OK, so it doesn't have an exclamation mark in the title. Without or without the exclamation, this is an album that all Clash fans should have but probably don't know about. This compilation combines a lot of B-sides and random songs that either were never released or singles and stuff that were just forgotten through the cracks of time. (Yes, I did just combine two metaphors there.) Either way, it's worth it. As for any albums of this sort, most of the songs were left off albums for a reason. Nevertheless, considering how prolific the Clash were, you would have to imagine that they wrote plenty of great songs that they just couldn't all fit on the damn record.
"City of the Dead" is a song with an unbelievably catchy sax riff, and one of the best on the album, and the more well-known "This is Radio Clash," another song with some nice saxes in there. It's got some interesting instrumental tracks, like "Listen" and "Time is Tight," and "Mustapha Dance," which for the first three minutes is kind of like an instrumental intro to "Rock the Casbah" - or, on second listen, perhaps it's part of the original song with the vocals and some instruments taken out. It's also got a sort of strange rendition of Toots and the Maytals' "Pressure Drop." It's a decent Clash song as long as you don't listen to the original, and unfortunately I heard the original first, so I'll forever be cringing slightly when I hear their take, which takes a lot of the groove out of the original. The highlights, though, are perhaps "Justice Tonight - Kick it Over" and "Robber Dub" (which cam from "Bank Robber"), in which the Clash try their hand at dub and do not do bad at all.
My only complaint: it doesn't include the fantastic "White Man (In Hammersmith Palais)," the best song the Clash never put on an album. In fact, it's probably better than every song on Give 'em Enough Rope, with perhaps the exception of "Tommy Gun."
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