"Streetcore" lands Magnet Magazine's featured album spot!

Beaming in from the great beyond, long after the eulogies have been uttered, the ale-toasts raised and the tribute albums recorded, Joe Strummer gets in the last word: an unnervingly powerful, cathartic final statement. Given how Strummer had been on an artistic roll with the Mescaleros, several of the tracks completed prior to his death rank among his greatest, including the Clash-like "Coma Girl" and world-beat/dub-funk thumper "Get Down Moses." Equally notable, although cut by Strummer with outside musicians, are a gospel-ish Bob Marley cover ("Redemption Song") and the dancefloor-friendly "All In A Day." Even the tracks that had to be stitched together after the fact display nary a ragged seam. Ragged glory, maybe, for despite Strummer's avowal to this magazine two years ago that his band is "a construction of chaos," he left behind notes on how he envisioned the record turning out. Paying high tribute to their boss, the Mescaleros transformed the wooliest, wooziest number they had in the can, effects-heavy instrumental "Midnight Jam," into a psychedelic rocker highlighted by snippets of pure Strummerage: The "vocals" are sampled voiceovers from the Joe Strummer's London Calling program on BBC World Service. This is Radio Joe on pirate satellite.

Fred Mills
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