THE CLASH

This is definetely the big punk album of 1977 along with the Sex Pistols' Never Mind The Bollocks, but I have to say from what I heard, The Clash are better and more influential than the Sex Pistols ever will be. It's mainly because The Clash were more effective; their production was better, they had a brutal sound, and they intelligently knew how to use those three chords in the right places. The songs mostly deal with hate, racism, riots, theives, and the inner city, so they are mostly fast punky (and sometimes poppy) songs.

"Clash City Rockers" opens up the album with a bang; a catchy riff with some raucous vocals, a fine guitar solo, and a brilliant ending. "Remote Control", "London's Burning", White Riot", and "Career Opportunities" are all energetic and classic songs on here - they are perfect examples of great punk. "White Man In Hammersmith Palais" is a great, Reggae-tinged song that talks about hate and Jews, "Janie Jones" is a hook-filled song with another brutal sound, and "Police And Thieves" is the longest on here, with a wonderful intro before turning into a great groove.

The highlights don't end there, as "Complete Control", the rockin' "I'm So Bored With The U.S.A.", and the magnificent closer "Garage Land" are some other great songs too. The vocals are perfect and all the songs are energetic punk filled with plenty of hooks and brutal playing, except for the one weak song "Jail Guitar Doors" which has almost none of that. That doesn't come till near the end of the album though, so this debut is a tour de force. The Clash would be moving away from this kind of punk a little on their next album, so catch it while they are at their best.

OVERALL RATING: 9

COMMENTS

the UK version (the real version) is flawless and better than the US version. they really shouldn't have spilt up the songs liek they did, makes it confusing. - Doxxman

You're missing the British version, dudes. It's the only punk album in the world I don't hate (the other ones I've heard being Never Mind the Bollocks, The Ramones, Los Angeles, Raw Power, and Dookie.) Good shit on that piece of plastic--including "Deny", "Protex Blue" (which the Police would rip off a year later with "Peanuts"), "Cheat", and "48 Hours," none of which appear on the U.S. version. Every song on that album has something to recommend it. "Clash City Rockers," though--blargh. Never liked it.

And the closer, "Garageland," was later paid tribute to by Weezer in their song "In the Garage." But you probably knew that already.

GIVE 'EM ENOUGH ROPE (1978)

(Nick Karn's review)

HIGH POINTS: Safe European Home, Julie's Been Working For The Drug Squad, Tommy Gun. LOW POINTS: Guns On The Roof, Stay Free.

This sounds like quite a major dropoff to me. Admirably, though, this album shows a band that's not content to make the same record over and over again like almost every punk band in existence. Here, they decided to go for a bit of a change in their sound, slowing down their fast tempos, getting a bit more riff-heavy and making the songs more immediate in exploding not unlike arena rock anthems. While I wouldn't exactly call this the band's 'metal' album as many do, the volume is generally done at a higher intensity than the debut. That doesn't make things an improvement, of course, as the energy and catchiness of the material is noticeably less than before, and it doesn't help that the songs from time to time get a bit boring, repetitive, and simplistic. As a band, they were still clearly figuring out where they wanted to go in moving from their early sound. That movement would eventually produce spectacular results, but that's another album.

As for the songs, there are a couple absolute classics that come out of this sound, and the best of them is the explosive anthemic opener "Safe European Home", which has all the glorious energy and force to make it powerful, but what really puts it over the top is the really catchy verse melody countered by yells of 'Wheeeeeer'd you go?' that make it upliftingly awesome. There's also a really inspiring swing to "Julie's Been Working For The Drug Squad" that, along with its' fabulous bassline, makes it really irresistible, and it's a nice shot of variety here. Elsewhere, "English Civil War" reworks a traditional melody to successful, hard-hitting, effect and "Tommy Gun" is another quintessential, focused and energetic attempt at the album's sound, with a convincing arena riff at the beginning and another catchy melody.

It's from this point onward, however, that signs of boredom and repetitiveness begin to appear. None of these songs are really all that weak by themselves, but they all have distracting flaws. The side closer "Last Gang In Town" certainly has a good melody, but I don't know - doesn't it seem like it takes twice as long as it should to move that hook forward at 5 minutes? And of course, succumb to recycling themselves on "Guns On The Roof" - as if "Clash City Rockers" didn't rip off "I Can't Explain" enough, the riff here sounds even more obviously like it, and that completely ruins the song for me, especially since the chorus isn't very good either. "Drug Stabbing Time" and "Cheapskates" aren't really big improvements on it, though - they're mildly catchy, but they're also way too simplistic and don't do anything exciting. Where the heck did the overpowering energy go?

Meanwhile, "Stay Free", despite the nice sincerity apparent in the lyrics and Mick Jones' vocal style here, is a somewhat boring and nearly melodyless reggae number that doesn't really accomplish much, which makes it another obvious filler (to me, at least). The closing "All The Young Punks", meanwhile, has a really moving bridge, and the main melody and riff definitely is quite captivating, but the chorus gets extremely repetitive at the end in producing a very annoying effect. It probably seems that I complained a lot about these songs, but almost all of them are quite memorable and often convincing, it's just that the band is in a bit of a rut. In all, that means Give 'Em Enough Rope turns out to be much less spectacular and exciting than the classics it's stuck in between, but it shows signs of the band moving towards a more ambitious direction, and hey, it's still a decent album which contains its' share of great material, even if only a low 7.

OVERALL RATING: 7

The Clash's second album finds the band in-between two short, yet fantastic, modes of their existence. Featuring a heavy sound, this album is not quite punk enough to be considered true punk like on The Clash, nor does it contain the fantastic diversity that makes London Calling so appealing. Instead, Give 'Em Enough Rope is chockfull of songs with straightforward and (often) repetitive riffs set to simple, plodding rhythms. When the songs don't contain enough hooks or great heavy riffs to back them up, or are just a bit over-simplified like "Drug Stabbing Time" and "Guns On the Roof" (the opening riff sounds exactly like the opening riff for the Kinks "The Hard Way" - but if you aren't familiar with that tune it will sound ultra-similar to The Who's "I Can't Explain" instead, as Nick has rightly said) is when the record loses steam.

