Sound System/Hits Back Reviews

[Flex]

I've been enjoying reading reviews of the box set. Here's Bob Sheffield's five star review in Rolling Stone:

It takes a band as myth-saturated as the Clash to live up to a career-summing box as ambitious as this one. But Joe Strummer and his crew of London gutter-punk romantics fit the bill. The 13-disc Sound System aims to tell their whole story, from the garage-land fury of their 1977 debut to their messy death-or-glory collapse in the early Eighties. It has all five of their classic albums, mercifully leaving out the long-forgotten 1985 synth-rock fiasco, Cut the Crap. There are crucial early singles like "Complete Control" and "Groovy Times." But there are also previously unreleased treasures from the vaults, with longtime bootleg oddities like "The Beautiful People Are Ugly Too." Sound System has a DVD of fantastic footage – when the Clash rip through "Hate and War" onstage in 1977, every drop of sweat that Strummer exudes seems to hold a lifetime's worth of passion and rage.

Source: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/album ... m-20130910

At allmusic, here's Stephen T Erlewine's 4 1/2 start review:

Most box sets are designed to enshrine an artist in the amber of posterity. The idea is that the artist has transcended their time, that they can now be appreciated outside of the context of their era. The digital age, where recordings from the past sit comfortably with tunes from the present, accelerates this trend, suggesting that all the classic artists exist upon their own continuum, that their development was almost a product of self-divination. What is interesting about Sound System is that it throws this notion out the window and celebrates the era that produced the Clash as much as it celebrates the band itself. As designed by Clash bassist Paul Simonon, Sound System looks like an old-school ghetto blaster, and it's filled with replicas of fanzines, stickers, badges, press photos, posters, dog tags -- all manner of period-specific tchotchkes that walk the line between nostalgia and commercial art. This aesthetic trickles down to the presentation of the music itself, with London Calling split over two CDs where it could easily fit onto one and Sandinista! taking up a full three discs. Such details slightly impede playability if Sound System is listened to as a series of CDs, but once the set is ripped and listened to digitally, the divided discs are simply another design flourish, one of many little things to appreciate. But Sound System is also attractive in delivering what effectively is the Complete Clash in one sitting. Apart from the disowned Cut the Crap, all the albums are here -- the U.K. version of The Clash, Give 'Em Enough Rope, London Calling, Sandinista!, Combat Rock -- along with three discs of extras that include all the non-LP singles (i.e., the singles that were added to the U.S. pressing of the debut, plus everything that wound up on the clearinghouse Super Black Market Clash, such as the Cost of Living EP), oddities that appeared on the first Clash box Clash on Broadway in 1991, and B-sides; then, most attractively for collectors, previously unreleased mixes, outtakes from Combat Rock, "extracts" from the band's first recording session in 1976, Polydor demos from that same year produced by Guy Stevens, and six live cuts from the Lyceum in 1979. Then, there's the DVD which contains all the band's promo videos, the Clash on Broadway video, the White Promo Film, footage from Sussex University in 1977, and individual selections from Clash compatriots Don Letts and Julian Temple. Perhaps there are still some stray tracks in the vaults -- this seems to excavate all the unheard songs from Rat Patrol from Fort Bragg, aka the original version of Combat Rock and some cuts may be left behind -- but this is as complete as we'll get and if it doesn't present any fresh revelations, it brings the Clash's era back to life, both sonically and visually.

Source: http://www.allmusic.com/album/sound-system-mw0002548672

Particularly, here's a glowing review in The Quietus from Julian Marszalek which is more of a band history (and the writer's own experience with the band) which is a rather nice read:

But with a price of around the £80 mark, and coming from a band who famously kept record and ticket prices within the financial reach of their fans – double album London Calling retailed for £5 on its release in 1979 while its follow-up a year later, the hefty triple album Sandinista! was pegged at £5.99 – as well as re-releasing and re-mastering the albums in the closing overs of the 20th Century, the question remains of who this box-set is aimed at. In these tough economic times it seems unlikely that a new generation of fans will be willing to fork out the asking price which, given the still-relevant messages contained within these grooves, is a crying shame. And yet for a total of 11 CDs, one DVD and an excellent re-mastering job by guitarist Mick Jones that breathes new life into this material, this still represents good value for money if you’ve got that much to hand. So while you might not buy into it, ultimately this is music that shouldn’t be ignored. Even from a distance of thirty-plus years, The Clash is as relevant, vital and important now as they were then. Just stop to consider the evidence.

