The middle three Clash albums
No. 5 - Sandinista! (1980)
Somehow the band must have had a lot of songs written between 1979 and 1980 because they were able to put out two extremely long records. This is a three-LP album that features 36 songs. What the group should have done is dwindled down to about 18 songs and released the rest as bonus tracks or a B-side compilation. Had they done that, Sandinista! might have been one of the better rock albums of the decade.
"Police on My Back," "Somebody Got Murdered," and "Charlie Don't Surf" are all brilliant, but the weirdness of re-doing "Career Opportunities" (from the band's debut LP) with children singing misses the mark. Plus, there are far too many overdubs to make this a cohesive album.
No. 4 - Give 'Em Enough Rope (1978)
This would be most other groups' best album. The production is better than the Clash's first record and there are a number of strong songs. "Tommy Gun" is fantastic, for example. Opener "Safe European Home" makes it clear this album will sound different than the band's first record. "Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad" is as coolly weird as it sounds.
The record just doesn't have the abundance of great tracks that the best three of the band's albums do. Still, this is a must-own LP for any fan of punk.
No. 3 - Combat Rock (1982)
After making a double-LP, followed by a triple-LP, the Clash then created another double-LP with Combat Rock. But during the mixing for the record, it was cut down to a single record and the world is likely better for it. The Clash were never afraid to experiment with sounds and that led to one bloated album (Sandinista!) and could have led to many more had they not gotten input to make their albums a bit tighter.
This record features some of the band's best-known songs such as "Should I Stay or Should I Go" and "Rock the Casbah." Both of these songs have been played so much over the last four decades that they almost seem poppy now. But there are other great tunes on the album and enough weirdness to make any Clash fan happy.