This is not to mention that the album is also highly monotonous, making it drag along rather boringly as you enter the weaker string of songs that take up side two. The previously mentioned tracks and "Cheapskates" are mildly pleasant cuts, but they plod along an unnecessary rate, and in the context of the album become somewhat indistinguishable from one another. Despite a memorable and enjoyable chorus to boot, "Drug Stabbing Time" is just one example of how the average three-to-four minute tune on here loses steam due to its' repetitiveness and overall monotony. "Last Gang In Town" and "Stay Free", which both contain a decent hook or two, ultimately suffer from the same problem.

The remaining five tracks, though, work very well and are pretty much strip-free of these bad things. "Safe European Home" is a powerful opening statement with an awesome riff and hook-line (the most punk-fueled track), "Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad" is a bouncy and infectious number with humorous lyrics and a fun beat, the energetic "Tommy Gun" is fueled by lots of great guitars, and the closing "All The Young Punks" packs a lot of punch in its' excellent choruses, and is complimented by those wonderful "Doo-Waaaaaaaaah"'s. Finally there is the aggressive "English Civil War", which is one of the highlights with its' interesting riff and un-stoppable energy throughout. In a nutshell, this album shows Clash at the crossroads. It doesn't add much to the bands' legacy, but it did show that they were capable of changing, even if, for a short while, it looked like they were a bit more limited in style than they actually could be.

OVERALL RATING: 7

LONDON CALLING (1979)

(Nick Karn's review)

HIGH POINTS: London Calling, The Guns Of Brixton, Lost In The Supermarket, Spanish Bombs, Train In Vain, Death Or Glory, Clampdown. LOW POINTS: Revolution Rock, Lover's Rock.

All of a sudden, The Clash get really ambitious on us - no longer are they following very many of the rules of punk or arena rock; they're more accurately making a pursuit into artsier territory with, of all things, a double album. Of course, they haven't gotten rid of their earlier spirit completely, as a lot of this material is still pretty uncompromising, not to mention the cover image of a guitar being smashed does represent it well. This time around, they've just expanded their punk and reggae style to include various other styles like ska, pop R&B, lounge-jazz, and hard rock to the mix, making it an impressively varied listen. The way all of this is tied together throughout the course of the album is pretty special, and the best songs on here are no doubt absolute masterpieces. As a result, like the debut, this has been called one of the greatest albums of all time (and its' release date is so close to 1980 that it's been called the best album of that decade), and it's easy to see why.

The first half of this album, in fact, is damn near flawless, particularly the well-known opening title track, which is definitely my pick for best song on here - the melodic greatness of this one is flat-out awesome, the main bass driven and minimalistic guitar groove is one of the best simultaneously hypnotizing and aggressive things I can think of, and the attitude laden lyrics hit hard. In terms of more energetic stuff on the first side, the song that most obviously recalls their earlier style is the simple but effective hard-hitting adrenaline rush of "Hateful" that works as a snappy entry in between all the diversity here, while "Clampdown" is an absolutely fantastic tightly constructed rocker, a great combination of catchiness and in your face intensity that works so well (especially when the guitars and vocals come to a halt after every line, my favorite moments of the song), and the way Mick Jones chimes in on vocals throughout is great.

The other stuff on the first half of the album, though, is somewhat more odd. The bizarre ska (or whatever it is) of "Jimmy Jazz" comes to mind immediately, with some weird vocal intonations thrown in there amongst a great bassline, "Rudie Can't Fail" is a really hook-filled reggae number, and their cover of "Brand New Cadillac" is, at the core, spy music, with a very appropriate riff and to-the-point energy. And their song about actor Montgomery Clift ("The Right Profile") is strangely uptempo and happy despite the decidedly non-uptempo lyrics, with a lot of horn embellishments thrown in. Then there's "Spanish Bombs" and "Lost In The Supermarket", two incredible forays into poppier territory, the first of them a truly great political number whose distinguishing features are its' addictive verse melody and brilliant guitar line thrown in throughout the verses, and the second being a fast paced, bass-driven rocker that just sounds so gloriously catchy that it brings the lyrics and mood of the song to life.

The second half of the album, though, is quite a letdown in comparison, as this is where pretty much all the stuff that could be considered filler is concentrated. This is particularly true of the five songs that come right after the short and fun little anti-advertising ditty "Koka Kola". The piano-driven tune "The Card Cheat" is sometimes considered to be one of the pinnacles of the album, but despite the soulful vocals and lyrics, it just sounds ordinary to me, and the melody sounds like a slower version of "Rudie Can't Fail". Plus, "Lover's Rock" is a crappy midtempo song that sounds so inappropriate for this type of environment (and it gets dragged out way longer than it should), while both "Four Horsemen" and "I'm Not Down" both do have okay hooks, but in comparison to the more explosive rockers on the album, they just sound uninspired and generic. And of course, the longest song on the album has to suck - "Revolution Rock" is another one of those horn-filled reggae numbers that goes on for 6 minutes at the same tempo and uninteresting groove without doing anything much except boring me to death.

Fortunately, the other songs are pretty much high quality stuff, except for possibly "Wrong 'Em Boyo", but even that one is interesting how it switches from a mid-tempo organ tune to a catchy ska-ish rocker. The one song Paul Simonon contributes to the album, though, is a stunner - "The Guns Of Brixton" is another heavily politicized one, perhaps the second best song on here, with one of the coolest basslines you will ever hear in your life. It has such a neat dark vibe and melody (a really catchy one, I might add), and it suits his lead vocal style well, plus the guitar breaks just sound so cool and mysterious. "Death Or Glory", meanwhile, strikes me as this record's answer to the intense "London's Burning", and that's a big compliment - it's got even more controversial lyrics, and while the energy level might not be as high, the chorus is certainly a glorious blast of anger.

Finally, there's that for some reason unlisted track "Train In Vain", which the band apparently didn't think too highly of, but it's actually one of the more memorable songs on the album, and certainly the most popular, since it became a big radio staple. Better known as "Stand By Me", it's another really great and addictive pop song sung by Jones, and I consider it a great thing that it closes the CD instead of the awful "Revolution Rock". So despite being in a creative rut on the last album, The Clash come through with an effort that's only a shade less great than the debut for totally different reasons. Maybe it's overrated a little, mostly because of the filler on the second half, but the best songs are truly magnificent, and if trimmed to the length of The Clash, it would be probably be a totally undeniable, classic masterpiece. As it is, it's still one of the least exhausting (only 65 minutes) and most rewarding double albums I can think of.