Full article: http://thequietus.com/articles/13306-th ... em-box-set

[Spiff]

I'll probably buy two, keeping one in its original plastic seal, to sell when I'm 80 years old for a ton of money to some 50-something Millennial who's finally realized that Dawes and Bon Iver were shite, irrelevant bands without any redeeming value whatsoever. Finally.

[JennyB]

I'll probably buy two, keeping one in its original plastic seal, to sell when I'm 80 years old for a ton of money to some 50-something Millennial who's finally realized that Dawes and Bon Iver were shite, irrelevant bands without any redeeming value whatsoever. Finally.

So you mean you're going to sell it to Hoy.

[Flex]

Here's Jem Aswad's 9/10 review of Sound System in Spin:

The cinderblock-sized Clash set is a more complex — and, at $175 on Amazon as we speak, more expensive — kettle of fish. Guitarist Mick Jones has said the objective was to create the "best box set ever," and with 12 discs containing virtually everything the band already had released — along with a few more odds and ends, and an hour-plus DVD — it's practically the entire history of the band crammed into a mock boombox. Designed by bassist Paul Simonon, the set incorporates retrospective essays, reprinted fanzines, a poster, dog tags, stickers, badges, and so forth; die-hard fans have probably sold off their existing Clash collections just to afford it.

So apart from all that, what does this weighty collection add to the canon of the most important and influential rock band to arise from the 1970s? Well, their catalog has been remastered and sounds great, although just how pristine the intentionally reptile-brain rock of the band's first couple of years needs to sound is open to debate. Of the rarities, there's the band's first and second-ever recording sessions (featuring raw versions of oft-heard early songs), and live takes of several rarely aired Give 'Em Enough Rope-era songs from a December '79 gig. Most interesting is the DVD, which combines live footage — including, apparently, the band's first rehearsal — and the 1981 short doc Clash on Broadway, along with all the group's promo videos.

Impressive as this thing is, there is a clear disconnect in a nearly $200 coffee-table-like boxed set being released by a band who loudly espoused working-class, neo-socialist values and fought to keep their record prices down for "the kids." With that, and common sense, in mind, Sony Legacy is making available smaller versions of the package: a two-CD best-of collection, plus a separate box set containing the five core albums. And anyway, the reality is that the surviving band members, their peers, and most of their fans are deep in middle age now, and aren't likely to plunk down for this set if it's going to jeopardize their kids' college funds.

Link: http://www.spin.com/reviews/the-clash-s ... r-box-set/

And here's a bit of John Moore's 4 1/2 star review in New Noise Magazine:

A note of caution before I get into this review: It is crammed with superlatives. Because if any band is worthy of over-exaggerated praise it’s The Clash (there’s the first).

Like manna from heaven, the gods (the gods being the folks at Legacy and Epic in this case) have parted the clouds and offered a bonanza of music from one of the world’s greatest punk… no it’s bigger than just one subgenre, one of the best rock bands to ever plug in electric guitars and inspire millions of kids in garage bands from Sussex to Santa Fe, to strap on an instrument and rail against the injustices around them.

