Street Sweeper Social Club

Street Sweeper Social Club is the coming-together of Rage guitarist Tom Morello and The Coup frontman Boots Riley with Stanton Moore of Galactic filling in on the drums. And it’s only a lukewarm addition to the strong RATM family collection (recently given a shot in the arm by One Day as a Lion), with another outspoken rapper stepping up to the plate with appropriate doses of belligerent anarcho-socialism. [Little-known The Coup have taken cues for album names from Abbie Hoffman (Steal This Album) and put out singles with names like ”˜5 Million Ways to Kill a CEO’.] But though he does say “muthafucka” a lot, Riley doesn’t scream like De La Rocha, often even when the music begs that he do. Moore’s drumming too, while quite accomplished as a solo artist and with Galactic, is not a very good foil for the other two players. If someone does salvage a bit of spunk here, then that’s Morello. And just as well for him, given the two anaemic discs he’s released since Rage as tough-guy-folkie-with-a-baritone alter-ego, the Nightwatchman. He sticks to his strengths, putting his considerable weight in riffage behind songs about revolution, retribution and rich people choking on caviar (”˜Fight! Smash! Win!,’ ”˜Clap for the Killers’). There’s also some shredding and liberal doses of that unique solo technique (”˜100 Little Curses,’ ”˜Somewhere in the World it’s Midnight’). But overall it’s never enough to distract from the fact that a tighter selection would’ve worked as a much better EP. There are moments strewn across this disc, every other song or so, when the thump of the rhythm section gives out, that “wo-ho” power chord singalong feels all too deflated (”˜The Oath’) and the forms clash more than they should (”˜The Squeeze’). One pretend-anthemic gutless rocker too many to salvage.