Adam Salsman [dot] com

I’ve been listening to the last 3 albums of Joe Strummer & the Mescalaros, and I can say, with a level of certainty, that they were working toward perfection. The first of the 3 albums, Rock Art & the X-Ray Style I found difficult to get through, and even boring at points, while Streetcore may be close to musical perfection. Sandwiched in between those two albums is Global A Go-Go.

To be honest, I may not have even taken notice of this fairly average album if it weren’t for HBO’s John From Cincinnati and it’s opening theme, which is the first track off this disc, Johnny Appleseed. Which, to be honest, I adore equally for it being a great song and being associated with a great show.

The rest of the album proceeds along with more hits than misses, but those hits are mediocre at best.

Of the 11 tracks (coming in at 73 minutes), Johnny Appleseed, Cool ‘n’ Out, Bhindi Bhagee, and Mega Bottle Ride are the ones that really seem to reach a little higher; seem to want to aspire to more. And, they mostly do.

The last track, Minstrel Boy, is what pushes this album WELL over the hour mark, by being a mostly instrumental composed of drums (of the marching variety) and stringed instruments (sounding mostly in the violin/fiddle area). It’s a beautiful song, but I feel like it doesn’t do much to end cap the record.

In the end: Fans of the Clash will want to continue to follow Strummer’s career, to his penultimate album; fans of Streetcore may be a little let down, but may still get some enjoyment; fans of John from Cincinnati will check in to see what the rest of the album is about.

Technorati Tagged: Joe Strummer | 2001 | Rock | The Clash

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 11:05 am and is filed under classic rock, 2001. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.