10 Biggest Sophomore Slumps In Music History
4. Give Em Enough Rope - The Clash
Most of the Clash's catalog has gone down as the holy grail of music in most punk circles. Aside from the uber politics laced throughout every single one of Joe Strummer's tracks, the amount of melody coming from Mick Jones on their self titled debut and London Calling are the stuff of musical genius. Sandwiched in between those two we have Give Em Enough Rope though, which could be best described as a treading water album.
For a Clash release, this is still up to their standard, with most of the songs being about the unrest being felt in England around the same time. There are even some standout singles on here like Stay Free and Safe European Home, each of which show the charm of the Clash in a few short minutes. The only problem is...well...the rest of the album, which is up to its gills with filler.
As much as songs like Tommy Gun and Janie's Been Working for the Drug Squad are a lot of fun, having a reinterpretation of a traditional tune for English Civil War just feels a bit too on brand for the group at this point. While this might be able to please the punk rock traditionalists, it feels a touch half baked coming from the band that was known to play around with different sounds.