Zone. The album was then re-recorded after Levene's departure from the band, with no contributions from either Levene or bassist Pete R. Jones (who contributed to several tracks on Commercial Zone).

Background

In early November 1982 PiL announced the imminent release of a new single, "Blue Water", and a six-track mini album, You Are Now Entering a Commercial Zone, on their new label, which was supposed to release the unused music for Copkiller (1983). This did not happen, with the band instead continuing to record a full-length album at Park South Studios. In mid-1983, in PiL's absence, Keith Levene took the unfinished album tapes and did his own mix. He then flew over to London and presented them to Richard Branson as the finished new PiL album for Virgin Records: Commercial Zone. For his part, John Lydon decided to completely abandon the tapes and re-record the whole album from scratch with session musicians. This new version of Commercial Zone became This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get in 1984. Five songs on This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get are re-recordings of tracks which originally appeared on Commercial Zone: "Bad Life" (originally titled "Mad Max"), "This Is Not a Love Song" (originally titled "Love Song"), "Solitaire" (entitled "Young Brits" on the second pressing of Commercial Zone), "The Order of Death" (originally titled "The Slab"), and "Where Are You?" (originally titled "Lou Reed Part 2"). Four songs from Commercial Zone, "Bad Night", "Lou Reed Part 1", "Blue Water" and "Miller Hi-Life", were not re-recorded for This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get (although a remixed version of "Blue Water" was included as the B-side on the "This Is Not a Love Song" 12" single). Songs on This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get which did not appear in any form on Commercial Zone are "Tie Me to the Length of That", "The Pardon" and "1981", and are the only songs on the album which do not credit Keith Levene as a co-writer.

Track by track commentary by the band

In popular culture

PiL was supposed to score the soundtrack for the Italian crime thriller film Copkiller (1983), starring Harvey Keitel and John Lydon, who worked on the material with his bandmates Keith Levene and Martin Atkins (over the phone, by long distance). The line "This is what you want... This is what you get" appears in both "Bad Life" and "The Order of Death". "The Order of Death" is a reference to the film Copkiller, also known as The Order of Death. The line "This is what you want... This is what you get", which gives the album its title, appears in the film. The song "The Order of Death" appears in the 1990 science fiction-horror film Hardware and on the soundtrack to the 1999 horror film The Blair Witch Project. It was also featured in the Miami Vice episode "Little Miss Dangerous", the Mr. Robot episode "eps2.7_init_5.fve", and the Industry episode "There Are Some Women...". It also appears in Season 2 Episode 6 of The Umbrella Academy when the Hargreeves siblings take the elevator to the Tiki Lounge to meet with their father. It appears in the 2023 remake of System Shock, as the music for the end credits. "This is Not a Love Song" appears in the film Waltz with Bashir (2008).

Critical reception

The album was seen as a step down from the band's efforts. Pitchfork named the album "maligned but salvageable". AllMusic said the album as "the most tentative and least powerful of PiL's recordings."

Track listing

Personnel

Public Image Ltd Additional personnel

Charts