Sound System

Most box sets are designed to enshrine an artist in the amber of posterity. The idea is that the artist has transcended their time, that they can now be appreciated outside of the context of their era. The digital age, where recordings from the past sit comfortably with tunes from the present, accelerates this trend, suggesting that all the classic artists exist upon their own continuum, that their development was almost a product of self-divination. What is interesting about is that it throws this notion out the window and celebrates the era that produced as much as it celebrates the band itself. As designed by bassist , looks like an old-school ghetto blaster, and it's filled with replicas of fanzines, stickers, badges, press photos, posters, dog tags -- all manner of period-specific tchotchkes that walk the line between nostalgia and commercial art. This aesthetic trickles down to the presentation of the music itself, with split over two CDs where it could easily fit onto one and taking up a full three discs. Such details slightly impede playability if is listened to as a series of CDs, but once the set is ripped and listened to digitally, the divided discs are simply another design flourish, one of many little things to appreciate. But is also attractive in delivering what effectively is the Complete Clash in one sitting. Apart from the disowned , all the albums are here -- the U.K. version of -- along with three discs of extras that include all the non-LP singles (i.e., the singles that were added to the U.S. pressing of the debut, plus everything that wound up on the clearinghouse , such as the EP), oddities that appeared on the first box in 1991, and B-sides; then, most attractively for collectors, previously unreleased mixes, outtakes from , "extracts" from the band's first recording session in 1976, demos from that same year produced by , and six live cuts from the Lyceum in 1979. Then, there's the DVD which contains all the band's promo videos, the Clash on Broadway video, the White Promo Film, footage from Sussex University in 1977, and individual selections from compatriots and . Perhaps there are still some stray tracks in the vaults -- this seems to excavate all the unheard songs from , aka the original version of and some cuts may be left behind -- but this is as complete as we'll get and if it doesn't present any fresh revelations, it brings 's era back to life, both sonically and visually. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine