Street Sweeper Social Club – Self Titled Review
By nature, similarities tend to draw comparisons and albeit you may not want to, the mind is wired to follow patterns. These comparisons can be long winded or they can be genuinely blatant. In the case of Street Sweeper Social Club, they feel blatant. Rap rock – that’s never been done before. But hey, if 2009 has taught me anything, it’s that if Limp Bizkit, Chris Cornell, and Courtney Love, deserve 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chances – why not this musical genre? Street Sweeper Social Club combines the unique rock rhythms of Tom Morello and the gritty political inspired rap lyrics of Boots Riley. The album is solid but I would’ve preferred to see a greater emphasis on innovation or some kind of an attempt to stand out of this crowded genre.
Both Riley and Morello are well known political activists. In concept that sounds like a perfect combination for socially charged music. However the songs merely transfer into activist anthems with simplistic party choruses. Riley is a far better rapper then this, more notably in The Coup’s 1998 record ‘Steal This Album’. He has an uncanny ability to be witty, almost sarcastic, even. Street Sweeper sounds diluted in comparison. These songs are counterintuitive considering the backgrounds both men originate from.
The debut single: ‘Fight! Smash! Win!’ reminds me of one of Riley’s previous songs from The Coup called ‘Laugh/Love/Fuck’. With the former sounding very dumbed down. You find this theme almost throughout the entire album in songs like ‘Clap For The Killers’, ‘Somewhere In The World It’s Midnight’ and ‘Nobody Moves (Til We Say Go)’. Some songs take a brief pause from this formula and deliver memorable humming lines in ‘Good Morning, Mrs. Smith’ and the vox blasting “Megablast”. Positively speaking, each song has an amazing guitar line. Morello hasn’t lost his touch.
Street Sweeper’s debut album is mediocre. The music is adequate and evokes nothing more than a “meh” within me considering the pedigree. The lyrics feel very uninspiring and simplistic. By my count Tom, this is strike three. Audioslave? The Nightwatchman? Street Sweeper? Let’s talk about the 1000 pound elephant in the room. If you’re going to make music that in premise sounds similar to Rage Against the Machine, then it might as well be done with Zack. I remember a time when shouting at L.A. riot police “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me” could get you killed but you guys did it. We’re almost twenty years past since the L.A. riots and ten since the 2000 DNC, back then the things you guys did took conviction and most of all guts. Today the misdirection of political inspired rap rock anthems feel hollow because they lack the same qualities and originality they once had. Get back in the studio with Zack. We all know you and him secretly want to. Take Boots with you – he’s an incredibly talented individual. And if you have any energy left in you yell at Chris Cornell at tell him to reform Soundgarden. Honolulu ticket holders are starting to feel ripped off.
MP3:
Fight! Smash! Win! via StreetSweeperSocialClub.com
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More info:
streetsweepersocialclub.com / Myspace / Facebook / Twitter
Tags: album
Sounds contrived and thrown together. Just rock stars looking for more money in the name of some kind of retarded political campaign.