In a September 2013 interview, Mick Jones announced the box sets and hits package will be the final time he works on anything involving the Clash and their music. "I'm not even thinking about any more Clash releases. This is it for me, and I say that with an exclamation mark," Jones said.
The album comprises 17 songs, with a further 2 songs released as iTunes bonus tracks.
Strummer and Rhodes co-wrote most of the songs. During production, Rhodes took charge of the arrangements, track sequencing and the final mix. His production choices, which rely heavily on Strummer's preference for synthetic drum sounds and Rhodes' own inclusion of sampling, were widely derided. One writer described the album's sound as brash and seemingly "designed to sound hip and modern—'80s style!". Rhodes chose the album title, taken from a line in the 1981 post-apocalyptic film Mad Max 2. The recording process and tension between Rhodes and Strummer left other band members disillusioned. White's and Sheppard's contributions are almost entirely absent in the final mix, and Howard was replaced by an electronic drum machine. Epic Records hoped the album would advance the Clash's success in the United States, and planned an expensive video for a lead single.
On release, Cut the Crap was maligned in the UK music press as "one of the most disastrous [albums] ever released by a major artist". Strummer disowned the album and dissolved the Clash within weeks of its release. He performed only one song from the album live during his solo career, and the album has been excluded altogether from most of the Clash's compilations and box sets. Although it is still generally regarded as the band's worst album, contemporary critics have praised Strummer's songwriting and vocal performance, especially on the tracks "This Is England", "Dirty Punk" and "Three Card Trick".
Combat Rock is the group's best-selling album, being certified double platinum in the United States and reaching number 2 in the U.K. Reception to the album believed the band had reached its peak maturity with Combat Rock, as the album's sound was less anarchic but still as political as previous albums. It contains two of the Clash's signature songs, the singles "Rock the Casbah" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go". "Rock the Casbah" became highly successful in the United States and proved to be the band's anticipated U.S breakthrough. "Should I Stay or Should I Go" was not as successful until being re-released in 1991 and topping the charts in their native United Kingdom. Combat Rock is the last Clash album featuring the classic lineup of the Clash. Topper Headon (due to his heroin addiction) was fired days before the release of Combat Rock and Mick Jones was fired after the end of the Combat Rock tour in 1983. Combat Rock would be succeeded by the Clash's last album, Cut the Crap, recorded and released without Mick Jones or Topper Headon in 1985.
The title refers to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and its catalogue number, 'FSLN1', refers to the abbreviation of the party's Spanish name, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional.
Sandinista! was mostly well received, though there was criticism towards the large size of the triple album. Sandinista! is the lowest charting album for the Clash in their native United Kingdom. However, the album was influential in the punk rock movement with its experimental sound and was voted best album of the year in the Pazz & Jop critics poll in The Village Voice. In 2020 it was ranked number 323 on the Rolling Stone list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" and Slant Magazine listed the album at number 85 on its "Best Albums of the 1980s" list.
The Clash recorded the album with producer Guy Stevens at Wessex Sound Studios in London over a five- to six-week period starting in August 1979, following a change in management and a period of writer's block for songwriters Joe Strummer and Mick Jones. Bridging a traditional punk rock sound and a new wave aesthetic, London Calling reflects the band's growing interest in styles beyond their punk roots, including reggae, rockabilly, ska, New Orleans R&B, pop, lounge jazz, and hard rock. Lyrical themes include social displacement, unemployment, racial conflict, drug use, and the responsibilities of adulthood.
The album was a top ten chart success in the UK, and its lead single "London Calling" was a top 20 single. The album has sold over five million copies worldwide, and was certified platinum in the US for sales of one million. It was also met with widespread critical acclaim and has retrospectively been named one of the greatest albums of all time. On Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, London Calling was ranked number 8 in the 2003 and 2012 editions, and number 16 in the 2020 edition. In 2010, it was one of ten classic album covers from British artists commemorated on a UK postage stamp issued by the Royal Mail.
The album marked the first album appearance of drummer Topper Headon, who joined the band shortly after the recording of their first studio album. Most of the tracks, as with the prior album, were written by guitarists Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, with the exception of "English Civil War" (a reworking of the traditional American folk song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home") and "Guns on the Roof", which is credited to all four band members, being Headon, Jones, Strummer, and bassist Paul Simonon.
Songs on the album were composed by guitarists Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, with the notable exception of the reggae cover "Police and Thieves". The song "What's My Name" is co-credited to Clash founding member Keith Levene, who left the band in September 1976.
Several songs from the album's recording sessions, including "Janie Jones", "White Riot", and "London's Burning" became classics of the punk genre and were among the first punk songs to see significant presence on singles charts. The Clash featured Jones and Strummer sharing guitar and vocal duties, with Paul Simonon on bass and Terry Chimes on drums, his only studio appearance with the band. (Chimes and Rob Harper drummed intermittently with The Clash until Topper Headon joined the band as permanent drummer in May 1977.) Chimes was credited as "Tory Crimes" on the album's original sleeve.
The Clash was not released in the US until 1979, making it the band's second US release. The US version also included a significantly different track listing, changing the track order and swapping out several songs for non-album tracks recorded in the interim.
The album was preceded by two singles, including lead single "Lipstick", a top-twenty hit on the UK Singles Chart, and follow-up "Knockdown". Fired Up eventually received a physical release in Japan and Taiwan in 2008, where it was issued along with new artwork, a re-worked listing order, and additional tracks, including two remixes and the new track "Voodoo". Dixon later exclusively sold Fired Up in the UK as merchandise on her tour, The Alesha Show, supporting the album of the same name.
The title track pays homage to Alabama's southern rock roots. It reached No. 17 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in early 1980. Two other tracks — the fiddle-heavy, southern rock-influenced "Tennessee River" and the ballad "Why Lady Why" — were the band's first two No. 1 songs, and laid the foundation for what became one of the most impressive popularity runs in country music history.
Also included on My Home's In Alabama is the band's 1979 single, "I Wanna Come Over", which peaked at No. 33 in November 1979. Both that song and the better-known title track were originally issued by MDJ Records, before the band was signed to RCA in early 1980. The album eventually became the group's first major-label debut studio album to be distributed by RCA Records in Nashville.
The album preceded the band's international recognition, which followed Lost in Love in 1980; the band would later release another self-titled album in 1985.