OVERALL RATING: 9

A lot of this is reggae-tinged, plus it is a very diverse offering, with The Clash adding in some Rock, pop, a little jazz, and a dose of their usual punk into their sound. Are they good at tackling these styles throughtout these 19 songs? Well, not totally. They are kind of clumsy when it comes to doing stuff like "Jimmy Jazz" (an OK song with some horrible singing), "Revolution Rock" (an uninspired boring song) and the beginning part of "Wrong 'Em Boyo", but for the most part everything works here. This album never really did anything for me a year ago, but I've listened to it again just now and it must have grown on me, because a lot of it is actually great.

"Hateful" and "Koka Kola" are short and great punky songs, "The Guns Of Brixton" is an excellent song with an eerie Reggae beat and vocals, and "The Right Profile" is a nice horn-filled jolly tune. All great songs. "Rudie Can't Fail", "I'm Not Down", "Clampdown", and the title track are other highlights on this consistent set. It only gets a little weaker at the end with songs like "The Card Cheat" which doesn't do anything at all. There is also the great "Train In Vain", which, for some reason isn't listed at all on the back of the CD case, but is one of the most memorable songs on here. After this successful and popular album, The Clash decided to go and do a triple set, to good and bad effect.

OVERALL RATING: 8

COMMENTS

(Samuel Fassbinder's review)

WHA?!?!?!? A 9?!?!?1 Come on! Easy ten! it''s one of the greatest albums ever! Seriously, I'll admit that the debut had a lot of filler around the end, but when people say that about this I just have no idea what the hell they're talking about. Card Cheat is one of the best songs here, and I love the coda to Lover's Rock. As far as I'm concerned, the only filler here is Koka Kola (never liked it), Four Horsemen (quite unspectacular), and Revolution Rock (too long). But that's three tracks. THREE! ON A FRIGGIN DOUBLE ALBUM! In my opinion, nobody but the Clash have been able to rise to such a high level of songwriting and sustain it for two LP's. Another problem with the debut is that it gets tired and monotonous around the end, on here, when the energy finally does run out, they trade in energy and aggression for pure pop hooks with Train In Vain. Call it a sellout if you will, I call it an excellent way to end the album, and one of The Clash's greatest song. Come on dude...raise it to a ten. Everybody needs this.

SANDINISTA! (1980)

(Nick Karn's review)

HIGH POINTS: The Magnificent Seven, Somebody Got Murdered, Washington Bullets, One More Time, Police On My Back, Something About England, Charlie Don't Surf, Broadway, The Sound Of Sinners, Rebel Waltz, Ivan Meets G.I. Joe. LOW POINTS: If Music Could Talk, Junkie Slip, Living In Fame, Look Here, Shepherds Delight.

So it seems that the ambition of London Calling didn't exhaust The Clash in the least, as they continued on their quest to be the most ambitious punk band album ever here. With Sandinista!, they just about hit their apex in creativity, taking in the environment and musical climate of the city, plus the political atmosphere, around them, and translating that to an incredibly diverse and also incredibly long triple album. And it's not exactly short for a triple album like London Calling was short for a double one either - there are 36 songs here, spanning close to two and a half hours of music. See why I've listed a huge amount of songs up there as high points and low points yet? Or why it wasn't the most critically or commercially successful of albums? But how to analyze this monster... I could take the Mike DeFabio 'good song, bad song, remix' approach, but I thought the best way to do this would be to separate my review into three parts, concentrating on each record:

The first 'album' (or the first 12 songs on disc one): This one is by far the most successful, in my mind anyways. It starts out as if it's going to be just as diverse as The White Album, as a ton of musical territory is covered here to be sure. For instance, there's soul-ish pop in the snappy "Hitsville, U.K." (featuring Mick Jones' girlfriend on vocals, I think), a couple neat reggae songs in "Junco Partner" (with violins thrown in there!) and the Paul Simonon-sung cover "The Crooked Beat", which does indeed have some interesting 'crooked' rhythm work. There's also a short diversion into rockabilly ("The Leader"), fast jazz (the irritating "Look Here", the only misfire on this portion of the album), and fast quirky horn/piano pop with space invader noises in the catchy as hell "Ivan Meets G.I. Joe", which has a Topper Headon lead vocal, and an even a comic book illustration in the liner notes!

That's just a glimpse of the diversity you get here, by the way, and those aren't even the best songs! Actually, if you want to know my personal pick for the best (out of all 36 songs, actually), it's easily the adrenalizing take on funk/rap, the opening "The Magnificent Seven". It has one of the most awesome basslines ever, and an absolute rush of a vocal delivery. Sure is fantastic, even if it doesn't give much of a hint of the varied stuff to come. I'm also quite partial to the Mick Jones-sung numbers on here, the simply glorious "Somebody Got Murdered", which might sound a bit happy for its' title despite the grim lyrics, but the melody and guitar riff are just awesome. He also does a great job on another anthemic song, the side one closer "Something About England", with a horn-filled introductory part, effective 'reminiscing' lyrics, and another wonderful melody.

There are also hints of the sprawl and quite spacey sound to come later in the atmospheric waltz called, appropriately enough, "Rebel Waltz" (with haunting guitar textures in there), and the desparate "One More Time", which is kind of a cross between reggae and piano pop, and it's got a great depressing melody ('one more time in the ghetto, one more time if you please...'). Of course, with its' extension piece immediately following, it's also responsible for foreshadowing the more, uh, pointless aspects of this album, but I actually don't really mind "One More Dub". Sure, it's filler, but it's actually enjoyable filler, since it adds atmospheric guitar over a pretty cool groove, so I treat it as almost a good second half jam. In all, I think this stretch is pretty much as great as London Calling, maybe a low 9 or somewhere around there, though I wouldn't get rid of all the rest, since there's more great stuff to come, and sprawl is important here!

