Cut the Crap by The Clash

Cut the Crap, the sixth and last Clash album, came out on 4 November 1985, and it's the sound of a great band being taken apart in the studio. Mick Jones and Topper Headon were gone, with Vince White and Nick Sheppard brought in on guitar and Pete Howard on drums, and the sessions at Weryton Studios in Munich became a tug-of-war between Joe Strummer and manager Bernie Rhodes, who produced under the alias "Jose Unidos" and lifted the title from a line in Mad Max 2.

Rhodes won the mix, and it shows: a drum machine where Howard should be, samples bolted on, Norman Watt-Roy of the Blockheads playing all the bass, the new guitarists barely audible and Paul Simonon nowhere on the record. The UK press savaged it, and Strummer disowned it and broke up the Clash within weeks. Still, later critics have dug "This Is England", "Dirty Punk" and "Three Card Trick" out from under the brash plastic, praising Strummer's writing and singing.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.