STREET SWEEPER SOCIAL CLUB ‘Street Sweeper Social Club’ (Warner Music Group/ILG) RATING: 7/10

By GREG MAKI

The self-titled debut from Street Sweeper Social Club sounds almost exactly like what you would expect from the latest project of Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello. It’s packed with grooving hard rock riffs with a funk flavor and politically-charged lyrics. Morello plays with a looser, more relaxed feel than we heard from him in Rage or Audioslave—this music is more likely to get people to dance than mosh. Morello handles guitar, bass and production duties, possibly making this recording the closest he’s ever done to his vision.

The voice comes from Boots Riley of hip-hop outfit The Coup. I almost always prefer singers to rappers, but he has an easy, near-hypnotic flow. Politically, he and Morello are on the same page. “And the wealth don’t trickle down/People pinchin’ every nickel now/Even if we don’t fight bodies hit the ground,” Riley raps on the opener, “Fight! Smash! Win!” He has pointed words for the wealthy on the stirring single “100 Little Curses”: “Off the breaking backs of others is where you got all your bucks/Til we make the revolution I just hope your life sucks.” On “Clap for the Killers,” he takes the entertainment industry to task for its glorification of the gangsta lifestyle—refreshing to hear from a rapper.

The best, however, is saved for last. “Nobody Moves Til We Say Go” is infectious vocally and musically—you can feel the natural rhythm just by saying the title aloud. It also presents the SSSC message in a nutshell: “This system’s broke and bended/Them millionaires on TV, that’s a token image/Plus they’re owned and rented/The most we get is a car with spokes and tinted.”

The entire album serves as a blunt, forceful manifesto by Riley and Morello. I don’t look to entertainers to tell me what to think, but I respect them for writing songs about something other than their money and their cars (not that I would ever expect that from Morello). More importantly, this disc flat-out rocks.