Search - Clash :: London Calling

(4.5 stars) Overrated, but just a little

finulanu | Here, there, and everywhere | 10/05/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"God, I hope I never posted my older review of this album on here amazon.com or anything. It sucks! See, here's how it goes. I write a few sentences on-topic, then I'm off yelling at the general critical establishment for overrating it, then I abruptly switch to talking about Columbian drug lords. Next thing you know, I'm on a completely new tangent about how bad Foreigner is. I'm only spending half the time talking about the music, too.

Such a travesty will not occur during this review, though. I do think that, while it's definitely the Clash's second-best album, and while it's packed with important hits, and that there's only one bad song on it ("The Card Cheat", which is totally overblown), that it's a bit overrated. I mean, I've seen so much praise for it, and I don't quite agree with it.

But it's good! Really, really good! The reggae stuff is especially fantastic: "Wrong 'em Boyo" is a bouncy good time; "The Guns of Brixton" is a druggy, ominous protest; "Revolution Rock" has an exceptional horn part; and "Rudie Can't Fail" is probably the most fun you'll have on this album. Reggae even creeps into the title track's time-bomb syncopation. But there's more than just reggae. This is one diverse album, you see! There' s jazz ("Jimmy Jazz"). There's rock (title track ; "Clampdown", my favorite besides "Guns of Brixton"; "Spanish Bombs", "Death or Glory"; "Four Horsemen"; "I'm Not Down"). There's disco ("Lost in the Supermarket", yet another in a long line of fantastic songs). There's pure pop ("Train in Vain (Stand By Me)", a deserved breakthrough single). There's rockabilly ("Brand New Cadillac") And then there's some of the stuff you really can't pin down: "Hateful", "The Right Profile", "Lover's Rock", "Koka Kola".

It would be insane to discuss all these songs in detail, since there's nineteen of them (Ironically, I think I went into some detail about every song on my review of the triple-album Sandinista!), but let me go over some favorites: the famous apocalyptic title track; "Jimmy Jazz", because it's so weird and unpredictable; "Spanish Bombs", with a great melody and some lame Spanglish; "Lost in the Supermarket", containing some of the most poignant lyrics ever; "Clampdown", containing some of the most vicious anti-fascist lyrics ever; "Death or Glory", which actually lashes out at the very same punk movement the Clash themselves had helped establish; "Train in Vain", proving that the Clash could write a good pop song, and everything that's even remotely connected to reggae. And "Four Horsemen" too, I guess, although it does sound a bit too arena-rockish to me. It's good arena-rock, though, and that's a very rare thing.

So does this live up to the hype? I don't think so, but that's not the fault of the album. It's the fault of the hype. I also think it's cool how this pressing is a two-disc version rather than a one-disc version. I don't know why, but I do."