Mick Jones — scintillating guitarist, punk icon, and conscientious balance to Joe Strummer's excesses when they were together in the Clash — has always seemed a bit frail, what with his wavery whisper, sunken constitution, and sensitive songwriting. His post-Clash work with Don Letts in Big Audio Dynamite — notably 1986's splendid No. 10, Upping St., created with help from his ex-partner — was unexpectedly muscular, a whirlwind blend of world beat and rock. But now Letts is out of the picture in The Globe, and the reconstituted B.A.D. seems to be a holding action. The odd beats, the weird samples, the snippets of speech present on other B.A.D. albums are still around, but a guiding musical sensibility is missing. ''In My Dreams'' has a nostalgic rock & roll lilt, and Jones delicately pulls off the balladic chorus of ''Green Grass.'' But the record as a whole is light, almost too light — there's no real bass-and-drums bottom to even the stronger cuts, and without a foundation Jones' voice sails away, almost weightless. C+
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