After the embattled recording of the Pogues’ Peace and Love, with Shane MacGowan clearly at odds with his bandmates and their musical direction while contributing little in the way of new songs, Hell’s Ditch seemed at once like a step forward and a step back for the group. While Peace and Love suggested the Pogues had grown weary of the hot-rodded Celtic sounds that had been their trademark, Hell’s Ditch found the band back in more familiar territory and sounding much refreshed; if there wasn’t anything as manic as the high points of Rum Sodomy & the Lash or If I Should Fall from Grace with God, these sessions reveal the Pogues had found their feet and were sounding like a band again, and while a few of MacGowan’s songs lead them through his fascination with Asian and Latin accents, the musicians were able to fuse them with their own trademark style rather than being subsumed by them; the Pogues rarely sounded as graceful or a comfortable as they do on Hell’s Ditch. However, MacGowan’s songwriting still hadn’t regained the fire and acidity that made the group’s first three albums so powerful, and Terry Woods and Jem Finer don’t quite pick up the slack. More importantly, while Joe Strummer’s production served the band well, he was seemingly too fond of MacGowan to tell him when his vocals were all but unintelligible, and many of the songs are all but sunk by Shane’s sloppy, mush-mouthed, and booze-addled delivery, which is difficult to unravel even by his standards. While there are many pearly moments on Hell’s Ditch that suggest the work of a happier and more unified band than on their previous albums, MacGowan’s poorly focused performances are a handicap the Pogues couldn’t overcome, and it seems appropriate this was the band’s last studio album with their primary songwriter and frontman.

Tracklisting
1. Sunnyside of the Street
2. Sayonara
3. Ghost of a Smile
4. Hell’s Ditch
5. Lorca’s Novena
6. Summer in Siam
7. Rain Street
8. Rainbow Man
9. Wake of the Medusa
10. House of the Gods
11. 5 Green Queens & Jean
12. Maidrin Rua
13. Six to Go

This album introduced the world to The Clash, the only group that was on even footing with The Sex Pistols in U.K. punk rock’s early days. The Clash avoided the Pistols’ sensationalism, singing instead songs about politics, racism, and class warfare. The music’s brutal assault, accompanied by Strummer’s charismatic vocal style, earned the group attention in its native England, where THE CLASH entered the charts at number 12.

Tracklisting
1. Clash City Rockers
2. I’m So Bored With The U.S.A.
3. Remote Control
4. Complete Control
5. White Riot
6. (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais
7. London’s Burning
8. I Fought The Law
9. Janie Jones
10. Career Opportunities
11. What’s My Name
12. Hate & War
13. Police & Thieves
14. Jail Guitar Doors
15. Garageland

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.114) – Ranked #77 in Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums Of All Time” – “…Youthful ambition bursts through the Clash’s debut, a machine-gun blast of songs about unemployment, race, and the Clash themselves…”

Rolling Stone (6/20/02, p.87) – 5 stars out of 5 – “…both a party and protest…The tunes still detonate as the group still insists justice must prevail…”

Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.114) – Ranked #77 in Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums Of All Time” – “…Youthful ambition bursts through the Clash’s debut, a machine-gun blast of songs about unemployment, race, and the Clash themselves…”

Spin (5/01, p.108) – Ranked #3 in Spin’s “50 Most Essential Punk Records” – “…Punk as alienated rage, as anticorporate blather, as joyous racial confusion, as evangelic outreach and white knuckles and haywire impulses…”

Q (6/00, p.70) – Ranked #48 in Q’s “100 Greatest British Albums”

Q (5/02 SE, p.135) – 5 stars out of 5 – Included in Q’s “100 Best Punk Albums”.

Q (12/99, pp.152-3) – 5 stars out of 5 – “…[They] would never sound so punk as they did on 1977’s self-titled debut….Lyrically intricate…it still howled with anger…”

Q (10/02, p.136) – Indispensable – “…Unsurpassed for its concentrated anger and rebel bravado…”

Alternative Press (3/00, pp.74-5) – 5 out of 5 – “…the eternal punk album….the blueprint for the pantomime of ‘punkier’ rock acts….for all of its forced politics and angst, THE CLASH continues to sound crucial…”

Alternative Press (3/00, pp.74-5) – 5 out of 5 – “…the eternal punk album….the blueprint for the pantomime of ‘punkier’ rock acts….for all of its forced politics and angst, THE CLASH continues to sound crucial…”

Mojo (Publisher) (3/03, p.76) – Ranked #2 in Mojo’s “Top 50 Punk Albums” – “…The ultimate punk protest album….Searingly evocative of dreary late ’70s Britain, but still timelessly inspiring…”

Mojo (Publisher) (3/03, p.76) – Ranked #2 in Mojo’s “Top 50 Punk Albums” – “…The ultimate punk protest album….Searingly evocative of dreary late ’70s Britain, but still timelessly inspiring…”

NME (Magazine) – Ranked #3 in NME’s list of The Greatest Albums Of The ’70s – “…The speed-freaked brain of punk set to the tinniest, most frantic guitars ever trapped on vinyl. Lives were changed beyond recognition by it…”

NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) – Ranked #13 in NME’s list of the ‘Greatest Albums Of All Time.’

