User ratings in Music are temporarily disabled. More info
  • Record Label:
  • Release Date:
Assembly Image
Metascore
81

Universal acclaim - based on 8 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
tbd

No user score yet- Awaiting 3 more ratings

  • Summary: The 16-track solo compilation of the late Clash frontman includes live recordings of "Rudie Can't Fail" and "I Fought The Law," with the Mescaleros at London's Brixton Academy and an acoustic home recording of "Junco Partner."
Buy Now
Buy on
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. 80
    It’s the nearest Strummer has had to a ‘greatest hits’, replicating six tracks from 001, bolstered for diehards by a previously unreleased acoustic demo of Junco Partner, and 2001 Brixton Academy versions of The Clash’s I Fought The Law and Rudie Can’t Fail that so faithfully replicate Mick Jones’s complex arrangements it sounds like Joe giving it some welly over a well-drilled tribute band.
  2. Mojo
    Mar 31, 2021
    80
    An edifying spin baited for hardcore fans with an unreleased acoustic Strummer strum through Junco Partner and two live Mescaleros Clash covers. [May 2021, p.95]
  3. Mar 31, 2021
    80
    ‘Assembly’ is so much more than a generic ‘best of’, it is a celebration of Joe’s musical genius.
  4. Uncut
    Mar 31, 2021
    80
    Strummer sounds mostly like he's having a blast. [May 2021, p.44]
  5. Mar 31, 2021
    80
    The new compilation Assembly adroitly selects high-water marks from Strummer’s solo career while never quite ameliorating the ”what if” questions that haunt the Clash’s legacy.
  6. 70
    Assembly shows that while Strummer solo may have more nuance or more room for interpretation, the raw power of his early work had been washed over with music that, was frankly, quieter. ... It also proves that Strummer solo can stand on its own, even if that stance will always be in the shadow of an earlier band.
  7. Apr 29, 2021
    70
    For anyone who hasn't explored the music Joe Strummer made after the Clash, Assembly works well as a compact introduction.

See all 8 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of
  2. Mixed: 0 out of
  3. Negative: 0 out of