Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros
Global A Go-Go
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Joe Strummer
Global A Go-Go
Hellcat, 2001
RiYL: The Clash, Bruce Springsteen, David Byrne |
Joe Strummer, that is. The man is probably better known as the lead singer/rhythm guitarist for some band called the Clash, but that's for another time.
In this instance, though, he's simply known as a guy who just released a strong album -- his second in two years -- on Hellcat, called Global A Go-Go. And while the result isn't anywhere near as breathtaking as anything he did with the Clash, it is a strong statement and a marked improvement over his most recent effort, 1999's Rock, Art, And The X-Ray Style.
X-Ray Style, Strummer's first album since 1989's Earthquake Weather, was essentially a collection of songs he'd written in the late 1990s, with no real thread or communal feel going through the album. Although some of it was brilliant -- the raga-sized "Yalla, Yalla" and the reflective closer "Willesden to Cricklewood" -- much of it felt forced and inconsistent. Maybe part of that was getting comfortable with a new band, the Mescaleros, or maybe it was ring-rust.
Whatever it was, he's certainly shaken it with Global A Go-Go. Although the album has its problems, it is his most consistent and strongest album since his 1986 oft-forgotten score to the horrible B-movie Walker.
Global finds Strummer locking into the groove he never could find on X-Ray Style. Both musically and lyrically, his new album proves that even at 48, Strummer isn't ready to stop pushing the envelope. Sometimes his approach falls completely flat, but when it works (as it does on most of the album), it works well.
Most of the album actually finds Strummer feeling comfortable with an acoustic guitar, quick drum rhythms, and catchy hooks to create, for lack of a better term, "fusion folk." On the opening "Johnny Appleseed," for example, Strummer bases the song around a simple guitar riff, but mixes in world-beat rhythms as he rails against corporate nature overrunning human compassion.
"If you're after getting the honey / then don't go killing all the bees," Strummer wails.
From there, the album picks up speed with the techno-driven "Cool'n'Out" and coasts into the mellow title track, complete with an unobtrusive guest appearance by Roger Daltrey.
Strummer is at his best, though, in the bluesy, stream-of-consciousness numbers "Bhindi Bhagee" and "Mega Bottle Ride." The first, centered around a calypso-esque backbeat, complete with a violin and bodran, finds Strummer at his most lyrically experimental, spewing out seemingly random words. Strummer takes the persona of a man telling a stranger about his "humble neighborhood," mixing in rhymes about food, music, and social scene:
"We got, rock soul, okra, Bombay duck-ra / shrimp beans-sprout / comes with or without / bagels soft or simply harder / exotic avocado or toxic empenada," Strummer blurts.
On "Mega Bottle Ride," Strummer sings of "the blues of throwing it all away" in a surprisingly upbeat tune.
Ah, but what comes up must come down, and Global A Go-Go is no exception to this rule. The album contains two flat-out duds in the exhaustive, oblique "Mondo Bondo," and the long, droning "Gamma Ray," based around a repititive drum loop that never seems to end.
And speaking of never ending, he closes the album with an interesting, but simply too long, rendition of the traditional Irish tune "Minstrel Boy," which literally goes on for almost 15 minutes.
A little overindulgence, if you ask me. But hey, it's Joe Strummer. If anyone's earned a right to overindulge themselves, it's him. Global A Go-Go certainly won't put Strummer back at the forefront of revolutionary music, but it should serve as a reminder that he's still a powerful musical force.
RODEO ROB | An expert on all things "alt," Rob spends his days covering the energy industry and his nights covering the DC-area bars. Raise yer glass especially high to this man, for he has contributed to this site constantly since its creation four years ago.