The Clash - Career Opportunities (1977)

The Clash's debut album is still impressive in the ferocity of its attack and arguably unparalleled in its polemic. A wall of cacophonous sound from punk guitars provides the backdrop for the great, late Joe Strummer's lyrics. The music's rawness and cheapness (metaphorically and literally: the album cost just 4000 pounds to make) only enhances the album's lyrical content. The Clash can very well be the quintessential punk rock record - even more than Never Mind the Bollocks - and its influence is immeasureable.
Strummer left nothing untackled: boredom and television-induced apathy in "London's Burning"; the americanisation of UK culture in "I'm So Bored with the USA"; the anesthetised white British youth (as opposed to the rebellious black youth) in the rallying cry that is "White Riot"; and the lack of jobs - or the grimness of those available - in "Career Opportunities".
"They offered me the office, they offered me the shop. They said I'd better take anything they got" Strummer sings in the latter. He then starts counting the possible career opportunities: "Do you wanna make tea at the BBC?" or "Do you really wanna be a cop?" asks Strummer angrily, before shouting "I hate the army and I hate the RAF". Career prospects: not looking good at all.