Sony BMG レコード& CD

Review: Like owning a little piece of history with a bonus memoir, The Clash's Combat Rock was - is - the band's best selling album of all time and highest charting in both the US and UK. This was also the last time Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon would record together before the lineup changed, and the track list contains at least two of the outfit's most recognised songs - namely 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' and 'Rock the Casbah'.

The original version of the LP was less expansive than this special edition released to mark 40 years since the long-player went on sale. The addition of The People's Hall offers fans a chance to relish in no less than 12 extra tracks, including collaborations with the legendary Ranking Roger - 'Rock the Casbah' and 'Red Angel Dragnet' - the iconic late-frontman of The Beat more than ideally suited to the crew's sound.

Review: Album number five from legendary British post-punk and New Wavers The Clash was first unveiled on 14th May 1982. 40 years on it finds itself the centre of attention once more, re-released both in this original version and an extended edition with bonus record The People's Hall. Sticking to this outing, fans will likely already know that the record as it was first intended remains the band's most successful of all time, outselling all that came before or after and charting higher than any other in the US and UK alike.

Respectively hitting number seven and number two in the charts of the day, and spending 23 weeks in the top 40 albums in Britain and a mammoth 61 weeks in the LP league tables Stateside, today it's a double-platinum testament to just how potent the combination of Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon was. The last record to feature that iteration of the outfit, tracks like 'Rock the Casbah' and 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' remain utterly timeless.