Over the years, have bought plenty of albums that I wish I hadn't bothered with. Oasis were good at that in the end, over expectation with disappointing tracks thrown together. But the one that still disappoints me most now after all these years is; The Clash and 'SANDINISTA' Utter C*** from England's finest band at the time.
Actually, I think the OP may be right - Sandinista may just have been pared down to a reasonable or possibly quite good - single album. Stretching it out into a triple album was madness - at the time I did think it was to do with getting it up CBS who made a song and dance about releasing London Calling - a double album - for the price of a single LP. That doesn't take away from Sandinista being packed chock full of filler and self indulgent twaddle ( the version of "career opportunities" being a special irritation of mine ). Overall it seemed totally contrived compared to the utterly unbeatable London Calling. In their defence just how do you follow London Calling though ? Maybe one day I will sit down and compile the imaginary follow up album with the best stuff from Sandinista and Combat Rock, plus Bankrobber single. Good call PoD.
I came across it in the loft yesterday, minus record 3 which I think became an ash tray one night a long time ago. There were a few decent half songs on it - Police On My Back especially. As for 'Career Opportunities' - basically a p*** take. Just a let down overall. At least when 'Combat Rock' came out, they had found sense and taken the mixing off Mick Jones. The original mix for the album 'Rat Patrol from Fort Bragg' was different from the version released under 'Combat Rock'. Thankfully they pared it back this time.
'Push' by Bros has to be the biggest let-down in pop music history. A decent track "When will I be famous?" got many people excited... it had nothing to do with how the boys in the band looked Take the time to listen to the cd if you get a chance... you'll find a copy at every car-boot sale anywhere, ever. It's actually so bad, that i've kept my copy to this very day...
I never got into The Clash I always thought they were too contrived. My mate was fanatical about them at the time and I couldn't really stand that album. He still thinks it's a classic. It's good to hear that other Clash fans don't hold the same opinion. I agree London Calling was a far superior piece of music. Music is highly subjective anyway. Albums I was really disappointed in were Bowie's "Let's Dance". It was massively popular though. I just thought after the ENO/Berlin stuff that it was really poor. Led Zeppelin's "In through the out door" was another. Neil Young's albums for Geffen, (although some of it was pretty funny and he began to really take the piss). Steely Dan's early 2000's comeback albums did nothing for me. Pink Floyd's "The Wall" was one I hated and got into later. "The Long Run" by The Eagles, "A blessing and a curse" by The Truckers, "Raise the pressure" by Electronic and "Midnight to midnight" by The Psychedelic Furs are other albums I was really underwhelmed with after really anticipating their release.