The one thing about tribute albums is that no matter how hard the covering artists try, they can never top or even match the original versions of the songs they're covering. There are exceptions to this rule, but rare they are. In any case the rule is painfully obvious on "Burning London: The Clash Tribute." Some of the songs are either just plain boring, like No Doubt's "Hateful" and Mighty Mighty Bosstones' "Rudie Can't Fail," or they just sound exactly like originals of the covering bands, like Rancid's typical skater-punk version of "Cheat" and 311's ska-ish version of "White Man in Hammersmith Palais." Some of the dreadful experiments are Ice Cube and Mack 10's terrible hip-hop version of "Should I Stay or Should I Go" (complete with a cheesy incorporated rap), the Indigo Girls' schmaltzy acoustic version of "Clampdown," and Cracker's drunk-cowboy country version of "White Riot." Two of the more tolerable covers are Third Eye Blind's super-catchy (even if it is too poppy) version of "Train in Vain," and Silverchair's blistering version of "London's Burning," which sounds like it's straight from the punk-rock underground of the late 70's or early 80's. The only two standout tracks really worth listening to are the Afghan Whigs' emotional version of "Lost in the Supermarket" and Moby and Heather Nova's truly heartfelt synthesized version of "Straight to Hell." You'll find yourself popping this CD in just to listen to these two songs; they're that good of covers. However, as we've all learned from tribute albums before, it's best to just listen to the originals.