Amazon.co.uk Review
Despite the tepid production by metal guru Sandy Pearlman, the Clash's sophomore album,
Give 'Em Enough Rope, manages to burn with white-hot intensity. Though not as amateurish or snarling as their debut album,
Rope finds the boys flexing their songwriting muscles. The first three songs ("Safe European Home", "English Civil War", and "Tommy Gun") stand among their most powerful and leap from the record with brute force. Though they hit a few clunkers ("Cheapskates"), this album is a near classic and gives a hint of the band to come that would light up the world with
London Calling.
--Tod Nelson
CD Description
Sensing the emollient rattle of punk was an artistic dead end, the Clash took an abrupt volte-face and invited AmericanSandy Pearlman to produce their second album. Respected forhis work with Blue Oyster Cult and the Dictators, Pearlman introduced a sheen that disturbed purists but introduced theClash to a wider audience. The clear sound brought a new emphasis to the quartet's internal interplay and allowed the material to stand up in its own right. GIVE EM ENOUGH ROPE contains several of the band's most popular songs, which rangefrom the defiant "Tommy Gun" to the sensitive "Stay Free", a contrast confirming the Clash's wider musical ambitions.