In the form of 11 CDs and a DVD, a majority of the band’s music is finally collected in one place. First let’s talk songs. This collection houses the band’s five pivotal studio albums in their original format, newly re-mastered by the remaining band members. Starting with their 1977 self-titled debut album (easily one of the best debuts from any band, genre be damned), this record alone – boasting songs like “White Riot,” “London’s Burning,” “Janie Jones” and “I’m So Bored With the USA” – is worth the band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Their sophomore release, Give ‘Em Enough Rope, while a collection of great songs (“Tommy Gun”) didn’t have nearly the impact of that first record, but ‘79’s London Calling, featuring the band’s ever-expanding sound, cemented their reputation as the best thing going in rock music at the time (and still so today). Going well beyond their punk sound to show off snatches of Reggae, funk, jazz, ska and rockabilly, London Calling was a musical revolution spread out over a double album (though priced for the working man as just a single album, which pissed off the label and did wonders to show the band had not drifted to far away from their punk rock roots). Along with the title song, that album also introduced “Rudie Can’t Fail,” “Spanish Bombs,” “Lost in the Supermarket,” “Clampdown” and “Train in Vain” to the world.

Full article: http://newnoisemagazine.com/album-revie ... m-box-set/

This was the first published review, I think. Patrick Sawer gives the box 4 1/2 stars in The Telegraph (here's an excerpt):

The Clash Sound System, the latest offering from what has become the retro recording industry, will only add to a debate that has continued since that spiky cultural movement called punk first exploded on to the British music scene in 1976.

This box set brings together all the band’s albums and singles – at least those recorded by their classic line-up – with previously unreleased tracks and early demo tapes, along with archive film, promotional videos and unseen concert footage.

There are also reproductions of original badges and stickers, a hidden poster, and facsimile editions of two fanzines produced by the band, alongside a collection of essays by those closely associated with the Clash camp, such as film maker and DJ Don Letts, seamstress Alex Michon and the ‘Baker’, band roadie turned blogger.
The content is lovingly packaged in a box neatly dressed-up as one of those giant beat boxes hipsters used to lug around before the advent of the Sony Walkman and the digital revolution that followed.

In 1976, in what can be taken as their founding statement of intent, and yardstick by which the band were subsequently measured, the Clash’s then 24- year-old singer, Joe Strummer, exclaimed: “I think people ought to know that we’re anti-fascist, we’re anti-violence, we’re anti racist and we’re pro-creative. We’re against ignorance.”

Full article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/musi ... eview.html

[Flex]

Not Sound System, exactly, but with the new remasters out Juan Rodriguez at the Montreal Gazette takes the opportunity to argue that Sandinista! is the greatest Clash album. An excerpt:

“I think people ought to know that we’re anti-fascist, we’re anti-violence, we’re anti-racist and we’re pro-creative. We’re against ignorance.” — Joe Strummer, 1976

Snap question: What is the greatest rock album of all-time? A preposterous question, impossible to answer, because there are so many classics of all genres. But fools rush in, so here goes:

After 33 years of listening to it, Sandinista!, the sprawling two-and-a-half-hour epic by The Clash — the greatest so-called punk group — keeps getting better with age. It’s a matchless talisman of the possibilities of rock, created in a concentrated fever over three weeks in New York (Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland studio) and then spells in Jamaica and Britain, a trans-continental odyssey jam-packed with every possible musical influence Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon and their guests could sponge. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more stylistically “absorbent” album.

With this week’s release of their boxed set Sound System, the foursome’s oeuvre remastered (plus many extras), the Clash’s fourth album reflects the group on creative fire, part of a progression so evident in the box. There’s never been a more musically in-your-face work than Sandinista!

But the album’s grandiose ambition — six sides of rock, rap, funk, reggae, peppy Motown pop, rockabilly, calypso, jazz, waltz, gospel, choral, and gobs of dub — presented problems for rock’s arbiters of taste, who charged that Sandinista!, like its title, was “ridiculously self-indulgent.” It was too long, at 144 minutes. (Who do those self-important blokes think they are?) They were accused of betraying their unadorned punk roots. One biographer claimed it “wasn’t an easy album to get your head around back then, and still isn’t now.” (Oh, my.)