The second 'album' (or the last six songs on disc one, first six on disc two): Okay, now the less impressive and/or pointless filler is starting to become more prominent, with a few unmemorable songs barely even worth mentioning. For one thing, I can hardly remember how "Corner Soul" and "Midnight Log" even go, and "If Music Could Talk" is just a worthless piece of atmospheric dub piano mush with a whole crapload of inaudible spoken word lyrics. Plus the first two songs on here seem like less impressive reworkings of "The Magnificent Seven" and "Somebody Got Murdered" ("Lightning Strikes" and "Up In Heaven", respectively). And there's a somewhat corny Latin-tinged (calypso?) song "Let's Go Crazy" that may be entertaining, though not anything special. BUT...

There are also several fabulous songs on here too, mostly contained on the second half (the classic on the first half, for me, is the very entertaining, catchy and echoey take on gospel "The Sound Of Sinners"). Particular standouts? The cover of Eddie Grant's "Police On My Back" (yes, the same guy who did "Electric Avenue") probably comes the closest to matching the hardest rocking moments on earlier Clash albums, with police siren style guitar and all around great energy. "Washington Bullets", with its' great xylophone (or marimba, whatever) hook, is probably the most powerful political centerpiece lyrically, and the atmospheric "Broadway" really captures the feeling of walking down the street at night with its' melody and slow-building music (at least until it ends with a brief snippet of some little kid singing "The Guns Of Brixton" over piano until he decides that 'I'm tired of singing' - funny stuff).

Oh, there's also two more overtly political songs in "The Equalizer" (which isn't as memorable, though it does have a good sparse bassline and some cool experimental guitar sounds) and the single on this part of the album, "The Call Up". I personally don't think this song stands out nearly as much as some say, but it's still a haunting bell-tinged epic against the armed forces and recruiting and such stuff like that. It's good. At this point, Sandinista! has really attained an interesting sprawl and mystique around it, though this listener (and probably many others) are starting to get tired. Though we're still riding on a good momentum, as I'd give this portion probably a 7.5 or so...

The third 'album' (or the last 12 songs on disc two): Well, at least this starts out promising. There's "Lose This Skin", a song where for some warped reason, The Clash found it necessary to have some guy named Ty Dogg write and sing. And it sounds hilarious, because this guy sounds like an even more exaggerated Geddy Lee (plus some of the lyrics actually sound Rush-like). This one's a huge guilty pleasure for the Rush fan in me, and the violins (not to mention the vocal melody) are quite catchy for such a joke song. And "Charlie Don't Surf" (about Charles Manson, I guess) is a fantastic attempt at Eastern-tinged atmosphere sung by Mick Jones, with a wonderfully hypnotizing, relaxing melody. Outside of that..... ehh.... there's a good Combat Rock-esque piano song in "Version City", where the 'radio show' concept takes even more hold, and even a children's choir version of "Career Opportunities", with harpsichord replacing the guitar! Ah, the biting irony of this sort of concept....

The rest, though, really has me thinking, "Is this thing almost over?" A lot of the actual songs here sound more like B-side quality afterthoughts (like "Kingston Advice") that aren't anything special (plus a couple of them are irritating crap, like the unbearably repetitive "Junkie Slip" and the melody deprived piano 'sounds' of "Shepherds Delight" - this closes the album???). Most curious, though, are the remixes - did they really think people would want to sit through this stuff after 2 hours of the album have already passed? Sure, a backwards version of "Something About England" may sound kinda neat, but do we really need another take on the crap of "If Music Could Talk"? Really, I don't know why they decided to make the last side here their take on the Beatles' Anthology series. Some sprawl this turned out to be, though it's more pointless than overly bad, so I'd probably rate the last two sides a 6 collectively.

So there you have it - a successful dissection of the the Sandinista! monster (sitting through it is another matter, though I actually have managed it four times nonetheless). The amount of ground and good ideas covered here are simply unbelievable (way more so than London Calling, actually), so much that I wouldn't ever want to reduce it to a single album - a double album is more like the idea I'd have, as a good amount of the sprawl should be preserved. Not a triple, though, as the filler here does do more harm than good to the potential rating. Speaking of my rating, when you average out my grades for the three parts here, it comes out to 7.5, but I knock it up a half point for overall ambition and the fact that you can turn it off before the last ten songs and not really miss anything. So 8 it is, and a well-deserved one. Unfortunately underrated by the general public.

OVERALL RATING: 8

Not as good as London Calling, but still good. The Sandinistas were members of a political party, the Federación Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN), which governed Nicaragua from 1979, when they overthrew the US-supported dictator Anastasio Somoza y Debayle, until 1990, when they lost the general election to a coalition government of owning-class political parties. The Sandinistas were "liberals" even though many of them were also Marxists -- the effort to nationalize the Nicaraguan economy only made it to 40% of the economy as a whole, about what the people of Israel experienced at that time. The 1990 election was decided because people were apparently tired of Sandinista political disunity and economic mistakes and of the destructive US-funded "Contra" war in Nicaragua, the upshot of which was (in this country, the US) the "Iran-Contra Scandal." Most of the defendants in that scandal are now in power in Dubya's regime, in DC. Today, Nicaragua is just another poor country, a victim of Hurricane Mitch a few years back. During the '80s I once romanticized it to the extent of wanting to visit; I made a fool of myself at the Nicaraguan Consulate sometime thereafter, and decided that I really wasn't up to it.

I used to listen to this album with a friend of mine while we drank sizeable quantities of Nicaraguan coffee, which some importers brought in via Canada at that time, in circumvention of the US embargo. Now, Nicaraguan coffee is dangerous stuff, I'd advise you to be careful with it. Its taste is super-mellow and its caffeine content is high. You will be fooled into thinking that a couple of cups of double-strength Nicaraguan is OK for your body. It isn't. Drink a quarter-cup, eat hardy. So much for that romanticism, as well.

At any rate, the Sandinistas were an object of liberal romanticism in the trilateral nations at the beginning of the 1980s for those reasons, which is what The Clash were trying to glorify by posing in leather jackets from the inside of a half-lit warehouse on the cover of Sandinista! As you might expect, disappointingly, the album itself has nothing of substance about Sandinistas, Nicaragua, or even of Latin American culture. Instead, it's an album of Clash-style rock and rockabilly a la London Calling, subsidized with enormous quantities of dub music.

