Almost half a century into a career in which his stock in trade has been wilful provocation, John Lydon finally revealed his tender side on January’s comeback single Hawaii, a disarmingly poignant and beautiful goodbye to his terminally ill wife, Nora, who died in April. Lyrically, the rest of its parent album is rather more boilerplate abrasive: Being Stupid Again finds him gleefully attacking student idealism (“Ban the bomb! Save the whale!”) and the entertaining but silly opener Penge relocates Viking drama to south London suburbia. Meanwhile, the accurately named Pretty Awful includes perhaps the first reference to a “wanker’s mac” in 21st-century popular culture.
Elsewhere, some of Hawaii’s gentleness is reprised: Scott Firth’s sinuous basslines combined with Lu Edmonds’s subtle guitar interventions give Walls a gorgeously loose and relaxed sound, and there’s a distinct eeriness to Strange. Best of all is the throbbing, synth-driven Car Chase. As with all of PiL’s recent albums, End of World is frustratingly hit and miss – the staccato glam-rock stylings of The Do That are particularly annoying – but then you suspect that the arch contrarian Lydon wouldn’t have it any other way.
