Big Audio Dynamite: No. 10 Upping Street - 1987
After a successful debut album, ex-Clash guitarist Mick Jones returned with an even better album with his new band.
Once again, it is an interesting mix of musical influences and is full of what were vast becoming their trademark - plenty of movie and musical sampling. It is one of my favourite eighties albums, a positive oasis in a comparatively arid time for music. For me, too, it is slightly more appealing and effective than the band's debut album. The samples are more plentiful and used really well. On this album, Mick Jones re-united with his old Clash mate Joe Strummer. Many said not before time, either. The result was a great album.
From the upbeat, hip-hop influenced opener C'mon Every Beatbox, through the nostalgic, sensitive Beyond The Pale (about Jones' grandparents and their emigration to the UK from Russia) to the fast paced, dance-style Limbo The Law and the Brazilian strains of Sambadrome, complete with authentic football commentary, the old "side one" is impressive. The presence of Strummer seemed to be bringing the best out in Jones, and vice versa.
The next batch of songs are just as good - the melodic V Thirteen, the slightly clumsy but equally humorous Ticket and the laid back grooves of Hollywood Boulevard, with its references to Errol Flynn and Oliver Reed, and Dial A Hitman both of which are highly amusing in places, lyrically, and the closer, the urgent, punchy Strummer vibe of Sightsee M.C. Good stuff all round.
I have to admit, though, that it sounds a tiny bit dated now, in places, but not enough to seriously detract from its merits. In a way, it could be possibly be how The Clash would have sounded by 1986, had the most successful line up stayed together. For me, it is a much better album than Combat Rock, by far. More cohesive, more melodic, lyrically more incisive and clever, more catchy.