The Clash, themselves, may have been romantics playing a different version of "liberal music," one characterized by macho posturing and blazing guitars rather than hippie compassion. Yet their audience during their short lifespan had a completely different idea of itself; the Clash discovered to their embarrassment that when they embarked upon a tour of the Southeast US, there were lots of adolescent boys waving Confederate flags at their concerts. The connection is clear and obvious: The Clash posed as "rebels," in the general sense of the word, and in the southeast US, being a "Rebel" has a distinctive cultural meaning. In sum, it's hard to say if the Right or the Left in the US was more energized by the Clash. It just goes to show that the "politics" of a band can have little to do with the politics of its audience.

Back in those days, Sandinista! was three vinyl discs; these days, it's 2 CDs. You can get the early version, which has a big box twice the size of a CD-box, or you can get the more recent version, which crams two CDs into a single box and has all the original artwork inside. Get the more recent version. Sandinista is part Old Clash, yet most of it is influenced by The Clash's hanging out with Jamaican immigrants. Previous reviews have doubtless warned you (you've read them, right?) about the enormous length of this album (disc one is 70:48, disc two is 73:54) and about the tedium of wading through all that music. But once you get past those warning labels, there's something of substance here, and this album is considerably more diverse than the critics are typically willing to admit.

The first disc sports some goofy songs like "The Magnificent Seven" and "Ivan Meets G. I. Joe," the Clash parodying its own political posturing by cartoonizing its cast of characters. Sometimes the music is good, like with "Hitsville U.K." and "One More Time." Or festively grim, like "Somebody Got Murdered." Some of this music is "tedious" because it is intended to give off an air of nothing doing, of an empty streetlit avenue at "six o'clock in the morning," as Strummer sings on "Broadway," on the second CD. The first CD is the spacier one, to be sure, though. There's a waltz and a song with an a cappella segment and a song with a ton of voice-overs and a parody of gospel music at the end, though it's not as funny as you might first think upon reading this sentence. Give it a 6 because most of it is tolerable. Remember, though, if you're going to listen to a whole disk of this stuff, you should have seventy minutes to spare.

The second CD rocks, especially at the beginning. "Police On My Back" is a rockabilly piece of outlaw chic. "The Equalizer," "The Call Up," and "Washington Bullets" all offer that form of entertainment that goes along with political posturing, against the boss, the armed forces, and the US. All three songs rock, both as music and as drama. They even know who Victor Jara was. "Lose This Skin" is more rockabilly outlaw chic. Later in the album there is the amusing "Living In Fame," and the reprise of "Career Opportunities" (the metal version is on the first Clash album), sung by a little kid, with harpsichord accompaniment. There's mediocre jazz toward the end of the second CD.

All in all, Sandinista! has a lot of the characteristics of London Calling, though the similarity ends when you consider the mellow dub atmosphere spread over portions of Sandinista!. There's a descent into pop, with the consequent neglect of metal/punk/rockabilly that that means. About the same amount of creative inspiration as London Calling, too, spread out over a record-length that was significantly longer, filling the empty spaces with whatever they had in the studio. Give this disc an 8 and average the two discs to a...

OVERALL RATING: 7

COMMENTS

I actually heard that "Charlie Don't Surf" was inspired by Apocalypse Now, not Charles Manson.

COMBAT ROCK (1982)

(Nick Karn's review)

HIGH POINTS: Rock The Casbah, Know Your Rights. LOW POINTS: Overpowered By Funk.

Not too surprisingly, Sandinista! wasn't the biggest commercial success, so the record company didn't want more double or triple album extravaganzas coming out of The Clash, but instead wanted more material that had actual single potential. But the band still wanted to let more of the bizarre side of themselves out (man, bands who have claimed to be influenced by The Clash obviously never explored their 80's work too thoroughly), and so they made a compromise of sorts. The first half of this album is a relatively normal take on elements that the band perfected on London Calling, with traces of punk, pop, new wave, and their reggae style in there, also containing the two huge hit sngles as well, but the second half goes all out into odd experimental shit that takes a couple listens to understand exactly what they're going for. Also curious is the title of this album - a good amount of it is very political, sure, but Combat Rock? Like Mark Prindle rightly pointed out, there's only like two or three rock songs on this one!

One of which is the opener "Know Your Rights", which actually attains an amazing power for such a basic song. And I do mean basic - it's built on the slamming of one guitar chord, kind of trite-sounding spoken word political lyrics, and only occasional embellishments like piano and surf guitar riffs. I don't know how, but it's a great catchy adrenaline rush in spite of itself. 'This is a public service announcement... with guitars!' Heh. Or how about the almost as simplistic hit "Should I Stay Or Should I Go?", sung by Mick Jones, with a repetitive riff that probably took about a couple minutes to come up with (much like the to-the-point lyrics), but it sticks in your head, man. Really. The rest of the side isn't exactly The Clash in minimalist anger, though - there's also the bouncy and almost R&B styled, yet not upbeat, drug tune "Car Jamming", after all, and something like that could have never fit on the debut.

The absolute classic on here, though, is also the well-known smash "Rock The Casbah", a New Wave-styled, slightly dancey, piano pop song that has to be one of the coolest singles of the 80's, and certainly one of the band's greatest songs ever. What a fantastic groove and singalong-ish hook ('Shareeef don't like it... rock the casbah...')! Of course, it's at that point where The Clash somewhat get off the rock songwriting bus for the most part, starting with the mainly spoken word number with Paul Simonon vocals in "Red Angel Dragnet" (except for the 'who got shot toniiiiight' sung chorus) and the very spare-sounding anti-war ballad "Straight To Hell", which really gains a fine longing atmosphere and some really majestic background embellishments (synth parts? odd guitar effects?) that appear throughout. It's actually a minor highlight on here, as its' passionate lyrics and vocal job come through rather nicely. So far, so good.

