JOE STRUMMER AND THE MESCALEROS

"Streetcore" (Hellcat Records)

Three stars

Joe Strummer's mates finished this third Mescaleros album after a fatal heart attack felled their leader last December, and it sounds like it. The tracks don't fit together smoothly, and several sound haunted by mortality. But it's the best post-Clash disc since the early releases from Mick Jones' Big Audio Dynamite in the 1980s. Some tracks ("Get Down Moses," "Arms Aloft") sound like late-era Clash, with slashing guitars, reggae riddims and dub atmospherics, all supporting Strummer's stray-cat wail. The single "Coma Girl" is a straightforward rocker about a motorcycle-gang Mona Lisa. "Ramshackle Day Parade" sounds like Strummer fronting the Polyphonic Spree! At the other extreme are three acoustic, sparsely accompanied tracks: "Long Shadow," Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" and Bobby Charles' "Before I Grow Too Old" - renamed "Silver & Gold." In each, Strummer seems to sum up a life: "You cast a long shadow and that is your testament/Somewhere in my soul, there's always rock 'n' roll."
- JOEL BROWN