Like Muddy Waters, whose final albums were among the best in his catalog, Streetcore by Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros (Martin Slattery, Tymon Dogg, Simon Stanford, and Scott Shields) sends Strummer into rock & roll heaven as a roaring, laughing, snarling lion. Unlike the previous Mescaleros outings, which were rooted in various world and folk musics and tempered by rock, Streetcore anchors itself in rock & roll and deadly heavy reggae (and for anyone who needs a reminder, Strummer's former band, the Clash, played reggae in the late '70s and early '80s better than a lot of that genre's artists). From "Coma Girl," the album's opening track, there is no doubt that Strummer hits bedrock with this fusion of garage band wail and dread beat. The song uses lean and mean guitars and Phil Spector's '60s girl groups, then crosses them rhythmically with rocksteady basslines and enormous backbeats. Yes, it does sound like a lost cut from London Calling. A love song for a wasted mascot who flirts and inspires the various metaphorical socio-political gangs that are trying to rule the dawn of the end of the world, Strummer and band -- the Mescaleros, with their killer rhythms, over-the-red-line guitar, and keyboard lines as tight and tough as anybody out there -- truly find the flowers borne by suicide divas in the dustbin of the apocalypse. Writing like Bob Dylan at his most expressionistic, Strummer's urgency is beyond the warnings of the Clash's London Calling or Sandinista! Strummer's protagonist is living on the nether edge of reality, where the worst has already happened, he can only celebrate what's left in the ashes of civilization. Listening to the crunchy rocksteady thunder in "Go Down Moses," with its monstrous dubbed-out bass and lyrics about the sellout of the world wholesale, listeners can hear Strummer laughing in the face of all the darkness multinationalism can muster. "Long Shadow," with its minor-key architecture and acoustic guitars played in pure Americana rambling style, was written for Johnny Cash but never recorded. Its protagonist crosses deserts and rivers; he haunts the places of desolation in order to speak with the voice of the Storyteller. The song's style and spirit evoke the ghost of Cisco Houston as Strummer sings: "I'll tell you one thing that I know/You don't face your demons down, you gotta grapple with 'em Jack/And pin 'em to the ground...And I hear punks talk of anarchy/I hear hobos on the railroads/I hear mutterings on the chain gangs/It was those men who built the roads/And if you put it all together/You didn't even once relent/You cast a long shadow/And that is your testament...." Other rockers include the burning revolution drama of "Arms Aloft," with a refrain that is among the most anthemic and raucous Strummer ever wrote. With wah-wah guitars, distorted bass, boombastic drums and cymbals, it is the hardest rocking track on the set. Also strong are the searing "All in a Day," with its razor-wire Telecaster stomp, and the medium to slow heaviness of "Burnin' Streets." There are two covers on Streetcore. First is a deeply moving reading of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song," played acoustically by Strummer, Smokey Hormel, and Benmont Tench, and produced by Rick Rubin. This is the only cut that the Mescaleros don't appear on; it wasn't recorded for this set but is included by Luce (Strummer's widow) and the band as a hinge piece for the front and back of the album to hang on, and it works gloriously. The other is the closer, a cover of the Bobby Charles' classic "Before I Grow Too Old," retitled here "Silver and Gold." It's a barroom song played in elegiac, Anglo country style -- think of the Mekons on Fear and Whiskey. Strummer's last line in the song is, "I've got to hurry up before I grow too old," before he speaks to us in his grainy Cockney voice, "OK, that's a take." It's almost as unbearable as it is unforgettable. Streetcore is the sound of Joe Strummer hitting his stride with his own band on his terms both lyrically and musically. The fact that this is a final album for Strummer is beside the point -- this is one of the best rock & roll albums of 2003, and truly the finest, most cohesive work he did after London Calling.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

Israeli singer/songwriter Asaf Avidan may be a newcomer to American audiences, but in his home country and throughout much of Europe, he's a major attraction with a stack of critically acclaimed records to his credit. After disbanding his longtime backing band the Mojos in 2011, he signed with Universal and released his solo debut, 2012's Different Pulses. The album hit a range of colors and amplified the creative ambitions he'd displayed with the Mojos, allowing him to stretch out and experiment. For his 2015 follow-up (and first U.S. release), Gold Shadow, he's dialed in on the sort of retro-leaning, moody midnight pop style that seems to be his bailiwick. As with all of his releases, the most immediately arresting element here is his voice. Unusually high and almost feminine at times, Avidan's vocal style is reminiscent of a 1940s torch singer with 21st century pop phrasing. It's certainly distinctive and likely polarizing to many, but he knows how to wield it to great effect, and on Gold Shadow he's written a potent set of songs that frame it well. Opening with the bluesy ballad "Over My Head" and the campy surf-organ rave-up "Ode to My Thalamus," Avidan sets a decidedly old-school tone that more or less continues throughout the album, with occasional forays into more contemporary-sounding songwriter pop ("The Jail That Sets You Free"). There are deep, mournful orchestral ballads like "My Tunnels Are Long and Dark These Days" and the title track, along with creepy blues dirges like "Bang Bang." Still, it's all very stylized and, though entertaining, it's hard to get a read on who Avidan really is. Tucked away at the end of the record are a pair of intimate solo acoustic songs that are both stunningly honest and at total odds with the album's overall tone. The elegant Leonard Cohen-esque "The Labyrinth Song" and the delicate folk ballad "Fair Haired Traveller" reveal the wonderfully talented songsmith without all of the affectations, and as a result come across as Gold Shadow's boldest statements.© Timothy Monger /TiVo

