Strummer's score for the film Walker is a disappointment, whether taken as a rock album (which it isn’t) or as an exercise in approximating Central American folk idioms (which it tries in vain to do). 

 Earthquake Weather, Stummer's first noncinematic solo album, arrived two years after Walker empty and enervated. After delivering yet another disappointment, Strummer decided to take a break. His next record wouldn't come for ten years. 

 After a decade off, Joe returned refreshed and reinvigorated. Recorded with his spitfire backing band the Mescaleros, Rock, Art and the X-Ray Style, is an endearing trifle that neither furthers his reputation nor undercuts it. 

 The world-beat crazed Global a Go-Go followed Rock Art, and despite sessions so loose it's easy to wonder if they even rehearsed, the album has a loose-limbed charm that overcomes the occasional sagginess. 

 Streetcore, recorded just before Strummer died, is a good record that could have been great. There's impressive power in "Get Down Moses" and "Arms Aloft," and the cover of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" is one of Strummer's best vocals.