Editing Public Image Ltd (section)

===1983–1986: ''Commercial Zone'', ''This Is What You Want...'' and ''Album''===
An aborted fourth studio album recorded in 1982 was later released by Levene as ''[[Commercial Zone]]'', which included contributions from bassist Pete Jones. Lydon and Atkins claim that Levene stole the master tapes. Atkins stayed on through a live album (one of the first digital live albums ever recorded), ''[[Live in Tokyo (Public Image Limited album)|Live in Tokyo]]'' (1983) – in which PiL consisted of him, Lydon, and a band of session musicians—and left in 1985, following the release of ''[[This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get]]'' (1984). This album consists of re-recorded versions of five songs from ''Commercial Zone'' (several of which feature a horn section) and three new tracks (four songs from ''Commercial Zone'' were not re-recorded for the new album). PiL was moving towards a more commercial pop music and [[dance music]] direction, and while many new fans found PiL, little of their original audience (or sound) remained.

During this interim period, the band released the single "[[This Is Not a Love Song]]" in 1983, the song's lyric lampooning the anger of some fans and music press over the band's movement towards a more commercial style. The song's title was inspired by a line in the song "Her Story" (1979) by Virgin label stablemates the [[Flying Lizards]], about bands 'selling out' their artistic principles for commercial success ("''But you can still make money, by singing sweet songs of love... this is a love song''"). Ironically, it gave the band their biggest international hit single, reaching No.&nbsp;5 in the UK singles charts and No.&nbsp;12 in the Netherlands.

A re-recorded version with harsher vocals and a brass section was included on the album ''This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get''.

In 1985, Lydon recorded a song entitled "World Destruction" in collaboration with [[Afrika Bambaataa]]'s band Time Zone and producer [[Bill Laswell]]. PiL's 1986 studio album release was simply entitled ''[[Album (Public Image Limited album)|Album]]'', ''Compact Disc'', or ''Cassette'', depending on the format. The cover's blue typeface and spartan design parodied [[generic brand]]s; promotional photos featured Lydon in a "generic blue" suit surrounded by generic foods and drinking generic beer. Produced by Bill Laswell (despite Lydon-fuelled faction and disunion{{Citation needed|date=February 2015}}) and with many of Laswell's usual rotating cast of musicians, it also featured guitar solos by [[Steve Vai]], considered by Vai himself to be some of his best work.{{Citation needed|date=August 2020}} [[Jonas Hellborg]], solo bassist and at the time, member of [[John McLaughlin (musician)|John McLaughlin]]'s reformed band, [[the Mahavishnu Orchestra]], played bass on the album. Jazz great [[Tony Williams (drummer)|Tony Williams]] and legendary [[Cream (band)|Cream]] drummer [[Ginger Baker]] drummed on the album, which also featured [[Ryuichi Sakamoto]] of the Japanese electronic music band [[Yellow Magic Orchestra]] (YMO). Controversy reared again, with claims that the album cover and title concept had been stolen from the San Francisco noise/punk band, [[Flipper (band)|Flipper]], contemporaries of PiL, whose album, ''[[Album – Generic Flipper|Album]]'', featured a similarly unadorned sleeve. Flipper retaliated by naming their next album, ''Public Flipper Limited''.

To tour ''Album'' in 1986, Lydon recruited former [[Magazine (band)|Magazine]] and [[Siouxsie and the Banshees]] guitarist [[John McGeoch]], world music multi-instrumentalist (and former [[The Damned (band)|Damned]] guitarist) [[Lu Edmunds]], bassist Allan Dias, and former [[the Pop Group]] and [[the Slits]] drummer [[Bruce Smith (musician)|Bruce Smith]]. (Dias had previously played with [[David Lloyd (musician)|David Lloyd]] and [[Andrew Edge]] in [[Uropa Lula]]).
As the years went on, PiL's line-up grew steadier as the sound of the albums drifted toward dance culture and drum-oriented pop music. Edmunds left due to [[tinnitus]] in 1988, and Smith left in 1990. McGeoch and Dias were members of PiL from 1986 until 1992, making them the group's longest-running members besides Lydon.