However, we've still got the second half to deal with, just to remind you that this band really had a huge desire to continue on with their experimentation. It's usually either praised by people who have a huge respect for bizarre creativity, or outright bashed as an inconsistent mess, though personally I fall somewhere in between. The diversity and odd approaches here are interesting, no question about that, but some of it just doesn't work. Especially the side opening "Overpowered By Funk" - I can't stand that repetitive groove and hook that repeats itself for almost 5 minutes, not to mention a rap at the end and an awful synth part that just won't shut itself up. Plus, "Ghetto Defendant" has an interesting moody atmosphere and spoken cameo from Allen Ginsberg, though that dumb riff sounds straight off of a tape you'd use to tune a guitar with or something, and the lethargic feel and lack of melody on here wears thin after awhile.

Elsewhere on this assorted grab bag of a side, there are a couple songs resembling normal rockers in "Inoculated City" and "Atom Tan", which vaguely remind me of stuff buried deep on Sandinista's third album (particularly the former), though the worldbeat groove of "Sean Flynn" is anything but conventional, and it's also my favorite song on this half - the unassuming, lazy atmosphere, relaxing vocal melody, xylophone embellishments and jazzy saxophones make it quite good, if a bit repetitive. As for "Death Is A Star", though, this must be the most unlikely closing track you will ever hear on an album by a band labeled as 'punk' - it's like, a slow and peaceful showtune or something (it's also got a very relaxing nighttime mood to it)! Now, I don't know about you, but that's a long friggin' way from, say, "Hate And War". And to think, this album has been labeled as a sell out by some people. Huh. I can't really give it more than a solid 7, though, as for all this album's creativity, only a couple songs really blow me away like the earlier stuff, and most of it's just average 'good' quality Clash. A solid swan song, though, or at least a solid should have been swan song.

OVERALL RATING: 7

In the postpunk world came this album, which has a bunch of nice pop/rock songs full of biting lyrics and great rhythms. "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" and "Rock The Casbah" are the two hits on here, and they are also the best songs. "Know Your Rights" is a great song that deals with murder and society, and "Car Jamming" is a midtempo song about drugs, are also good. This album overall has a neat mixture of pop, reggae, new wave, and rock. This mix works well on songs like "Ghetto Defendant" which has a spoken word intro and an awesome atmosphere to it (interesting drums and a good tune too). Some songs don't work too well though like "Atom Tan" and "Sean Flynn", but still, they aren't too bad either. The last song is a British pop song done in a thematic way unlike the rest of this release, it's a nice low key melodic song. I never really got into this album, but it is a decent one (probably their last good record too).

OVERALL RATING: 7

CUT THE CRAP (1985)

(reviewed by Nick Karn)

HIGH POINTS: This Is England. LOW POINTS: Fingerpoppin', Are You Red...y?, Dictator, We Are The Clash, Play To Win, Life Is Wild, North And South, Movers And Shakers.

It's only natural that after a string of albums with as much incredible creativity as London Calling, Sandinista! and Combat Rock that there would be some differences between The Clash's leaders in what their future musical direction should be. I guess Joe Strummer wanted to get back to the band's 'punk' roots, and Mick Jones, well, didn't, so Strummer and Paul Simonon told him, "GOODBYE!!!" Of course, the idea of The Clash without Mick Jones strikes me as the equivalent of The Beatles without either Lennon or McCartney, or any other band where two songwriting partners are equally essential in the sound of the group, but apparently that didn't matter! The band continued on anyway, hiring two new completely anonymous guitarists and recorded a new album with Bernie Rhodes as producer (who apparently had much more to do with the general sound of the album than anyone else) that turns out to be about the most offensive kick in the face to Clash fans imaginable.

However, I don't hate this album just because they're regressing back to their minimalistic punk roots (after all, their debut, their simplest record, remains a classic and my personal favorite), or that 'Jonesy' isn't there. I hate it because it's horrible on so many levels. Hmm... what would be the most inappropriate things for a 'producer' to add to a simple punk rock background? I know - how about awful, instantly dated keyboard parts (the mind bogglingly stupid nadirs in the melodyless funk of "Fingerpoppin'" and the horrid cross between dance pop and hard rock that is the horrendously titled "Are You Red..y" come to mind immediately), walls of incredibly distracting crowd-chanting (the ultimate hilariously awful and misguided singalong "We Are The Clash", which must have caused tons of fans in 1985 to head straight for their toilets, even if it is actually kind of catchy in a laughable way), and loads of pointlessly cluttered sound effects (stupid video game noises and 'spoken word' parts bury the already melodyless "Play To Win" and especially "Dictator", which has a whole crapload of unnecessary embellishments, from samples to synth-horns, that effectively drown out any minimal potential).

God, most of these songs either range from nauseatingly bad (i.e. most of what I've just mentioned) to extremely boring and unmelodic (the 'emotional' electric piano ballad "North And South" and the throwaway ska of "Three Card Trick"). There are a few halfway decent things to dig out that do pull the rating up from a 1, but even those mostly aren't worth listening to at all. Well, the swaying synth-led ballad "This Is England" is a good song(!), with a nicely memorable chorus and the only noticeable emotion on the album coming from Strummer's lyrics and vocals, but it's the only one that rises above even barely mediocre, and I probably would barely even notice it on any of their other, you know, listenable albums. I guess "Dirty Punk" and "Cool Under Heat" are tolerable, but they're also generic as hell riff rockers nobody needs to hear again. I'm guessing Strummer and the gang didn't even have much to do with this album, judging by accounts of what Rhodes did to this stuff - I guess somebody forgot to actually cut any of the crap from this record. Final verdict? Really good farewell albu--- ehh, more like one of the worst piles of shit to come out of a respectable 60's/70's classic rock band that's somehow still in print. Wow.

OVERALL RATING: 2

COMMENTS

Can't argue at all with you review, but, the sad thing is I saw the post MICK Clash and they kicked ass live despite the "two new completely anonymous guitarists." The new songs, later to be found on CTC, sounded pretty damn good. When the album came out I couldn't believe what had been done to those songs. What was worse was the fact that many of the best new songs that I had heard live weren't even on the album! There is a song they were performing live called In The Pouring Rain which is the greatest Clash song nobody ever heard of. I encourage anybody who loves the Clash to check out the Give 'Em Enough Dope bootleg which has plenty of live versions of many of the songs found on CTC plus some good songs no one has heard of.