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The Clash – London Calling

If punk rejected pop history, LONDON CALLING reclaimed it, albeit with a knowing perspective. The scope of this double set is breathtaking, encompassing reggae, rockabilly, and the group’s own furious mettle. Such a combination might seem over-ambitious, but the Clash accomplish it with swaggering panache. Guy Stevens, who produced the group’s first demos, returns to the helm to provide a confident, cohesive sound equal to the set’s brilliant array of material. Boldly assertive and superbly focused, London Calling contains many of the quartet’s finest songs and is, by extension, virtually faultless.

Tracklisting
1. London Calling (Live Video Clip)
2. Brand New Cadillac
3. Jimmy Jazz
4. Hateful
5. Rudie Can’t Fail
6. Spanish Bombs
7. The Right Profile
8. Lost In The Supermarket
9. Clampdown
10. The Guns Of Brixton
11. Wrong ‘Em Boyo
12. Death Or Glory
13. Koka Kola
14. The Card Cheat
15. Lover’s Rock
16. Four Horsemen
17. I’m Not Down
18. Revolution Rock
19. Train In Vain

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (11/89) – Ranked #1 in Rolling Stone’s “100 Best Albums Of The Eighties” survey.

Rolling Stone (p.100) – 5 stars out of 5 – “[The album] sounds crucial right now because of righteous blasts such as the title track.”

Q (5/02 SE, p.136) – Included in Q’s “100 Best Punk Albums”.

Q (6/00, p.90) – Ranked #4 in Q’s “100 Greatest British Albums”

Q (12/99, pp.152-3) – 5 stars out of 5 – “…19-track, filler-free double album….the best Clash album and therefore among the very best albums ever recorded…”

Uncut (p.122) – 5 stars out of 5 – “LONDON CALLING engages soul riffs, reggae beats and vintage rock’n'roll as a band of true blood brothers define their battle-scarred universe. As remarkable now as it was 25 years ago.”

Alternative Press (8/01, p.112) – Included in AP’s “10 Essential ’80s Albums”.

Alternative Press (3/00, pp.74-5) – 4 out of 5 – “…This is a definitive album in rock’s pantheon, and surely a WHITE ALBUM for the sub-generation lost between hippie idealism and MTV digitalism…”

Magnet (p.112) – “Big, arena-friendly anthems, infectious blue-beat winners and punch-drunk, New Orleans-style R&B workouts….[S]imply one of the era’s landmark records.”

CMJ (1/5/04, p.6) – Ranked #3 in CMJ’s “Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1980″.

Vibe (12/99, p.160) – Included in Vibe’s 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century

Mojo (Publisher) (3/03, p.76) – Ranked #22 in Mojo’s “Top 50 Punk Albums” – “…The iconic sleeve shot of a bass-shredding Paul Simonon is well matched by the music…”

Mojo (Publisher) (p.123) – 5 stars out of 5 – “The Clash demonstrated beyond any doubt that they had grown beyond their apocalyptic but parochial West London horizons to become a world-class band with a world-wide vision.”

NME (Magazine) (9/11/93, p.18) – Ranked #6 in NME’s list of The Greatest Albums Of The ’70s – “…To hear a group blam away so fluently is a joy…”

With only several singles to their credit (including their classic “Touch Me I’m Sick”), Mudhoney set out to record their first full-length album in 1989 for the Sub Pop label. With the late-’80s rock scene focusing on glam and thrash metal, Mudhoney and their ilk (Nirvana, Soundgarden, Screaming Trees, and the Melvins, etc.) were a refreshing break from the norm.

MUDHONEY remains one of the band’s finest albums, offering an abundance of stripped down, brash three chord rockers. For a taste of Seattle rock before it became copied and homogenized by the mid-’90s, just check out such cuts as “This Gift,” “Flat Out Fucked,” “You Got It,” and the suicide tale “By Her Own Hand.”

Tracklisting
1. This Gift
2. Flat Out Fucked
3. Get Into Yours
4. You Got It
5. Magnolia Caboose Babyshit
6. Come To Mind
7. Here Comes Sickness
8. Running Loaded
9. Farther I Go
10. By Her Own Hand
11. When Tomorrow Hits
12. Dead Love

The double album that brought Sonic Youth to the attention of a wider audience and prompted the eager interest of a handful of major labels. DAYDREAM NATION, with its sleepy single candle flickering silently on the gatefold cover, harnessed their reckless live favourite, “Teenage Riot,” while they ran gloriously roughshod over “Rain King” and “Silver Rocket,” and offered the overtly camp glee of “Trilogy,” which came with parts a, b and c. Their assured ascension to festival billing and the giant Geffen label came as no surprise to anyone who had heard this album.

