Welcome to Music Banter Forum! Make sure to register - it's free and very quick! You have to register before you can post and participate in our discussions with over 70,000 other registered members. After you create your free account, you will be able to customize many options, you will have the full access to over 1,100,000 posts.
Rock Art and the X-Ray Style by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros
This is the album that won a recent FAIR album club poll, with a resounding landslide of three votes.
Quote:
Rock Art And The X-Ray Style by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros
( 1999 )
In a surprising change of style, JS put aside the punk fury of London Calling and made an excentric album of shuffling, urban reggae and folk-rock. He furthur expanded his own particular vision of the multi-cultural music scene on his next album, Global A Go Go, but song for song, I think Rock Art is stronger. Don`t dismiss these albums (as I did for years) as an exercise in musical tourism; they are much more consistent and convincing than that. And if you`re wondering if this is really FAIR music, well JS himself described this Yalla Yalla track as " an ancient British folk song - written in 1999" That`s a good enough excuse for me !
Has anyone listened to it ? Why not share your thoughts about this album ? Or any of Joe Strummer´s other work for that matter - seems like a good topic for one of those "compare and contrast" essays we all get so tired of at school.
__________________ "Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953
Last edited by Lisnaholic; 03-13-2013 at 12:39 PM.
I have mixed feelings after my first listen. I think it might be a good album but it didn't really grab me...like...it was enjoyable, but I didn't get the feeling it was anything terribly special. It seems like a logical progression from the music Strummer was helping create in the late Clash albums. I love their Sandinista! album for the world music-tinged stuff I hear here, but here there just isn't as much interesting going on for me. I did enjoy the more energetic tracks so maybe that's what got me about the album as a whole...it lacked energy and didn't do enough for me to make up for it.
I'm interested in hearing more of his post-Clash work now, though. Maybe I'll give this album another listen at some point if I like his other stuff. Definitely glad I gave it a listen anyway, and I might just be missing out because I wasn't listening super closely!
Sounds like we´re traveling in opposite directions, Chives. The only Joe Strummer I know is the guy singing on these post-Clash albums. I´ve never heard any Clash albums, but I plan to check out Sandanista! on the basis of what you say.
Yes, on Rock Art there are perhaps too many relaxed, low-energy tracks, but I like the casual sound that he acheives by not obssessing on the sound or the lyrics; he makes it seem like he and bunch of pals have just breezed into the studio for a while before heading off to some super-cool party.
Of the post-Clash albums, you might like Streetcore, which has a few more powerfully-driven songs; this track seems to be the most popular :-
__________________ "Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953
I love both The Clash and Joe's post-Clash work and The Mescaleros were a cool project! I remember listening to Streetcore for the first time - loved it. It was pretty different with Global A Go-Go. I was like "Jesus Christ, what is that?" but then listened to it a few times and now I think it's great! I haven't listened to X-Ray much yet (one time so far), but I think their music is something you have to somehow get used to. Well, I think X-Ray is the worst of the three albums, but still good. Sure better than Cut The Crap (which is crap...)
__________________
Moderator doesn't let me put the link to my blog, so visit my profile and check it out in the contact label. Cheers.
Rock Art and the X-Ray Style by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros
Linear Mode
