Cut the Crap

The Clash | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 6, 1994)
• Original Release Date: 1985
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000002ART
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #207,072 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Remastered mid-price reissue of their final album, originally released in 1985. Featuring the classic 'This Is England'and as a bonus track, it's b-side, 'Do It Now'. 2000 release. Standard jewelcase. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A disappointing album that still deserves a review, September 20, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Cut the Crap (Audio CD)

"Cut the Crap" is by far the worst Clash album ever recorded, to the extent that it's not even considered a real Clash album by most people. This is in part due to singer/song-writer Joe Strummer completely denouncing the album, which in essence made it alright for everyone else to as well. Yet how many people have really even listened to it? Most reviews simply say this album is terrible and leave it at that, but as the Clash's swan song it at least deserves a review.

Aside from the lack of Mick Jones, there are a few key differences between this album and other Clash albums. Joe Strummers songs are mediocre; not terrible, while the production is awful. The songs often sound overly synthed, like the worst of all 80's music, and provide a strong contrast to the intended grittiness of the album. The grittiness, for that mattter, doesn't particularly work either. Strummer's otherwise alright songs are ruined by three punk kids snarling and shouting the choruses as if they've been drinking in a pub. It certianly adds an element of intensity missing from Combat Rock, yet even at it's best it's merely distracting. After three excellent diverse rock albums, returning to stripped down punk just seems a little bit regressive.

And on the plus side? Strummer's voice sounds pretty good, not great, but it's still Strummer wailing away. A few of the songs make this new sound work as well, "Dictator," is great and raw, while the slow "This Is England" is surprisingly haunting and atmospheric, with a chorus ("This is England/This is hell...") that's probably the most memorable thing on the album.

I still can't recommend this album to anyone, even the biggest Clash fans, but I just wanted to point out that it's not completely without merit: some advocates of raw 80s punk might actually enjoy this. Fans of the Clash's early material and of later punk movements occasionally do embrace this album as underrated, but fans of the band's best, most experimental work such as Sandinsta, no matter how open minded, will likely be unable to listen to this all the way through. Every other Clash album, even b-side collections and live albums, have almost unlimited replay value, but this Cd gathers dust in just about every collection. If you've already collected all of the other material by the Clash, allow me to suggest trying Joe Strummer's latest two solo CDs, Rock Art and X-Ray style and Global A-Go-Go. They're fantastic, mature and sincere, and like the Clash's best work, draw from a variety of influences. They're everything this album isn't.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "Collectable" (read: sparingly purchased) sixth Clash album,, February 9, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Cut the Crap (Audio CD)

You wouldn't get into many fights going around saying Cut The Crap wasn't the best Clash album. Released in their final year of trading (1985), imagine a Beatles album recorded in 1971 without Paul or Ringo. The mighty Topper Headon had left under a drugs cloud in '82, and co-songwriter Mick Jones was thrown out in '83, but Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon (casting themselves as the "wise men") soldiered on with three "street kids" (according to the sleeve), and recorded this 40-minute suicide note, under whose wonky beatbox, Pistols riffs and terrace anthems Strummer's unique personality is buried. It contains a song called "We Are The Clash", but they weren't - The Clash were the greatest rock'n'roll band in the world.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Every Band has a Swan Song, November 2, 2003

By 

Tim Brough "author and music buff" (Springfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Cut the Crap (Audio CD)

...and this is The Clash's. Had it been released as a Joe Strummer solo record, it might not have inspired the vitriol that it did on original release. But that Strummer and manager Bernie Rhoades had the nads to include "We Are The Clash" as a song pretty much guaranteed that "Cut The Crap" was soon going to be known as "Pull The Plug." There was exactly one great song here in "This Is England." I have since dropped "Cut The Crap" from my library since that song's appearance on "The Essential Clash."

Other than that, if you must have all that The Clash and their spin-offs have recorded, "Dictator" and "Movers and Shakers" have some appeal. Tis a skippable CD, afterwards.