10 Sophomore Slump Albums By Amazing Bands

In the age when punk seemed all about destruction, the Clash really lived up to their tagline of the Only Band That Mattered. The Sex Pistols may have been better ambassadors for the punk aesthetic and the Ramones may have had the pop melodies, but the Clash felt like the future on their first record, letting the rest of the world know that the world could change within the 3 minute span of a good rock and roll song. And if one version of resistance worked, then why not try to do the entire thing over again?

For the most part, what turns up on Give Em Enough Rope is just a rehash of the same uber politics that coated the first album, with just a little bit more reggae flavoring this time around. While the main singles for this album like Safe European Home and Tommy Gun go off like gangbusters, the rest of the record is pretty much a pick and choose kind of outing, sounding a lot more like a companion piece to the debut than a proper follow up.

And if the Clash were trying to bank on their pop sensibilities at this point, mining traditional battle songs on English Civil War and naming songs Julie’s Been Working For the Drug Squad didn’t really do much to endear them to the kind of audience that got off on songs like I Fought the Law and Complete Control. The Clash were about so much more than just loud guitars and political doctrine, but if you just heard this album after the debut, you would have thought that these guys might actually be a one trick pony.