Aug 07 2009 11:51 am,
Street Sweeper Social Club
‘Street Sweeper Social Club’
(Warners)
Post-RATM Tom Morello releases are a hit-and-miss affair: for every ‘Audioslave’, there’s an ‘Out Of Exile’; and for every ‘One Man Revolution’, there’s this, Street Sweeper Social Club. Pairing his trademark guitar noodling with Coup lyricist Boots Riley, this self-titled debut takes the funk-rock approach of Rage but leaves the rage at the door. That’s not to say there’s no underlying social commentary here – Morello even describes the album as “something to listen to while storming Wall Street” – but with vocals that sound as if they’ve been faxed over from the other side of the world, as if the sum of SSSC’s parts have never even met, let alone recorded together, it’s a cursory message at best. It’s funk without soul, rock without spine and, tellingly, Morello without De La Rocha.
Sam Coare
