I listened to a couple of albums yesterday while waiting for the laundry to finish. We usually wait about 3 weeks before going to the Laundromat. It actually only takes us about 2 ½ hours to get 3 weeks of laundry done. It is so much less time and money than it would take to do it every couple of days.
Anyway, on to the music.
The Clash – London Calling
Jim and Greg from Sound Opinions did a dissection of this album recently. It got me to thinking that I haven’t listened to this album in a while. This is their third album and the most recognized album from them in my opinion. I bought this album a few years ago as a used CD. I bought it simply because it is a classic UK punk album along with the UK release of their self titled album (there are different tracks from the US release). I thought that it was really cool that on the original release of this album the band forced the record label to price this as a single LP even though it was a double LP.
Every time I listen to this album I am so surprised at how many songs I know from the album. I loved punk music as a kid growing up but I had no way to listen to the really cool stuff because my parents limited the music that I could listen to. It was really limited to what they wanted to hear. This was usually limited to their collection of music or what was on KDWB with my mom or KQRS with my father. I probably heard a smattering of punk music from KDWB in the transition from punk to new wave in the early to mid 80s and this is where I would have heard the singles from this album. I am still confused as to where I would have heard any of the other songs that I know so well from London Calling though. On perusal of my iTunes library I found that there is Rudie Can’t Fail from the Grosse Pointe Blank movie. It is not listed as a single on Wikipedia but how much can you trust that. I can only guess that the songs have been marketed in advertising or something like that. I never had any friends growing up that were into punk music really. Well, not until I met my best (male) friend, which was after high school. I am just really confounded as to why I know most of the music from this album. Either way, it is really fantastic punk music that bends the genre away from the boring and into new territory.
My favorite songs on the album are the title track, London Calling, Clampdown and Lost In The Supermarket. London Calling is absolutely the best way to start off a punk album. It is basically saying that London is burning and I could care less because I am in the safest place in the city, next to the river. Clampdown is about working for “the man”. This is fort of funny to me because everyone is working for the man in some way. Lost In The Supermarket is basically a love song when you get down to the heart of it. I think it is the guitarist who wrote this song about the lead singer and of course the lead singer sings it.
Lets move on.
Death Cab For Cutie – Transatlanticism
This is really not a stand out album for me. There is nothing on this album that jumps out at me and says this is so awesome. Don’t get me wrong, I really like what this group does and has done, especially of late. But this album is really a sleeper. The strange thing to me is that so many music reviewers put this album on their greatest albums of the last 10 years. Personally, I would have chosen one of the last 2 albums to put on that list since there was actual single material on both of those 2 albums. This could all just be me and the mood that I was in or the fact that I was reading at the same time as I was listening to the music too. It was the second album that I listened to while I was reading. I think that it is more that this is just a melon collie/sleepy album that helped to lead them on the way to a better sound. It is a great sound that they have put together here on this album there is just nothing that jumps out and grabs me like with other albums and bands that I collect.
I can’t say that anyone shouldn’t get this album but I do think that one would be better to really like the band before getting into their older music, before the album Plans any way.
Signing off.
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