Joe Strummer Streetcore CD

Third Hellcat release for Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros, recorded just weeks prior to the beloved rock legend's death on December 22, 2002. Digipak. 2003.

Personnel: Joe Strummer (vocals, guitar, samples); Scott Shields (acoustic
& electric guitars, harmonica, bass, percussion, programming, background vocals); Simon Stafford (guitar, cello, trombone, background vocals); Martin Slattery (guitar, tenor saxophone, piano, Wurlitzer piano, chamberlain, Mellotron, drums, tambourine, percussion, programming, background vocals); Rick Rubin (piano); Benmont Tench (harmonium); Josh Freese (drums); Luke Bullen (congas); Richard Flack, Cameron Craig (programming).
Personnel: Joe Strummer (vocals, guitar); Scott Shields (guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, slide guitar, harmonica, drums, cowbells, percussion, programming, background vocals); Martin Slattery (guitar, electric guitar, tenor saxophone, piano, organ, Wurlitzer organ, chamberlin, Mellotron, synthesizer, drums, tambourine, programming, background vocals); Simon Stafford (guitar, cello, cornet, trombone, background vocals); Smokey Hormel (guitar, background vocals); Tymon Dogg (violin); Rick Rubin (piano); Benmont Tench (harmonium); Luke Bullen (drums, congas); Josh Freese (drums); Richard Flack, Tim Bran, Cameron Craig (programming); Peter Stewart (background vocals).
Audio Mixers: Danny Saber; David Ferguson; Martin Slattery; Rick Rubin; Scott Shields; Cameron Craig.
Recording information: 2KHz Studios; Akadamie Mathematique Of Philosophical Sound Research; Rockfield Studios, Monmouth, Wales; The Quadant; Unit 21.
Editor: Greg Fidelman.
Photographers: Colin Glen; Josh Cheuse; Jill Furmanovsky; Joe Strummer.
Arrangers: Martin Slattery; Scott Shields.
Like Muddy Waters, whose final albums were among the best in his catalog, Streetcore by Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros (Martin Slattery, Tymon Dogg, Simon Stanford, and Scott Shields) sends Strummer into rock & roll heaven a roaring, laughing, snarling lion. Unlike the previous Mescaleros outings, which were rooted in various world and folk musics and tempered by rock, Streetcore anchors itself in rock & roll and deadly heavy reggae (and for anyone who needs a reminder, Strummer's former band, the Clash, played reggae in the late '70s and early '80s better than a lot of that genre's artists). From "Coma Girl," the album's opening track, there is no doubt that Strummer hits bedrock with this fusion of garage band wail and dread beat. "Coma Girl" uses lean and mean guitars and Phil Spector's 1960s girl groups, then crosses them rhythmically with rocksteady basslines and enormous backbeats. Yes, it does sound like a lost cut from London Calling. A love song for a wasted mascot who flirts and inspires the various metaphorical socio-politcal gangs that are trying to rule the dawn of the end of the world, Strummer and band -- the Mescaleros, with their killer rhythms and over-the-red-line guitar and keyboard lines are as tight and tough as anybody out there -- truly find the flowers borne by suicide divas in the dustbin of the apocalypse. Writing like Bob Dylan at his most expressionistic, Strummer's urgency is beyond the warnings of the Clash's London Calling or Sandinista! Strummer's protagonist is living on the nether edge of reality, where the worst has already happened, he can only celebrate what's left in the ahses of civilization.
Listening to the crunchy rocksteady thunder in "Go Down Moses," with its monstrous dubbed-out bass and lyrics about the sellout of the world wholesale, listeners can hear Strummer laughing in the face of all the darkness multinationalism can muster. "Long Shadow," with its minor-key architecture and acoustic guitars played in pure Americana rambling style, was written for Johnny Cash but never recorded. Its protagonist crosses deserts and rivers; he haunts the places of desolation in order to speak with the voice of the Storyteller. The song's style and spirit evokes theRolling Stone (10/30/03, p.88) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...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...fun to hear Strummer spill his subconscious..."
Spin (01/04, p.102) - "...The Clash-like 'Arms Aloft' finds old Joe summoning more spit than he has in years..." - Grade: B
Entertainment Weekly (10/24/03, p.106) - "...STREETCORE, with its loopy, eager-to-please vibe, is just the sort of punky reggae party [the late Joe Strummer] was born to throw..." - Rating: B+
Q (11/03, p.123) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...It's 'Silver & Gold', a reworking of a Bobby Charles song, that brings home the poignancy of this release..."
Uncut (01/04, pp.84-7) - Ranked #11 in Uncut's "Albums Of The Year 2003"
Uncut (11/03, p.110) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...STREETCORE is something to celebrate, proof that, right up to his death, Joe Strummer was working at the peak of his powers..."
Magnet (11/03, p.107) - "...Joe Strummer gets in the last word: an unnervingly powerful, cathartic final statement..."
CMJ (10/13/03, p.8) - "...The 10 songs of STREETCORE prove Strummer still had a lot to say, and he packed it into some of his most memorable choruses..."
Mojo (Publisher) (01/01/04, p.59) - Ranked #11 in Mojo's "The Best of 2003"
Mojo (Publisher) (11/03, p.131) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Lyrically, it's intimate, heartfelt, honest yet tough, while musically it covers what Joe did best..."