Joe Strummer

If you loved the Clash, you loved Joe Strummer, and if you loved Joe, you'd love his final solo album no matter what. But Streetcore gives you many more reasons to worship it: pitch-perfect rockers, groovy dub explorations, typically brilliant lyrics and a powerful acoustic cover of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song."

When Joe Strummer was around to take for granted, most of his solo projects seemed sadly
desultory: Strummer's passion was never in question, but his band the Mescaleros
suggested a toy Clash with more world-music spice. In his unexpected absence, however,
their 2001 second album, Global A Go-Go, sounds stronger, more plugged into current
conundrums, even as his old bandmate Mick Jones' Big Audio Dynamite records... More >

Joe Strummer mellowed brilliantly in life. He raised three kids, avoiding pimping himself, kept his ideals while modulating his anger. But he never focused that brilliance artistically, probably because focus wasn't his thing--the two-minute intensity of The Clash was an aberration. The Mescaleros' world-music wanderings proceed directly from 1981's Sandinista! and are best joined on 2001's Global a Go Go. This follow-up was largely complete when Strummer died in 2002, only without vocals on two reportedly rousing songs that are therefore omitted--and also, oddly, without much international color or guest flourish. Strummer is probably telling Bob Marley about its folk-rock skank right now. But there's small chance Marley will return the favor of his "Redemption Song" cover even for "Coma Girl," a lament for a lost youth culture Bob's grateful he never had to describe. (Grade - **)