I hadn't heard this album and I didn't know anything about this band, and I already had the image of this album cover burned into my head from it being in so many major publications that have incessantly sung its praises. The title track alone really is a masterpiece and the album as a whole is really good, but it is not as great as many try to make it out to be. One thing that I can really praise this album for are the consistently outstanding lyrics and songwriting, which is really why I give this album the extra half a star. They have a lot to say, their world view is pretty clear, and their anti-establishment sentiments have a lot of substance behind them. The lyrics are consistently thoughtful and clever, and the songs are well-written all throughout. The only problem is that they are usually delivered with pouty marble-mouthed vocals. It seems as though this may have been part of the general punk aesthetic, which seems to have grown largely out of what was essentially a backlash against what they saw as things that were neat, pretty and pro-establishment. It seems as though they wanted to sound as anti-harmony as possible. This also probably helps to explain the line in the outstanding title track about how "phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust". The main problem with this CD is that it is loooonnnngggg. I find the length of this album somewhat trying even though it only clocks in at around 65 minutes. The band stretches themselves thin, taking on many different styles. Their ambition is admirable but ultimately works against them because they succeed at almost all of those styles without really excelling at any outside of the pure punk-ish (the title track, Hateful). But still, even with that being said, there is just no denying the substantial nature of most of the material here (`Wrong `em Boyo', `Lover's Rock' and `Revolution Rock' not included :-). Most of the pseudo-ska and reggae is pretty good but it still sounds like...pseudo-ska and reggae (save for maybe `Rudie can't fail' and `The guns of Brixton'). And, The Clash weren't the only British band, punk or otherwise to embrace reggae during this period. I do find it admirable that they connected with the music and the struggle of the Rasta's but, I think that we can mostly thank Bob Marley for that, which is why it so laughable that Rolling Stone would label this "the only political album that matters"-give me a break! As far as British rock groups trying their hands at reggae, "The Police" did it more strongly before The Clash did and "XTC" did it better on "English Settlement", although I would have to say that "London Calling" is probably a better album overall, my personal preference aside. On this album, The Clash try their hands at disco/euro-pop (Lost in the Supermarket), 50's rock (Brand New Cadillac), swing (Jimmy Jazz), almost-arena-rock :-) (Death or Glory), and even 60's hits-era Motown (Train in Vain) and they're all successful. Overall, even with the few problems that I've mentioned, this is still a really good album that does actually stand as a truly important piece of work that you should add to your collection-even if it is a bit over-hyped :-)!
