Assembly

It was Joe Strummer's good fortune that he was the frontman of one of the greatest rock bands of all time, the Clash. It was his burden that after the group broke up, he had to spend the rest of his career being judged by a standard that meant only so much to him. Very little of what Strummer did as solo artist followed the musical template of the Clash, and that was just the way he wanted it. His albums had as much to do with folk as rock in their focus on storytelling and character studies, as well as his willingness to incorporate acoustic guitars and fiddles in their arrangements to give them a sound and personality distinct from what he'd done in the past. The 2018 compilation Joe Strummer 001 was an effort to bring together the gems from Strummer's post-Clash catalog and examine his solo recordings with fresh ears, and 2021's Assembly is a more compact attempt to do essentially the same thing, wrapping up the package with 16 tracks rather than 001's 32. Joe Strummer 001 sometimes felt overstuffed despite the quality of the material, and in contrast Assembly feels like it's not quite enough. The material with his band the Mescaleros is uniformly fine, even when it upends expectations of what Strummer could do in the studio. The gentle flow of "Sleepwalk," the rough but joyous internationalist rock of "Coma Girl," the quiet roar of the largely acoustic "Johnny Appleseed," the menace and intrigue of "At the Border, Guy," and the curiously organic electronics of "Yalla Yalla" all bear the stamp of his vision and soul, even though they bear little if any resemblance to punk rock. (And "Love Kills," which he recorded for the soundtrack of the film Sid & Nancy, feels like the template for what the Clash's Cut the Crap should have been with its crashing guitar and hip-hop-inspired electronic percussion.) It's significant that the two weakest tracks on Assembly are live takes of Strummer & the Mescaleros playing "I Fought the Law" and "Rudy Can't Fail," which are the work of an artist who is happy to please his fans but sounds only so enthusiastic about it. For anyone who hasn't explored the music Joe Strummer made after the Clash, Assembly works well as a compact introduction, but Joe Strummer 001 gives a better perspective on the full scope of his musical world view, and 2003's Streetcore, his final album, is an outstanding and fully formed record eagerly awaiting rediscovery. Hint, hint. ~ Mark Deming