"London Calling", The Clash, 1979
Dia: 26
Mês: Abril
Ano: 2013
Ano: 2013
Ouvir: http://youtu.be/80thl-j8jvw
The Trouser Press Record Guide – Fourth Edition (Collier Books, 1991): London Calling established the Clash's major-league stature, regardless of commercial considerations. The two records, produced by the legendary Guy Stevens (Mott the Hoople), stretch over an enormously expanded musical landscape with few weak tracks. Unlike most double albums, London Calling needs all four sides to say its piece; while not especially coherent or conceptual, the tracks share a maturity of vision and a consistency of character. Whichever way the band turns, the record bears their unique stamp – from the anti-nuclear throb of the title track to the updated blues oldie, "Brand New Cadillac", to the bebop of "Jimmy Jazz" and the anthemic "Rudie Can't Fail". And that's just the first side! Some of the other stunners are "Death or Glory", "Koka Kola", "Lost in the Supermarket" (Jone's spotlight), "The Guns of Brixton" (a powerful reggae rumble featuring Simonon), "Spanish Bombs", "The Right Profile" (about actor Montgomery Clift – how's that for a change of pace?) and "Clampdown", collectively proof positive that the Clash would not be limited by anyone's expectations. A masterwork.
The A to X of Alternative Music (Continuum, 2004): It's got rock, reggae, rockabilly, jazz, R&B and melodic pop, and all played with musical confidence and knowledge of sonic dynamics and structure which could not have been predicted two years before. The tracks are sparse and neat with everything in just the right place in the overall mix, and there are some complex arrangements too. "Clampdown" is three different songs in the first forty seconds alone, "Wrong Em Boyo" had a perfectly executed intentional false start and "The Card Cheat" is Spector's Wall of Sound incarnate. The songs are mostly about London and the real and fictional characters that did or might have inhabited Clashworld. There's Jimmy Jazz, an underworld criminal, Rudie who drinks "brew for breakfast", and a gun-toting Jimmy Cliff wannabe living in Brixton. On occasion the specific tales are more widely contextualized, so you hear about the "evil presidents" working for the clampdown, the lingering effects of the Spanish Civil War, and in "Lost in the Supermarket", the perpetual consumerism that leads to inevitable political apathy. Rolling Stone made it their album of the decade. Nuff said.
The Rolling Stone Album Guide – Third Edition (Random House, 1992): London Calling was as close to perfect as punk got. From the exuberant melodicism of "Train in Vain" to the menacing reggae of "Guns of Brixton" to the anthemic refrain of the title tune, it was as if the group was capable of achieving anything it attempted. ★★★★★
AllMusic: A stunning statement of purpose and one of the greatest rock & roll albums ever recorded. ★★★★★
Pitchfork: For those who came of age in the late 80s and early 90s, calling The Clash a punk band was (and remains) more a matter of affect than honesty – in 2004, wholly and completely divorced from a context that never fully resonated with a global audience, The Clash are a rock band, and 1979's London Calling is their creative apex, a booming, infallible tribute to throbbing guitars and spacious ideology. By the late 70s, "punk" was more specifically linked with rusted safety pins, shit-covered Doc Martens, and tight pink sneers than any steadfast, organized philosophy; The Clash insisted on forefronting their politics. This album tackles topical issues with impressive gusto – the band cocks their cowboy hats, assumes full outlaw position, and pillages the world market for sonic fodder and lyric-ready injustice. A quarter-century after its first release, London Calling is still the concentrate essence of The Clash's unparalleled fervor. [10]
Pitchfork – The 100 Best Albums of the 1970s [N.2: 'London Calling']: Deeply and fervently preoccupied with revolutionizing both the political and artistic standards of their time, the Clash opted to dedicate themselves to cross-breeding an entirely new kind of artist-outlaw, as violent as it was cerebral. 1979’s London Calling became the ultimate expression of that collective fascination, a double album both intensely unsettling and undeniably clever, full of mouthy indictments and unbridled celebrations.
Rolling Stone: Merry and tough, passionate and large-spirited, London Calling celebrates the romance of rock & roll rebellion in grand, epic terms. It doesn't merely reaffirm the Clash's own commitment to rock-as-revolution. Instead, the record ranges across the whole of rock & roll's past for its sound, and digs deeply into rock legend, history, politics and myth for its images and themes. Everything has been brought together into a single, vast, stirring story — one that, as the Clash tell it, seems not only theirs but ours. For all its first-take scrappiness and guerrilla production, this two-LP set — which, at the group's insistence, sells for not much more than the price of one — is music that means to endure. It's so rich and far-reaching that it leaves you not just exhilarated but exalted and triumphantly alive.
Rolling Stone – 500 Greatest Albums of All Time [N.8: 'London Calling']: Recorded in 1979 in London, which was then wrenched by surging unemployment and drug addiction, and released in America in January 1980, the dawn of an uncertain decade, London Calling is 19 songs of apocalypse, fueled by an unbending faith in rock & roll to beat back the darkness. Produced with no-surrender energy by legendary Seventies studio madman Guy Stevens, the Clash's third album skids from bleak punk ("London Calling") to rampaging ska ("Wrong 'Em Boyo") and disco resignation ("Lost in the Supermarket").
PopMatters: If you take away all the labels and tiny classifications we impose, all you're left with is the music on London Calling, a lasting testament and tonic to everything that can seem hopeless.
Entertainment Weekly: The bass guitar went up. The bass guitar came down. In the two-second interval before it splintered, photographer Pennie Smith captured the dramatic shot of Clash bassist Paul Simonon smashing his instrument on stage at New York City’s Palladium, Sept. 21, 1979. Smith recalls that mere moments before, she had been ready to pack up her camera gear. But when she saw Simonon looking ”really, really fed up” and ready to blow a gasket, she decided to keep her camera at the ready. ”I just got the one shot and that was it,” she laughs. ”End of roll of film.” That luck-induced, immortal image — framed by pink and green lettering (echoing the cover of Elvis Presley’s first LP, courtesy of designer Ray Lowry) — would go on to grace the cover of the Clash’s breakthrough album, London Calling, which they released just three months later.
The Quietus – A Clash In The Pan? 'London Calling' Reappraised: December 14th, 2009: London Calling marks its 30th Anniversary. Its legacy is once again remastered, repacked and resold to a new generation for corporate gain. For an album that defined an era of rebellion and social change, have any lessons been learnt from its virtuous, defining narrative?
Pitchfork – Explore the Clash's 'London Calling' in 5 minutes:
Making of 'London Calling': The Last Testament (2004), Don Letts: The documentary tells the story of the making of The Clash's London Calling album and was included in a special 25th Anniversary edition re-release of the original album. Directed by Don Letts and including interviews with Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Topper Headon and other key figures, this also includes previously unreleased home footage of The Clash recording London Calling in Wessex Studios.
Part 1: http://youtu.be/VN-_g0MqlGU
Part 2: http://youtu.be/5kR2Ia1XbCg
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário