Happy? (Public Image Limited album)

The live band John Lydon assembled in early 1986 for the Album tour would, in fact, endure as PiL's longest-lasting lineup: guitarist John McGeoch and bassist Alan Dias would be on board for the subsequent three albums and drummer Bruce Smith for the next two. The first album with the "new" PiL may have an ironic title, and feature Lydon's trademark negation throughout, but Happy? is an exuberant, surprisingly upbeat album, featuring a hard but danceable rock sound (this evocative, aurally-exotic music, with female backing vocals, would characterise the PiL sound for the next half-decade). The bouncy opening track "Seattle" was the album's first single; "Rules and Regulations" anticipates the dance sound of the next album 9, in "The Body," Lydon revisits the abortion theme of the similarly-titled Sex Pistols classic "Bodies", and "Fat Chance Hotel," with its Wobble-esque bass intro and repetitive melodic drone, sounds like an amalgam of the 1978 and the 1987 PiLs. Much of the album has an intrinsically 80s, cinematic feel - especially on "Save Me" and "Open and Revolving" - which is almost certainly due to producer Gary Langan's multilayered production (a similar approach would be taken by Stephen Hague on 9).