Sensing the emollient rattle of punk was an artistic dead end, the Clash took an abrupt volte-face and invited American Sandy Pearlman to produce their second album. Respected for his work with Blue Oyster Cult and the Dictators, Pearlman introduced a sheen that disturbed purists but introduced the Clash to a wider audience. The clear sound brought a new emphasis to the quartet’s internal interplay and allowed the material to stand up in its own right. GIVE EM ENOUGH ROPE contains several of the band’s most popular songs, which range from the defiant “Tommy Gun” to the sensitive “Stay Free,” a contrast confirming the Clash’s wider musical ambitions.

SUPER BLACK MARKET contains 21 tracks including the entire LP BLACK MARKET CLASH (1980), B-sides, remixes & one previously unreleased song. Originally released as a 10-inch EP, BLACK MARKET CLASH effectively bridged the gap between LONDON CALLING and SANDINISTA, both literally and figuratively. While most collections of b-sides and outtakes are of interest only to hardcore fans, this one turned out to be an artistic statement nearly equal to the two classic album that sandwiched it. Halfway between the punk fervor of LONDON CALLING (as on the raging “Cheat”) and the reggae/funk experimentation of SANDINISTA (see “Bankrobber” and “Armagideon Time,”) the EP stood up as a singular, worthwhile entry in the band’s canon.
Years later, supplemented by a bounty of bonus cuts, the album was reissued as SUPER BLACK MARKET CLASH. With the added cuts, this recording provides a real insight into the workings of the band, including everything from their first dub workouts to romantic pop dabblings. It’s a bit like reading between the lines of LONDON CALLING and SANDINISTA and discovering an entire world of musical subtext. Essential not only to Clash completists, but anyone interesting in the evolution of punk into something deeper and grander.

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…”