10 Most Ambitious Rock Albums Ever Made

10. Sandinista - The Clash

As punk entered the '80s, the Clash had come a long way from the punk squats of London. With their debut and Give Em Enough Rope being straight ahead punk affairs, their epic double album London Calling marked the beginning of the band's expansion, as they started to toy with styles like rockabilly, classic rock, and reggae. It was already an impressive feat, but there was room for improvement.

By the time the band got around to releasing Sandinista in 1980, they had taken a quantum leap from the genre that birthed them. Instead of being just thrashing guitars and biting lyrics, this almost felt like the band's answer to world music, incorporating everything from the new sounds of post punk to dub tracks. Venturing everywhere from their home country to Jamaica, the entire triple record runs like an extended playlist of any music the band was into, with classics tunes like "The Magnificent Seven" in between the more experimental cuts.

The band even had the guts to have a new track not featuring any member up front, with Tymon Dogg taking over on "Lose This Skin." Though Sandinista has been accused of being too bloated for its own good, it's still a ride worth going down if you want to hear just how musically diverse this band could get.