HA HA HA! VERY FUNNY MOTHERFUCKER! AVRIL LATRINE! WILL DANCE THE SHITTY DANCE GROOVES ON THIS RECORD! IN HER SWEET SEXY UNDERWEAR! OH BABY GIMME SOME PUSSY! HEY! DO YOU MIND! IN 1986 PUNK WAS DYING! AND THIS ALBUM PULLS THE PLUG! PLAY TO WIN DICTATOR! PLAY TO WIN! AND THE WORST OF THE LOT IS WE ARE THE CLASH! AY AY AY AY AY AY AY AY!

SUPER BLACK MARKET CLASH (1994)

(reviewed by Nick Karn)

HIGH POINTS: Groovy Times, Pressure Drop. LOW POINTS: Justice Tonight / Kick It Over and those damn remixes.

The Clash had quite a few B-sides and unreleased tracks lying around that were never actually released in America, and this career-spanning compilation wisely gathers them all up into one 77 minute disc, greatly expanding on 1980's Black Market Clash EP. It's at least interesting from a couple perspectives - to witness how they progressed from punchy and energetic on The Clash to becoming friggin' weirdos on Combat Rock, and for the listeners to experience a few hidden gems not on the studio albums. Unfortunately, Super Black Market Clash doesn't really seem like revelatory Clash product for me - nearly all the interesting and worthwhile material is thrown on the first half, and I don't even find a lot of that stuff as great as fans make it out to be, while the second half largely makes me feel like I'm listening to a fourth album of Sandinista!, only worse, with loads of pointless remixes, dub-styled tracks and B-side quality songs that actually are B-sides. Well, at least this time they have an excuse.

Still, the first half is at least good. The early stuff is a bit more samey than even The Clash was, but I like the "London's Burning"-styled opener "1977" a good bit, a convincing 1:41 anthem of punchy rebellion, "The Prisoner" and "The City Of The Dead" are fine rockers with tight rhythm playing and fairly catchy hooks (though it's difficult to find much else to say about them), and "Listen" is actually instrumental punk of all things, with a simple, but memorable, melodic theme and entertaining guitar interplay. We have "Jail Guitar Doors" even making an appearance. More notably, though, is their famous cover of the reggae classic "Pressure Drop", which brings a touch of heaviness to its' already hypnotizing groove power (love that bassline and those piano tinklings, and the Strummer/Jones vocals have always sounded perfect for these type of songs). Not great stuff, these tracks, but definitely entertaining.

I also must mention the excellent acoustic/electric/harmonica pop song "Groovy Times", probably one of the most melodic and uplifting nostalgic songs they ever wrote. If I were in charge, I'd have thrown it onto Give 'Em Enough Rope to replace one of the crappy songs on there, like, say, "Guns On The Roof", but I'm in no position to question an actual professional band's judgement, so I'll shut up. "1-2 Crush On You" is a neat song, too, a 50's rock tune that would sound almost out-of-character for them (with that 'ahhhh-ahhhhh' opening) were it not for the fact that the next few albums proved nothing is out-of-character when it comes to The Clash. Finally, there's more solid rock in "Gates Of The West" and "Capital Radio Two", neither of which rank close to the band's best, but they're not bad either. And rounding out half #1, there's another one of them instrumentals in the Booker T & The MG's surf rock cover "Time Is Tight", a quite captivating, laid-back venture.

Unfortunately, that's less than half this package, and the other half isn't exactly promising. Especially the Sandinista! 'outtakes' portion, which on the contrary, drags - "Justice Tonight / Kick It Over" is an incredibly boring groove that has the nerve to torture me with nothing but a repetitive bassline, a melodyless vocal hook and percussive effects for nine minutes, and there's also those remixes. I guess dance club takes of "The Call Up", "The Magnificent Seven" and "Rock The Casbah" are enjoyable to dance or sing karaoke to, but what casual listener could possibly need them? "Robber Dub" (a dub version of another non-album track "Bankrobber") is better if only because the repetitive bassline and neat effects are more hooky, and it's not merely a pointless remix or a classic or anywhere close to nine minutes long. "Stop The World", meanwhile, takes echoey production to the extreme in a short political pop song length, which is at least curious.

At least the Combat Rock-era B-sides (save for that disposable "Rock The Casbah" remix thing) are interesting, if only for their ideas than their actual quality. The single "This Is Radio Clash" reminds me a bit too much of Cut The Crap for comfort, what with its' cluttered sound effects and funky rhythm, but it's at least much catchier and listenable than anything on that album. "First Night Back In London" uses a weird clattering rhythm achieved by experimenting with a mobile studio, "Long Time Jerk" is a mildly amusing groove piece, and "Cool Confusion" has to be one of the most bizarre reggae songs ever put to tape, but they're just mere oddities in a sea of mediocrity that forces me to drop the rating a point from its' solid 7. I dunno - maybe I'm expecting a bit too much out of a friggin' B-sides album. Not a bad purchase if you see it cheap, but beware of the black hole of pointlessness that is a good half of this album.

OVERALL RATING: 6

COMMENTS

the clash are good punks. super black market clash has all remixes but i like the punk cuts like 1977 and this is radio clash . this is the only band that matters! the clash are like the CNN of punk!!!!!!!!!!!!! chicago 1982! the clash in the allstate arena!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes they have b side remixes from the debut to sandinista! they range from punk, to pop , to reggae, ranging from racism homelessness illeagal adoption to record prices! viva joe strummer!

THE ESSENTIAL CLASH (2003)

(reviewed by John Schlegel)

HIGH POINTS: disc one - Janie Jones, Career Opportunities, (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais, White Riot, Clash City Rockers, I Fought The Law, Police And Thieves, Julie's Been Working For The Drug Squad, Groovy Times; disc two - London Calling, Rock The Casbah, The Guns Of Brixton, Ivan Meets G.I. Joe, Rudie Can't Fail, Should I Stay Or Should I Go, Train In Vain, The Magnificent Seven. LOW POINTS: disc one - Garageland, English Civil War; disc two - Bankrobber, Straight To Hell.

