So which is the best Clash album?
Time to discount the ones that will not make the cut because even the second best band in the history of rock n roll made some god awful tunes along the way: -
Sandinista has some of my favourite Clash tunes on it, such as, Junco Partner, Something About England and the wonderful, The Sound of The Sinners. However too many of the 36 tracks are not, in fact, any good.
Cut the Crap. Hmmmm. Well, what can you say?
So, out of the first three albums and the comeback kid, Combat Rock, which one is my favourite? Such a hard, hard choice. If we simply assess them on tracks that you tend not to skip out of total number of tracks on the album then you get the following: -
- The Clash 9/14
- Give ‘Em Enough Rope 8/10
- London Calling 14/29
- Combat Rock 6/12
Okay, Combat Rock obviously falls away here even though I love the look of the boys on the front cover. Shot in Thailand too, which wins it brownie points because Thailand is just plain cool. It also has a higher percentage of non-skippers than London Calling, which is surprising, as that album is considered by most to be their best. In fact it was named album of its decade in America. The problem Combat Rock has is that most of the non-skippers I tend not to play at all, whereas with London Calling it still has great choooooones amongst the other tracks.
So we are left with the final three: -
One thing I will point out here is you might be wondering how I can like a band so very, very much when their album scores are, in the main, not as high as some other bands I like. Well, dear student, because liking a band is more than just the material that they release. It’s the look, the feel, the passion, the realness, the soul, the place, the time, the meanings, the everything of all their cells put together that amounted to….The Clash. Listen to them live, look at their photographs, read the lyrics, have a cup of tea. They quite simply had it all and even today there is not a band quite like them.
Anyway, back to the lecture (?) people. Time is getting on and I want buttered scones for tea. And some pink champagne (cheers Joe!). So before me I have laid out the three remaining cd’s. Now which one of them has the real killer tracks? Those tracks that just get the goodness inside you pumping or your righteous anger to fly like spittle across a packed barroom during a venomous diatribe, railing against the world and all it’s injustices?
So London Calling wins, right? Well, maybe. Let’s hold our horses, so the four horsemen can take a sip of their sun-ripened grapes. The first two albums “get me going” more than London Calling. They have the youthful energy and passion that first attracted me to the band. London Calling on the other hand is a more musical beast. Layered and certainly more in–depth.
So, which to choose? And it will be a choice. I don’t think I can analyze a “best” album out of them, as they are all wonderful and deserve their place on your IPod (god forbid!) or turntable or dvd player when you should really be concentrating on playing poker and not singing loudly enough to make your cat give you “one of them looks”.
So, for the third so to open a paragraph in a row, my favourite Clash album of all time is…….Give ‘Em Enough Rope…or London Calling…..or The Clash. Sigh! It’s hard you know. I’m supposed to be cooking my tea not waffling on here. Okay, top three in today’s order of merit for I know they will all change tomorrow is: -
- Give ‘Em Enough Rope
- London Calling
- The Clash
