Alfred

Case for:

This album marks the point in The Clash's career when they made the transition from punk rock to a more Raggae/Ska based sound. While, I, myself am not a fan of The Clash's decision to experiment witho ther genres, and wish they would have done more punk rock in their later career, actually enjoyed this album very much. When they did a genre on this album, they did it damn well.

The album starts with London Calling, a friggin' epic song. The lyrics are well written and apocalyptic. I love the beat, and I dig the bass. It's pretty much a combination of everything The Clash ever did. It's a punk song, with a raggae bass line, and an almost swingy beat. Probably my favorite track on the album.

The next song is a cover of Vince Taylor's Brand New Cadillac. I must admit, I haven't heard the original, but I don't care. I love this song. It's fifties rock 'n' roll mixed with The Clash's punk rock sound. I especially love the part when the song picks up and gets angrier (as in gets faster, thicker, and the vocals get more passionate). Love it.

Rudie Can't Fail is one of the best examples of The Clash experimenting with genres and doing it well. It's a catchy ska song that makes excellent use of a horn section.

Clampdown is reminiscent of The Clash's older work, but brings a more hard rock feel to punk rock. Like Brand New Cadillac, it has a part that picks up and it gets angrier. They did an amazing job on it. The song is catchy as hell.

Other notable songs include the raggae influenced (and the latter is all out raggae) Koka Kola and The Guns Of Brixton, Wrong Em' Boyo (an amazing track), and the rock songs I'm Not Down (love the bass line) and Death Or Glory.

Train In Vain, however is considered to be among The Clash's best songs. That one doesn't do it for me. It's boring, and extremely repetative

Overall it's an awesome album. A very good showcase of The Clash's sound. Their later experimentation with different genres was nowhere near as good as it is on this album. This is one of the definitive rock albums.

Edit: Sorry, I was writing this when you posted all that. Apologies.

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Strummer521

I think I'm gonna have to jump in, guns blazing, to defend Astral Weeks when it comes time. Love that album!

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Son of JayJamJah

I am with you Strummer, I will also defend Zep4 although jacks review is very fair, it comes down to his opinion to invalidate it

Led Zeppelin IV: "The Case Against" counterpoint

I won't even try to argue it as the best all-time, but it's a classic and deservedly so.

From end to end it's pure, passionate rock that spoke to it's audience like no mo music ever has before or since.

It was recorded right as the band reached the height of its popularity, when they were without question the biggest band in the world and features multiple of rock and roll standards excepted and endorsed by todays experts and musicians.

Stairway to Heaven is so good that despite the inevitable visceral disgust you feel when you hear it for the 20 millionth time, upon objective evaluation is a fantastic song that has earned it's respect.

When the Levee Breaks is one of Bonham's greatest performance's; forget what it "inspired" the Beatles, Stones etc inspired some of the worst music ever, that's not on them.

The dramatic opening is so good it makes you laugh the first few times you hear it.

You can identify 6 of the 8 songs within the first 6 notes.

So Good It has no official name. Man with Sticks c'mon, brilliant.

Led Zeppelin is of course a favorite of mine and though not my favorite artist ever, in my opinion the best ever. I am not objective in my fandum but I feel like there are far more non-emotional points to be made for then against.

sleepy jack

I'm going to three musketeer this pro-astral weeks campaign.

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Piss Me Off

I'll happily back up London Calling if the time comes. I'd try a Zep4 case against but Jackhammer summed up my feelings well. They're songs that are good at first but tire very quickly, i only really come back to Rock n' Roll.

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Last FM
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Muxtape

Urban Hat€monger ?

And was never even supposed to be on the album.

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Strummer521

Alfred...you need to beef up your statements. Twice, you say that the music "gets angrier." Maybe you could describe what actually happens in the song that leads you to interpret certain moments as "angrier" than others. Describe the music just as much as your reaction to it.

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boo boo

Instead you get crap like this.

Sometimes you just have to accept failure.

How many goddamn ****ing times do I have to tell you? Not only that Zeppelin only stole lyrics not riffs but even so you're compelled to mention it all the goddamn time when describing any of their music, what riffs were stolen on this album? None, you didn't even give an example and thats because you can't, yeah you'll pull the whole Taurus thing out of your ass and with complete disregard for how horrible an example it is. Its completely irrelevant for you even to bring this **** up, you can't just express you're dislike for the album, you just GOTTA TROLL, and you're obviously trolling because i've already told you god knows how many damn times how it annoys me and that I'd wish you would stop.

Phew, anyway Jack. You can't change someones perceptions of the music they listen to, most peoples tastes are written in stone, if you think you're rantings about an album is gonna have any impact on other peoples perceptions about it, you're in lalaland.

I'd be no good at this. But



The case against:

I'm not gonna bother reviewing this song for song (they're barely distinguishable anyway) because that means I would have to revisit this album since I deleted it from my computer, to hell with that, this was incredibly boring, like mad insane boring. I've heard 5 minute Yngwie Malmsteen acoustic guitar solos that are less boring than this. I've never been one to value music because of its lyrics, thats the only thing that explains the appeal of this boring lad who both sings and plays guitar like he's on a sedative.

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It's only knock n' knowall, but I like it

http://www.last.fm/user/kingboobs

Seltzer

Have you listened to Bryter Layter?

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ProggyMan

Yah, Five Leaves Left has a good mix of everything he's done while maintaining a unique sound of it's own.