An exhaustive, two-disc, forty-song volume, The Essential Clash spans the career of one of the most influential punk rock bands, following their maturity from ragged garage rockers to prolific innovators of pop music. The CDs garner highlights from each of their albums, plus five non-album songs, most of which I believe were singles. Naturally, for a band as diverse, high-quality and influential as The Clash, it's impossible for any two-CD set to be completely definitive. But this collection seems to display the mood of each album rather well, and it does a fine job at gathering most of the band's best material, considering that two CDs isn't enough space. To top all that off, it's just a lot of fun to listen to.

Disc One covers the early, rock n' roll period, as heard on the self-titled debut and Give 'Em Enough Rope. On its own, this disc is very substantial, and adequately proves that The Clash is truly one of the greatest albums ever recorded - no less than twelve of the fifteen songs on the US version of that album appear on The Essential Clash. "Remote Control" is omitted, which is odd, considering that most fans speak so highly of it. But most of these selections are first-rate. It may seem ridiculous, but "Janie Jones" could very well be my favorite Clash song, because it displays the band's raw energy so spotlessly. As straight-forward as it is, it's just about the catchiest thing I've ever heard when the band rails, "He's in love with rock n' roll world/He's in love with getting stoned world/He's in love with Janie Jones world/He don't like his boring job, NO!" But then, the song shifts into those fantastic verses, with that great, descending riff after the vocal - it's subtle musical phrases like these that make so many of these early, "simple" songs more engaging than your ordinary punk rock. "White Riot" is another fine example of the band's head-on, chanted aggression, and "Career Opportunities" and "Clash City Rockers" are top-notch, rip-roaring anthems. "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais" is a superb venture into reggae (especially for its time), with impressive dynamic shifts and cool bass playing; the reggae cover of "Police And Thieves" also grooves wonderfully. And let's not forget that cover of "I Fought The Law," which sounds so much naughtier than the original, converting an average tune into a great rock n' roll song. Other standouts representing the debut include "London's Burning," "Complete Control" and "I'm So Bored With The U.S.A."

The rest of Disc One is pretty good too, but not up to the standard of most of the songs I've mentioned thus far. "Hate & War" and "Cheat" are decent; the latter is worthy of mention because it's exclusive to the UK version of The Clash, and it's distinguished by the opening lines, "I get violent when I'm fucked up/I get silent when I'm drunked up." I don't like "Garageland," which sounds bombastic and stupid to me. "Capital One Radio" is average, and some non-LP single from this era. Moving on now to Give 'Em Enough Rope, the overall quality of Disc One takes a noticeable step down here. Most of these selections are good, but they don't match the highlights of the first album. More standard pop, less inventive punk. The bouncy boogie "Julie's Been Working For The Drug Squad" is my favorite of these; "Safe European Home" is no doubt a driving, melodic rocker, and "Stay Free" is pretty (if not much else). "Tommy Gun" is energetic, although a little generic. "English Civil War" is just bad, sounding like a corny retread of that "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" song, or something. By contrast, "Groovy Times" is a lovely pop song with hesitant verses and a smooth, mid-tempo chorus, but it didn't appear on any LP.

On Disc Two, we begin with London Calling, and some serious artistic progression. The great musical diversity of this double album is well-showcased here, with everything from groovy hard rock ("Clampdown") to beautiful ballads ("Lost In The Supermarket") to perky ska ("Rudie Can't Fail") to throwaway boogies ("Jimmy Jazz," which, despite the title of this set, I would deem "inessential," heh, heh, heh, heh). The darkly shuffling title track is a major standout of course, as is that grinding, robotic reggae tune, "The Guns Of Brixton." The horn-spiked New Wave hit "Train In Vain" was an appropriate selection as well. None of the grandiose epics from this album, notably "The Card Cheat," are present, and that's probably just as well, although I do like the aforementioned song. London Calling is a vital recording that's well worth owning for its own merits, but many of its best songs are captured on here (missing in action: "Brand New Cadillac," "Spanish Bombs").

From what I know about the follow-up, the triple album Sandinista!, it's not as well-represented. (For the record, what I know about Sandinista! is that it's a tiring, sprawling triple album, and that it supposedly contains every musical style that the band could cram into it.) Songs like "The Magnificent Seven" and especially "Ivan Meets G.I. Joe" certainly display further growth as musicians - these are extraordinary, mesmerizing dance grooves with tastefully rapped vocals and cool musical overdubs. On the other hand, "Police On My Back" is more hard rock that is less captivating than "Clampdown," and "Somebody Got Murdered" (socially conscious lyrics aside) is a similarly logical dropoff from "Lost In The Supermarket." These, and "The Street Parade," are all you get from Sandinista! But three more non-album tracks are thrown in the mix for good measure. "Bankrobber" is a lazy, goth-influenced piece with the humorous lines: "Her daddy was a bankrobber/But he never hurt nobody/He just loved to live that way/And he loved to steal your money." Too bad it has nothing else good to offer. This song irritates me. "Stop The World" is a somewhat bouncing, somewhat airy ballad that is pleasant but forgettable. "This Is Radio Clash" is a dance tune in the vein of "Magnificent"/"G.I. Joe," and it's not bad.

Then, as the theme song for Gilligan's Island would describe a human being with poor marketability, there's "the rest." You get the two major hits from Combat Rock, the infectious piano pop song "Rock The Casbah" and the pounding "Should I Stay Or Should I Go." Yes, indeed, both of these are definitely essential. "Ghetto Defendant" is this intriguing, partially spoken-word electronica song that, I guess, displays the "avant-garde" nature of Combat Rock. I do like it quite a bit better than "Straight To Hell, which has harrowing anti-war lyrics that reference Vietnam, granted, but is just this plodding atmosphere song that goes nowhere musically. "This Is England" is, predictably, the only song featured from Cut The Crap - it's a very average synth-pop thing, and, if it's the best song from that album, then I can see why so many consider it one of the worst records ever made. To summarize, while I have my gripes, The Essential Clash is still excellent for a double-disc compilation, since it overviews the career of The Clash in such an entertaining manner. If you're only going to make one purchase for this band, and you want to hear their output beyond the astounding debut, then this volume is well worth its sticker price.

OVERALL RATING: 8