The Clash
Sandinista!

THE REVIEW

I see you. Don't make that face. Yes, this is the fifth review of this album to appear on DeBaser. But the sides of the vinyl version are 6, so there's still one left, right (weak excuse)? Or at least, let me remind you that we're talking about the Clash, so the more we talk about them, the better it is. Especially if there's something to add to what has already been said. Something that the previous reviewers haven't mentioned. Also because saying everything about this album is perhaps impossible and even I won't manage it. After all, we're talking about a bubbling magnum of styles over 120 minutes of music divided into 36 songs. But there are details that cannot be overlooked and without them, the Clash wouldn't be so great.

To start this love letter (as you'll notice while reading, it's not really a review) towards the album, let's begin by stating that it can easily be defined as fragmentary, pompous, and why not, boring. Every fan should honestly look at the album's tracklist and find songs that if any other artist had sung, they would have hated. Examples: what's the point of putting on an album, and not in a hypothetical single, the dub remix of a song immediately after the original one (One More Dub)? Did anyone really need to listen to Version Pardner after hearing Junco Partner? Why bring in the musicians' kids to sing over a midi (!!) base on Career Opportunities? Why rewind the tape of Something About England, add strange effects, and put it on the record (Mensforth Hill)? I could go on, but I believe I've made my point. But try to imagine Sandinista! composed of 12 tracks. or 24. I bet you can't. You can't (or shouldn't), because even these songs drive the Clash straight towards the myth, as we will see later. And anyway, for a few extra tracks (although it’s not like that, I repeat), there are gems of rock, pop, reggae, dub, electronic, rap, and more that provide the right counterbalance. Meanwhile, there's experimentation. Moving forward, not always passing the same point but looking for another, ignoring those who will turn their noses up (and on the European tour, some spectators might do even more...). Discovering that British rock(-punk) is just one musical genre, nothing more than one of the thousands that crowd the world. And experimenting impulsively, without being cerebral like the Talking Heads but more impulsive. 3 weeks in a New York studio playing what they had on hand and off they went.

How can one not be shocked by the funk attack (1980, just 3 years have passed since the punk of White Riot) of The Magnific Seven, the first rap track recorded by white people? And if the Beastie Boys were listening, I bet the Pogues are well acquainted with Lose That Skin, which practically invents them. How can sugary pop-soul Hitsville Uk coexist on an album with the reggae oddities of Junco Partner (a classic jazz piece completely turned around), respectively tracks 2 and 3 of the album? The range spans from stadium rock of Police On My Back to the tropicalism of Washington Bullets with the final chorus shouting the forbidden word (or so Thatcher wanted) which, mocking, even gives the album its title. But one could say so much more about the album's tracks, but what would be the point since those who've already listened already have their favorites and making a list of them is useless if you haven't heard them? Here, you can touch it with your hands. Or feel it with your ears. This is music without gossip or scoops around. Only the lyrics and voice of Strummer, Jones' musical inventions, Simonon's love for the sounds of the third world, and Topper's technique (how I hate those who claim that Topper was just a junkie who couldn't play!!). Because "Sandinista!" is an album that must be listened to. Even if just to shut up those who tell you, "I listen to a bit of everything..." and then that everything is just what's served to them by the radio at work. This is listening to a bit of everything. And shaping it to give it the form that best suits you. This is punk if punk ever wanted to be something. The Clash sold to CBS? Sure, but how much did they make from that contract?

The album before this, "London Calling," was a double sold at the price of a single. And the same for "Sandinista!" Yes, a triple sold at the price of a double. So out of 36 songs, 12 were offered by the Clash. So in the end, you paid for the 24 you liked. And you chose them yourself. I mean, 30 years before the world discovered the term playlist (but also the legendary stereo button that skipped the songs you didn't like from the CD), iTunes, band-authorized downloads of entire albums (Radiohead's Rainbows) or parts (Nine Inch Nails with Ghosts I-IV), the Clash had already thought of this system. 30 years before. I finished this review and I'm still in Version City. This album is really too long. But I can't skip a single song. They are the Clash.