mix. The guitars are also prominent, but the percussion is again supplied by a drum machine. Lennox described it as a "tuneful, beautifully crafted overview of social decay in England, where political philosophies joust for hegemony while the country sinks into ignominious decline and millions of youths turn to the dole." The lyrics convey societal alienation, lamenting the national mood in 1985; the line "South Atlantic wind blows" refers to the Falklands War. Writing for Vulture in 2017, writer Bill Wyman described the song as the only successful track on Cut the Crap, writing that "the sound collage and the gentle, troubled synth lines undergird the song unerringly, and for once the group-shouted chorus, though still over-loud, conveys some wan meaning. This can't have been a good time for Strummer, and you can hear it in his voice, as he sings the fuck out of this." The production of the live favourite "Three Card Trick" has been praised as relatively uncluttered, although it does contain programmed hand-claps. Jucha said that the live version was good enough to have appeared on any Clash album, and that Strummer had developed a real skill for writing mid-tempo songs. The track begins as a straightforward punk song with a simple ska bassline. Writer Mark Andersen described "Fingerpoppin'" and "Play to Win" as essentially B-side-quality songs that should have been excluded from the track listing. The latter is a sound collage which Popoff views as incoherent and basically "noise, bongos, and nonsensical fragmented conversations between Joe and Vince". Although the drums are considered too low in the mix, and the shouted choruses have been described as resembling Adam and the Ants, its demo version is considered superior. The penultimate track "North and South" was written and sung by Sheppard. It features a simple guitar line and uncluttered production, and has often been highlighted as one of the album's strongest tracks. The album closer, "Life Is Wild", is the only track which had not been played live before. Its chorus, stylistically akin to the punk subgenre Oi!, was described by Popoff as a "curious thumping party rocker that makes little sense" and begged the question why a songwriter of Strummer's ability would write "such banalities". Sleeve art and title The album cover was conceived by Rhodes, who contracted Mike Laye to shoot the pictures. The artwork was sub-contracted to Eddie King and Jules Balme, the art