10 Rock Bands That Only Have One Bad Album
6. The Clash
Bad Album: Cut the Crap
Every single Clash album had always carried some level of importance behind it. Whether it was the clarion call of punk rock on London Calling or even the wild experimentation of something like Combat Rock, you couldn't deny the conviction behind them, with Joe Strummer and Mick Jones selling punks on the idea of music having an impact on the rest of the world. Once you take Jones out of the equation though, things started to go downhill really fast.
After the touring for Combat Rock, Jones ended up getting kicked out of the group by Strummer for what he deemed as selling out by punk standards. Drafting in an almost entirely new lineup for the Clash, Strummer and Paul Simonon went in to make Cut the Crap, which turned into one of the biggest travesties in punk history. Compared to the more aggressive stuff coming from the likes of the Ramones, this feels like the neutered version of what punk should be, from the shoutalong chorus of We Are the Clash to the stupid subject matter of Fingerpoppin.
Though there is one shining light in This is England, it feels less like a good Clash song and more like a shroud to put across Strummer in the group's final days. While the Clash had the music world by the throat for most of their career, this is evidence of how far the Only Band That Mattered could sink.