Word: strummerã
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Discovering a really good new album offers many of the pleasures of exploring a new city or country, full of unknown history, odd geography and surprising characters. Streetcore is no exception: The final album by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, it is a ramshackle, raucous trip through Strummer??s wires. Alas, it is the last of its kind: at the end of 2002, several months before the album’s release, Joe Strummer, former frontman of punk originators The Clash, died of a heart attack. See what I mean about history...
...album kicks off with the attention-grabbing single “Coma Girl” which sounds like vintage Clash, only more pop- and reggae-tinged than the Clash ever permitted themselves. Strummer??s voice is guttural and slovenly, the antithesis of all that is slick and shiny in contemporary music. The tinge of age in Strummer??s voice gives his lyrics a classiness and authority that can’t be bought or faked, particularly on folksy ballads like “Long Shadow.” Strummer even carries off a straight-up cover...
When punk-rock legend Joe Strummer died of a heart attack last December at the age of 50, the music world let out a collective cry. Streetcore, Strummer??s unfinished finale, was left to his band the Mescaleros to piece together. Although the album does not match the classic songwriting he displayed with Mick Jones over twenty years ago on The Clash and London Calling, Streetcore is an enjoyable tribute to Strummer??s unforgettable career, passionate and rough around the edges...
Illusions to Strummer??s past abound. “Arms Aloft in Aberdeen” recalls his days with The Clash when he asks, “May I remind you of that scene?” “Midnight Jam” features vocal samples echoing the words “this is London calling.” “Burnin’ Streets” poignantly chants “London is burning,” but trades the raucous and youthful frustration of “London’s Burning?...
...between the rousing power-pop of “Coma Girl” and “All in a Day” lilts the touching ballad “Long Shadow.” Though written for Johnny Cash, the lyrics easily fit Strummer??s own life when he concludes, “somewhere in my soul / there’s always rock and roll.” Like Cash, Strummer will live on forever in his rightful place as a rock and roll icon...
| 1 |