Clash - Clash (77)

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1 Janie Jones
2 Remote Control
3 I'm So Bored With the U.S.A.
4 White Riot
5 Hate & War
6 What's My Name
7 Deny
8 London's Burning
9 Career Opportunities
10 Cheat
11 Protex Blue
12 Police & Thieves
13 48 Hours
14 Garageland

The Clash's self-titled U.K. debut sees the band in its most primal, punk form. Despite Mickey Foote's low-key, lo-fi production, Strummer, Jones, Simonon, and Chimes mesh and unite with a snarling ferocity and energy.

Raw, bouncy edginess pours out of each song, with new hooks popping out at odd angles by the second.

The band isn't satisfied lingering in any one genre. "Remote Control" mixes Kinks-style fractured pop with pace changes lifted straight from Chuck Berry. "Cheat" sounds like the Ramones' "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment" given a rockabilly makeover.

"Police & Thieves" is a massively catchy take on the Junior Murvin/Lee "Scratch" Perry song and an early signpost for the future dub/rock fusions to come on Sandinista! "White Riot" and "I'm So Bored With the U.S.A." reflect the somewhat youthful, early quasi-political leanings of the band.

Though they would come across as slightly amateurish years later, it's hard to deny their punchy charm.

The U.S. edition of The Clash, released in 1979, removed "Cheat," the funky singalong "Protex Blue," the dark and revealing paranoia of "Deny," and the short but utterly delightful "48 Hours."

In their place were the more polished and thus somewhat jarring U.K. singles/B-sides "Complete Control," "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais," "Clash City Rockers," "I Fought the Law," and "Jail-Guitar Doors."

The U.S. edition might have the original beat in shine and catchiness, but it's a distillation of the band's original ferocity, and some might say an unwelcome tinkering with history. In a way, the U.S. edition served as an extremely early best-of.

Purists will most likely swear on the sonic cohesion of this U.K. edition. Columbia remastered the album and restored its original artwork in 1999, making it a bare-bones but perfect throwback and the easiest way to turn back the clock and discover the Clash at their origins.