The Clash - London Calling -1979

Somebody must have complained about Give 'Em Enough Rope, 'cause this sounds like a completely different band!! No more a one-dimensional barre chord combo, The Clash here present themselves as a fully-realized (and incredibly well-produced) rock/pop/reggae/funk/soul/jazz/blues/punk/lounge act with more great melodies than J.D.'s got Considine! Nineteen tracks and two albums big, this thing is darn near perfect in composition and presentation! Cereal! Rolling Stone Magazine labeled it "the finest album of the '80s," and, for once, they're actually in the right ballpark! I can't help but exclaim! Who'da dreamt that the washed-up old men that tossed out that last clunker could have transformed into this gang of tight professional musicians? Si, senor!

Okay, superlatives aside, what does the album sound like? Well, it's reeeeeal poppy. The title track and "The Guns Of Brixton" are bitter little things, but the other seventeen numbers are happier than wallpaper. Every last one of 'em! Whether they be '50s rock and roll, swing, clompy amphetamine rushes, or "Train In Vain," they're all so bubbly and full of spirit, verve, and glee that only a bitter old snooty toot could flip them an Irish bird. I love this album. Yeah, some of the songs have stupid little bits that I could do without (the hokey middle-eight in "I'm Not Down," the ugly chorus in the otherwise beautiful "Lost In The Supermarket," the entire track "Four Horsemen"), but spread across eighty minutes of tar, you hardly even notice the minor shortcomings! No, it's not punk rock, but it's just glorious. It's got this great song about snorting coke, and another one about Montgomery Clift, and ooh! That one about "working for the clampdown" with that neat chiming guitar thing at the end - that's killer, too. So great. "The Card Cheat" is a triumph. Goddammit, they're all triumphs! You can't even tell which ones are the covers, they're so great! Purchase it!

But, and I mean this as a valid warning - you gotta like happy pop music or you'll despise this record. Of course, you also have to like Joe Strummer's voice, which immediately eliminates about 9/10ths of all happy pop music fans, but those remaining 15 or 20 of you - look out, Tokyo!!!!