The Clash
Strengths: Awesome musicians, especially for a punk band. They had an intellegent and authentic vibe to them, which goes a looooong way. Great melodies. Love the experimental edge they had. Very large and eclectic mix of songs that you can never really get sick of.
Weaknesses: Lots of filler on Sandinista! I know it was pretty much them just recording whatever they wanted but much of it really wasn't neccesary. There were some absolutely awesome songs on that album and it could have been so much better as a whole without some of the filler. Combat Rock is even worse because about half of the songs suck and there's only 12. The only album of theirs which doesn't have at least one crap song is Give 'Em Enough Rope, which is a shame because it was just a punk album.
Alexisonfire
Strengths: Incredible amount of energy and emotion in their first two albums. Many great individual songs. Dallas Green is a great singer, and George Pettit is a great screamer. At the end of the day they're a bunch of fun guys.
Weaknesses: Wade can occasionally get in the way, on Crisis they sounded eerily like Rise Against, "Keep It On Wax" has a TERRIBLE chorus. Their albums are getting increasingly polished, and one of the things that made their debut so good is that it was so raw.
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