What do people think of this album? I had the other four Clash albums (still never heard Cut the Crap) for quite a few years before I finally heard Sandinista! and it took me a while to get into it. There are a ton of great songs, probably enough for a fantastic two album set, but at three albums I think they stretched themselves a bit too much. Maybe it's an unfair comparison but London Calling is basically brilliant from start to finish and I don't think that Sandinista! comes close to matching it.

I give them big points for ambition and also for making the album affordable by taking a reduced cut of the royalties but I'm not sure that they had the material to warrant a three album set. Three albums featuring twelve songs each for a total of thirty-six songs. Who else would be crazy enough to attempt that?

That album is the perfect example of when being ambitious isn't always appealing. I think it's safe to say that it's a mixed bag at best.

I'd agree you could improve it by tightening it up... that's true of most double and triple albums.

In the CD era you could just program the ones you wanted to hear. it was a little more challenging in the vinyl era. Side four was good from start to finish though so I listened to those songs the most.

But I applaud their concept of throwing everything out there and letting the fans decide. People would still argue the point, does Charlie Don't Surf make the cut for the trim version? What about Crooked beat? I don't know if those are favorite tracks for me but, they contribute to the flavor of the thing, so it would be weird to not have them there.

rialb said:

What do people think of this album? I had the other four Clash albums (still never heard Cut the Crap) for quite a few years before I finally heard Sandinista! and it took me a while to get into it. There are a ton of great songs, probably enough for a fantastic two album set, but at three albums I think they stretched themselves a bit too much. Maybe it's an unfair comparison but London Calling is basically brilliant from start to finish and I don't think that Sandinista! comes close to matching it.

I give them big points for ambition and also for making the album affordable by taking a reduced cut of the royalties but I'm not sure that they had the material to warrant a three album set. Three albums featuring twelve songs each for a total of thirty-six songs. Who else would be crazy enough to attempt that?

I bought it on vinyl in the mid-90s. Some great tracks are on it, like "Magnificient Seven" and "Washington Bullets". But The Clash should've trimmed the fat. It sounds like a decent single album with too many filler B-sides tacked on.

Definitely a mess.

yeah it's a mess of an albums with a lot of good songs hidden away in it

But the second song is sung by children and then there is some hag singing Lose this Skin it's just baffling in spots

NDRU said:

yeah it's a mess of an albums with a lot of good songs hidden away in it

But the second song is sung by children and then there is some hag singing Lose this Skin it's just baffling in spots

That's why I stop thinking about listening to it. The track listing was enough to make me be turned off... I like the Clash's music but no can do.

Timmy84 said:

NDRU said:

yeah it's a mess of an albums with a lot of good songs hidden away in it

But the second song is sung by children and then there is some hag singing Lose this Skin it's just baffling in spots

That's why I stop thinking about listening to it. The track listing was enough to make me be turned off... I like the Clash's music but no can do.

I totally understand. But there really are some great songs on it.

Just don't be tempted to buy Cut The Crap. It really is as bad as people say it is!

NDRU said:

Timmy84 said:

That's why I stop thinking about listening to it. The track listing was enough to make me be turned off... I like the Clash's music but no can do.

I totally understand. But there really are some great songs on it.

Just don't be tempted to buy Cut The Crap. It really is as bad as people say it is!

Thanks for the advice, if I ever get to listen to it, I'll cut that song out lol

A big mess. There's some classics on there though.

NDRU said:

Timmy84 said:

That's why I stop thinking about listening to it. The track listing was enough to make me be turned off... I like the Clash's music but no can do.

I totally understand. But there really are some great songs on it.

Just don't be tempted to buy Cut The Crap. It really is as bad as people say it is!

The only songs I've heard from the Cut the Crap era are the ones on the singles box set. They weren't terrible but it really makes you wonder why Joe thought it was a good idea to fire the guy that wrote most of the music.

rialb said:

NDRU said:

I totally understand. But there really are some great songs on it.

Just don't be tempted to buy Cut The Crap. It really is as bad as people say it is!

The only songs I've heard from the Cut the Crap era are the ones on the singles box set. They weren't terrible but it really makes you wonder why Joe thought it was a good idea to fire the guy that wrote most of the music.

Actually some of the songs are okay (and I'd argue that he wrote as many good songs as Mick Jones) but the sound is horrible. It's this terrible electronic 80's noise that has nothing to do with the Clash. In fact they added tons of crap to make this album

And it really isn't the clash, it's just a couple of the members.

NDRU said:

rialb said:

The only songs I've heard from the Cut the Crap era are the ones on the singles box set. They weren't terrible but it really makes you wonder why Joe thought it was a good idea to fire the guy that wrote most of the music.

Actually some of the songs are okay (and I'd argue that he wrote as many good songs as Mick Jones) but the sound is horrible. It's this terrible electronic 80's noise that has nothing to do with the Clash. In fact they added tons of crap to make this album

And it really isn't the clash, it's just a couple of the members.