Album Reviews
Now, Mescaleros guitarist Scott Shields and keyboardist Martin Slattery have finished what amounts to Strummer's detailed sketch for the group's third release. Streetcore continues the band's lightly amplified muscular-acoustic sound. Because his restless, barbed self will never be back to shake us awake, it's almost more fun to hear Strummer spill his subconscious in numbers such as "Ramshackle Day Parade" (Marilyn Monroe meets William Burroughs meets U-Roy) than to partake in the sturdy romance-adventure yarn "Coma Girl." A few songs give you an honest-to-goodness pang: The cover of Bobby Charles' "Before I Grow Too Old" (here called "Silver and Gold") is about kissing life on the lips before it's too late. And Strummer wrote his own finest eulogy in "Long Shadow," a number intended -- talk about pangs -- for Johnny Cash: "If you put it all together, you didn't even once relent/You cast a long shadow, and that is your testament/Somewhere in my soul, there's always rock & roll."
MILO MILES
(RS 934, October 30, 2003)
(Posted: Oct 8, 2003)
Click the play button.
Register or enter your username and password.
Let the music play!
It's FREE.
- Coma Girl
- Get Down Moses
- Long Shadow
- Arms Aloft
- Ramshackle Day Parade
- Redemption Song
- All In a Day
- Burnin' Streets
- Midnight Jam
- Silver and Gold
![]() |
Your Turn
Review 1 of 1
jackfreedom writes:
Oh its good to discover Streetcore. I finally got around to belatedly checking out Joe's work with the Mescaleros. I guess I was too much of a Clash fan, and I didn't want to be disappointed. I hadn't heard great things about the Mescaleros discs.
I played it four times straight through. It is authentic Strummer, and I thank the Mescs for bringing it home after Joe's unfortunate departure from the scene, with an unfinished piece of work. They did him proud. It's an unadorned record, but that doesn't mean its not adventurous.
As he says, deep down he will always be rock. He was a rock of a man, and clearly grew in terrific ways. His voice so beautifully matches his lyrics, and his sensitivity beautifully matches his moral strength.
If you gotta go, Joe, Streetcore is a good one to go on.
Feb 20, 2006 21:08:46
Previous Next
Advertisement
More CD Reviews
-
The Academy Is. . .
Fast Times At Barrington High -
Various Artists
Everything that Happens Will Happen Today -
Ra Ra Riot
The Rhumb Line -
The Dandy Warhols
Earth To The Dandy Warhols -
Death Vessel
Nothing is Precious Enough For Us -
Ice Cube
Raw Footage -
Staind
The Illusion Of Progress -
Elton John
Tumbleweed Connection -
Jonas Brothers
A Little Bit Longer -
Loudon Wainwright III
Recovery
Hear it Now
View
Email
AIM
Del.icio.us
DiggThis
Fark It!




- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.