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London Calling by the Clash.
Their past two albums were amazing and ground breaking, but all firmly footed within one genre: state of the art 70s punk. One-two-three-four.
Then suddenly, out of nowhere, London Calling comes along, and just jumps all over the place. Ska. R&B. Jazz. Folk. Rockabilly. Reggae. Whatever the hell Lover's Rock is. It just goes everywhere. And even weirder, it's all fucking fantastic.
In terms of songwriting it's equally insane, covering issues such as the Spanish Civil War (Spanish Bombs), the life and times of Montgomery Clift (The Right Profile), a murder investigation among a bunch of fucked up junkies (Jimmy Jazz), the tale of Staggar Lee (Wrong 'em Boyo), contemporary problems of gang and police violence (Guns of Brixton), how we all end up as slaves to the same system we start out trying to defeat (Clampdown), and how little room there is left for humanity in modern living (Lost in the Supermarket).
Or, perhaps most tellingly, the title track itself: a distress call, nodding back to BBC wartime broadcasts starting with "this is London Calling". The song fittingly kicks off the album with a doomsday scenario declaring the death of punk itself, coming from the most important band in the genre at the time. It's the end of the 70s, the hype around punk is over, if it was ever real to begin with.
London Calling
Now don't look to us
Phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust
What an amazing freaking album.