I first heard Public Image (aka First Issue) by Public Image Ltd. about three decades ago, some five years after it was initially released. I had already fully ingested the music of the Sex Pistols and accepted it as punk rock defined, so when I first encountered John “Rotten” Lydon’s second band, I was primed to experience the shock and anger I’m sure he set out to foment. Compared with the conventional sound of the Pistols (it’s been a long time since anyone could really hear it and think of it much more than really good, loud, snotty rock ‘n’ roll), PiL was a deliberate descent into obtuse art rock, engineered to annoy.