Perhaps it goes without saying that William Fitzsimmons, with his sotto voce vocals and avalanche of facial hair, bears more than a few similarities to fellow folksinger Iron & Wine. Fitzsimmons never sounds as rustic as his bearded doppelgänger, though, choosing to avoid Iron & Wine’s pastoral lyrics and focus his own songs on personal problems. On Gold in the Shadow, he makes peace with inner demons over a sympathetic soundtrack of acoustic guitar, percussion, and bubbling keyboard. The lyrics run the gamut from despondent (“Cut me open, please”) to wearily confident (“Wounded head, you will be fine/Your weary legs will hold you in time), but the music is almost aggressively balanced, with BPMs that rarely stray beyond the midtempo mark and dynamics that are rarely too soft or too loud. Fitzsimmons keeps things moving at a steady pace, and he strings the songs together with light touches of electronica, from the gauzy synths in “Let You Break” (a duet with Julia Stone) to the programmed stomp-and-clap percussion of “Psychasthenia.” The result is an album that soothes without smoothing over its own emotional content. [Gold in the Shadow was also released in a double-disc deluxe package, featuring five unreleased tunes and several acoustic tracks that strip the keyboards away from Fitzsimmons’ guitar-and-vocals bedrock.]© Andrew Leahey /TiVo

Perhaps it goes without saying that William Fitzsimmons, with his sotto voce vocals and avalanche of facial hair, bears more than a few similarities to fellow folksinger Iron & Wine. Fitzsimmons never sounds as rustic as his bearded doppelgänger, though, choosing to avoid Iron & Wine’s pastoral lyrics and focus his own songs on personal problems. On Gold in the Shadow, he makes peace with inner demons over a sympathetic soundtrack of acoustic guitar, percussion, and bubbling keyboard. The lyrics run the gamut from despondent (“Cut me open, please”) to wearily confident (“Wounded head, you will be fine/Your weary legs will hold you in time), but the music is almost aggressively balanced, with BPMs that rarely stray beyond the midtempo mark and dynamics that are rarely too soft or too loud. Fitzsimmons keeps things moving at a steady pace, and he strings the songs together with light touches of electronica, from the gauzy synths in “Let You Break” (a duet with Julia Stone) to the programmed stomp-and-clap percussion of “Psychasthenia.” The result is an album that soothes without smoothing over its own emotional content. [Gold in the Shadow was also released in a double-disc deluxe package, featuring five unreleased tunes and several acoustic tracks that strip the keyboards away from Fitzsimmons’ guitar-and-vocals bedrock.]© Andrew Leahey /TiVo

Perhaps it goes without saying that William Fitzsimmons, with his sotto voce vocals and avalanche of facial hair, bears more than a few similarities to fellow folksinger Iron & Wine. Fitzsimmons never sounds as rustic as his bearded doppelgänger, though, choosing to avoid Iron & Wine’s pastoral lyrics and focus his own songs on personal problems. On Gold in the Shadow, he makes peace with inner demons over a sympathetic soundtrack of acoustic guitar, percussion, and bubbling keyboard. The lyrics run the gamut from despondent (“Cut me open, please”) to wearily confident (“Wounded head, you will be fine/Your weary legs will hold you in time), but the music is almost aggressively balanced, with BPMs that rarely stray beyond the midtempo mark and dynamics that are rarely too soft or too loud. Fitzsimmons keeps things moving at a steady pace, and he strings the songs together with light touches of electronica, from the gauzy synths in “Let You Break” (a duet with Julia Stone) to the programmed stomp-and-clap percussion of “Psychasthenia.” The result is an album that soothes without smoothing over its own emotional content. [Gold in the Shadow was also released in a double-disc deluxe package, featuring five unreleased tunes and several acoustic tracks that strip the keyboards away from Fitzsimmons’ guitar-and-vocals bedrock.]© Andrew Leahey /TiVo