Full article: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertai ... story.html

[Dr. Medulla]

Not Sound System, exactly, but with the new remasters out Juan Rodriguez at the Montreal Gazette takes the opportunity to argue that Sandinista! is the greatest Clash album. An excerpt:

“I think people ought to know that we’re anti-fascist, we’re anti-violence, we’re anti-racist and we’re pro-creative. We’re against ignorance.” — Joe Strummer, 1976

Snap question: What is the greatest rock album of all-time? A preposterous question, impossible to answer, because there are so many classics of all genres. But fools rush in, so here goes:

After 33 years of listening to it, Sandinista!, the sprawling two-and-a-half-hour epic by The Clash — the greatest so-called punk group — keeps getting better with age. It’s a matchless talisman of the possibilities of rock, created in a concentrated fever over three weeks in New York (Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland studio) and then spells in Jamaica and Britain, a trans-continental odyssey jam-packed with every possible musical influence Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon and their guests could sponge. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more stylistically “absorbent” album.

With this week’s release of their boxed set Sound System, the foursome’s oeuvre remastered (plus many extras), the Clash’s fourth album reflects the group on creative fire, part of a progression so evident in the box. There’s never been a more musically in-your-face work than Sandinista!

But the album’s grandiose ambition — six sides of rock, rap, funk, reggae, peppy Motown pop, rockabilly, calypso, jazz, waltz, gospel, choral, and gobs of dub — presented problems for rock’s arbiters of taste, who charged that Sandinista!, like its title, was “ridiculously self-indulgent.” It was too long, at 144 minutes. (Who do those self-important blokes think they are?) They were accused of betraying their unadorned punk roots. One biographer claimed it “wasn’t an easy album to get your head around back then, and still isn’t now.” (Oh, my.)

Full article: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertai ... story.html

Greatest? In terms of ambition and demonstrating their curiosity—definitely. That's the album that confirms their place with their post-punk contemporaries that punk was not the end point but a springboard to … something else. Try something, anything, what comes next, keep exploring, it's all up in the air. In terms of results, well, the A is for effort. We all pretty much agree that there's a stellar single album in there, but that doesn't detract from the admirable desire to see what they could do, what might point the way forward in 1980. But the effort is indeed worth an A.

[Silent Majority]

Grading for effort makes me think of Participation Medals.

[Dr. Medulla]

Grading for effort makes me think of Participation Medals.

For some people, being present and a warm body is the best they can do with what they got.

[Silent Majority]

Grading for effort makes me think of Participation Medals.

For some people, being present and a warm body is the best they can do with what they got.

Which is The Crooked Beat. Watching its competitors shoot out in front, while it thinks about giving up smoking.

Or Mensforth Hill. Which lies prone on the race track, screaming horribly, and vomiting green slush all over the floor.

[Flex]

Greatest? In terms of ambition and demonstrating their curiosity—definitely. That's the album that confirms their place with their post-punk contemporaries that punk was not the end point but a springboard to … something else. Try something, anything, what comes next, keep exploring, it's all up in the air. In terms of results, well, the A is for effort. We all pretty much agree that there's a stellar single album in there, but that doesn't detract from the admirable desire to see what they could do, what might point the way forward in 1980. But the effort is indeed worth an A.

I'm actually a lot higher (heh) on S! after the remaster. It's still got mixing and some quality issues, but there's a lot more texture and depth to the album now, which is particularly crucial as you get on with disc 3 and things get dubbier and more soundscape-y. And, as you say, there's an excellent conceptual component to the whole thing.

But purely quality wise, it's still a tough argument to make when those kiddie versions of songs sit on an album.

[Flex]

Which is The Crooked Beat. Watching its competitors shoot out in front, while it thinks about giving up smoking.

I like The Crooked Beat.

[Silent Majority]

Which is The Crooked Beat. Watching its competitors shoot out in front, while it thinks about giving up smoking.

I like The Crooked Beat.

It's good fun, but it ain't winning no races.

[Flex]

It's good fun, but it ain't winning no races.

Well, it comes in second on "best Clash songs sung by Paul"

[Dr. Medulla]

It's good fun, but it ain't winning no races.

Well, it comes in second on "best Clash songs sung by Paul"

RAD wins again!

[Wolter]

It's good fun, but it ain't winning no races.

Well, it comes in second on "best Clash songs sung by Paul"

RAD wins again!

Let's get Ringo to sing this one!