Since first hearing London Calling, the Clash is now one of my all-time favorite bands. I think the tracks on Combat Rock are even more prominent than London Calling. The album does have top hit songs, “Rock the Casbah” (my personal favorite on the album) and “Should I Stay or Should I Go” (which I’ve never been impressed by).

The album sounds much darker and has harder percussion than London Calling. I’m not sure if it was an entirely cultural choice–Thatcher was elected in 1979, the year the first album was released, and the Miner’s Strike was systematically dismantled. The Clash maintains their left-wing political chops here; there are songs opposed to Vietnam and Islamic fundamentalism, for instance. The issue is that it simply is not as good.

But, I can say–now that I’ve listened to it–that I know M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” relies on samples from this song. I knew I heard it somewhere before, and–when the song played–I almost saang along with M.I.A.’s version.