You've got all the trademarks of The Clash, from rocking two-minute anthems to catchy reggae. They even get politicial, though at this point, it's mostly mindless fury instead of the focused, sexy liberal bastards we knew them as by the end. So many tracks on this album are essential, and the harmony between the two vocalists, Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, is at its best. How many of these tracks have you probably heard of if you're into punk? "Clash City Rockers," "I'm So Bored With The USA," "Complete Control," "White Riot," "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais," "London's Burning," "I Fought The Law," "Janie Jones," "Career Opportunities?" When 9 of 15 tracks are well-known within a genre, you know the album is essential. So c'mon, go out and buy it already. It's better than that shoddy nu-metal band you were thinking of.
The problem is though, it just seems like a link between two albums in the big picture. I mean, perhaps I would have liked it better had I heard it before London Calling, but as it stands, it doesn't seem to hold up to the two albums before and after it.
The first track "Safe European Home," about their experiences recording in the Caribbean, is not bad, and neither is "Tommy Gun" or "Last Gang In Town," but it just seems to be missing something, like they're trying not to seem experimental. The last track, "All The Young Punks (New Boots and Contracts)" is pure awesomeness, though. Anyway, not a bad album, but they could do better. And they were about to.
The CD opens the jaw-dropping rock track "London Calling," and immediately sets the stage for your ass to be kicked. From there, you will be sent on a magical trip around every kind of musical genre, from rock to punk to pop to reggae to ska to classical pop. And every possible venture retains that essential little bit reminding you that this is The Clash, not The Clash covering a whole bunch of other musical styles.
They're even getting into their catchy political style, writing songs about the Spanish civil war, police brutality, and the harsh workplace. And just to confuse you, we've also got songs about such bizarre topics as Montgomery Clift, gambling, and the stock market. Joe sings! Mick sings! Even Paul sings! This is one CD you can listen to no matter what kind of music you're in the mood to hear. What was originally side A on vinyl is all rock and punk songs, and what was originally side B is smoother pop songs. Yet it's somehow all done right. It doesn't sound bland, inconsistent, or thrown together - it sounds like they knew exactly what they were doing. And it is amazing.
When you finish this CD, you'll need a cigarette, and I don't even smoke. If you don't own this CD, you are a fool. I know I already told you to buy the self-titled one, but screw that. Buy both.
Anyway, that's not to say this is a bad CD! It's just easy to be dragged down by all the crappy tracks. Once you deduce what's good and what's not, this CD is probably the greatest reggae The Clash ever put out. They practically invented crazy punk experimentation with this CD. I mean, today you've got your psycho prog rock, but back in the day, punk was expected to be straight forward, and if it deviated from the formula in the slightest way, everyone cried "Sellout!" With that said, though, most of this stuff is quite useless and boring. I wish they'd cut all the filler out and left us with the actual songs.
Anyway, since everyone who actually managed to make their way through this thing has drastically different favourite tracks, I'm going to waste your time naming mine. Personally, I'm a fan of "The Magnificent Seven," "Ivan Meets G.I. Joe," "Washington Bullets," and "Charlie Don't Surf." And there you go.
This album defines "hit or miss." Every track is either amazing, or one of the worst songs you've ever heard. The first four tracks are good; you've got a bit of rock, a bit of reggae, and their popular hit tracks, "Rock the Casbah" and "Should I Stay Or Should I Go." There's also the melancholy, if a bit overproduced, "Straight To Hell," about the plight of Amer-Asians in Vietnam.
But after that track, it all goes downhill into a sea of forgettable synthesizer pop. "Ghetto Defendant" is one of the few later tracks that's not bad, but it's dragged down by the mediocre tracks that surround it. It's too bad The Clash's last real album, which contains their most popular tracks, had to be so shoddy.
The songwriting is horrible, and it's nothing but endless, off-key synthesizers that drown out all the lyrics. And the chorus? They sound like they're being sung by two-dozen drunken men at a bar, in an attempt to make them "sing-a-long." It's impossible to describe how mind-numbingly horrible this album is until you actually hear it. This is a disgrace to the name of The Clash, and I bet the English torture prisoners of war with it. It gets one thumb up for the song "This Is England," which is slightly better than the rest of the album. But that's like saying getting gouged through the lip with a nail is slightly better than getting gouged through the eye with a nail.
There's way too much useless reggae dub stuff mixed in with actual good songs, just like on Sandinista! Of course, this album is a lot shorter, so you don't get as overwhelmed with it. And you can usually deduce from the title whether it's a remix of another song or not.
Their earlier songs, like "1977," "City Of The Dead," and "Capital Radio" are by far the strongest on the album, but it's a good summary of everything The Clash were. You move your way through all their incarnations, from punk all the way to crazy pop. Of course, it doesn't change the fact that this is essentially a collection of songs not good enough to go on their albums, so it isn't exactly the greatest Clash compilation ever. But for someone who's already a fan, it isn't that bad.
The production is amazing. It sounds good, not overdubbed or like a shoddy bootleg. You can hear both the instruments and the vocals - even the backing vocals! From the opening guitar solo on "Complete Control," this is a near-perfectly recorded live album. The Combat Rock tracks sound way better than they do on the actual album, as they aren't blatantly overproduced. If you can only own one live album, this is it.
And of course, a handy breakdown, just in case you actually care: 7 from the self-titled, (?!) 3 from London Calling, 1 from Sandinista!, 3 from Combat Rock, and 3 from Super Black Market Clash. This sets the precedent for all live albums, kids. Worship it.