Tracklisting
1. Teen Age Riot
2. Silver Rocket
3. The Sprawl
4. Cross The Breeze
5. Eric’s Trip
6. Total Trash
7. Hey Toni
8. Providence
9. Candle
10. Rain King
11. Kissability
12. Trilogy: The Wonder / Hyperstation / Eliminator

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (p.74) – 5 stars out of 5 — “[I]ts tunings keep it honest and its anthems keep it thrilling.”

Rolling Stone (10/89) – 3.5 Stars – Very Good – Ranked #45 in Rolling Stone’s ‘100 Greatest Albums Of The 80s’ survey.

Spin (p.100) – 5 stars out of 5 — “In terms of badass sonics and sentiments, perhaps the greatest art-punk statement ever.”

Spin (1/89, p.67) – “…this music is hitting me right where I live…”

Q (7/96, p.144) – 3 Stars – Good – “…regarded by many as the Youth’s greatest work….DAYDREAM NATION…contain[s] the glorious, Nirvana-predicting ‘Teen Age Riot’…”

Uncut (p.94) – 5 stars out of 5 — “[An] avant-rock masterpiece….If it had been recorded yesterday, DAYDREAM NATION would still sound revolutionary.”

Alternative Press (7/95, p.89) – Rated #51 in AP’s list of the ‘Top 99 Of ‘85-’95′ – “…Sonic Youth’s most focused, fully-realized work. This [is] the document of a band at the height of their powers, distilling every lesson they [have] learned in guitar terrorism, songwriting, rock action, and shattering conventions into a sustained series of electrical shocks…”

CMJ (1/5/04, p.26) – Ranked #20 in CMJ’s “Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1989″

Down Beat (p.72) – 4.5 stars out of 5 — “Widely hailed as Sonic Youth’s masterpiece….DAYDREAM NATION was a lean, graceful blast of subcultural New York writ large…”

Melody Maker (5/4/96, p.58) – “…The mid-period Sonic LPs, specifically SISTER and DAYDREAM NATION, are generally regarded as their most fully realised…”

Kerrang (Magazine) (p.50) – “[The album] opened the floodgates for acolytes such as Nirvana….You can practically hear the ’90s being invented…”

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Sonic Youth – The Eternal

Put this alongside BLONDE ON BLONDE and REVOLVER as an album that changed the face of rock forever. Along with the Clash and the Damned, the Sex Pistols were one of the first bands to channel the anger of dole-queue ’70s Britain through a fierce musical amalgam of pub rock, the Stooges and the New York Dolls. Despite their influences, Johnny Rotten and company created something utterly unlike what had come before. Their anarchist/nihilist attitude, reflected in tunes like “Anarchy in the U.K.” and “No Feelings” spoke to a new generation of kids, more profoundly disaffected than any other in the 20th century.

Rotten’s snarling, distinctly British delivery of his agitational lyrics made Dylan sound like Mario Lanza, and the pile-driver guitars of Glen Matlock and Steve Jones move the songs along like a well-oiled but ornery machine. For all their iconoclasm, though, the Pistols were far more indebted to traditional pop song format (and dynamics) than most of the punk bands that followed in their wake. Consequently, for all their anger and urgency, such songs as “Submission” and “Pretty Vacant” enter the ear easily, only beginning to cause real internal damage once they get into your gut. One of the most essential rock albums of all time.

Tracklisting
1. Holidays In The Sun
2. Bodies
3. No Feelings
4. Liar
5. Problems
6. God Save The Queen
7. Seventeen
8. Anarchy In The U.K.
9. Sub-mission
10. Pretty Vacant
11. New York
12. Emi

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.108) – Ranked #41 in Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums Of All Time” – “…The Sermon on the Mount of English punk – and the echoes are everywhere…”

Spin (5/01, p.109) – Ranked #10 in Spin’s “50 Most Essential Punk Records” – “…’Gabba Gabba Hey’ meets ‘Hey, hey we’re the Monkees’…”

Q (5/02 SE, p.141) – Included in Q’s “100 Best Punk Albums”.

Q (6/00, p.85) – Ranked #10 in Q’s “100 Greatest British Albums” – “…Few [can] deny the LP’s unrelenting punch nor its litany of spine-tingling moments….imbued with a quintessentially London ambience…”

Melody Maker (7/27/96, p.48) – “…NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS, as a human transmission, as a piece of plastic, as an idea, even through the putrid rose-tints of retrospect, even with the distance of time and accumulation of official sanction, is still a bomb beyond appraisal, impossible, UNDENIABLE…”

Mojo (Publisher) (3/03, p.76) – Ranked #1 in Mojo’s “Top 50 Punk Albums” – “Has any other band so changed the world with just one album?…”

NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) – Ranked #3 in NME’s list of the `Greatest Albums Of All Time.’

NME (Magazine) (9/11/93, p.18) – Ranked #2 among the Greatest Albums Of The ’70s – “…The ultimate `first album as greatest hits’ exercise….Pub jukeboxes remain terrified of it to this day…”