When dealing with certain recordings, you just can't help feeling that any positive comments will seem like stating the obvious. In these cases, I like to overstate the obvious. That said, London Calling is a major landmark in the geography of human history. This coming week you can kneel down and tremble in the long shadow of its 25th anniversary by purchasing the new 3-disc edition (2 CDs, 1 DVD). The second CD contains the legendarily missing "Vanilla Tapes," offering demos from the London Calling sessions, including 5 tracks that never made the final release. Of course, if you don't already own the album, you can be forgiven if you opt for the plain-vanilla version, since London Calling is a masterpiece and, as such, doesn't require any extraneous adornment.

Harold Check