album #61

london calling (the clash)

I can recognize this album's significance, and I can appreciate it… I'm not in love with this record but there are a lot of parts of it that I really like. London Calling is famous for its integration of a lot of different musical genres- some reggae, some ska, some punk rock, some rockabilly- however, I really dislike many of those genres. Also I'd say that this is the sort of album that, even my favorites started to wear thin after a while. There's indisputably a freshness and an energy to their sound, and this is very appealing- as one critic wrote, it could come out this year and still sound relevant. The album was a little too long for me, and though every song has its moments, there's definitely many that I would have trimmed to make a more listenable record (although the expansiveness and the variety probably makes it stronger as an album).

Some favorites- "London Calling" of course is a classic, I love the heavy, dark energy in this song (even though I find the darkish, barking vocals a little annoying at points); "Lost in the Supermarket" is a lovely, uptempo, melancholy melody with lyrics that I found pretty interesting and followable. "I'm Not Down" has a great energy. The fuzzy, echoing bigness of "The Card Cheat" is pretty lovely and exciting, it certainly sounds like an influence on The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. I enjoy the dark strangeness of "The Guns of Brixton." "The Right Profile" uses strong guitars and brass in a way that I really like- I'm a sucker for brass in rock music. And "Train in Vain" is a masterpiece- beautiful, energetic melody, forceful brass, great lyrics. Probably my favorite overall track, and a fantastic closing number.

Many of the other songs are great and listenable, many others are not. It's the sort of record that makes for good listening, although I don't think I will eagerly seek it out. But there's a lot happening on this album that I can recognize in other bands I've heard this year, other bands I expect to hear this year. It's definitely a good reference point for when I'm listening to more new music this year. Overall I can certainly like a lot of this but it isn't perfectly in line with my tastes.