Joe Jackson – Hope and Fury
Joe Jackson has been idiosyncratic since his debut album “Look Sharp!”. In the nineteen eighties, he had success by moving between new wave and ska on albums such as “Beat Crazy” from 1980 and “Night And Day” from 1982, to a jazz-oriented album like “Body And Soul” in 1984. After that, he continued to explore multiple genres on his albums. Three years ago, he released a dancehall album, “What A Racket!” which musically referred back to the nineteen twenties of the previous century. The accompanying tour, which took him, among others, to Eindhoven and Utrecht, was largely a theatrical event in the style of the roaring twenties of the previous century.
But on his new album “Hope and Fury”, it is immediately clear from “Welcome To Burning-By-Sea” that he is revisiting his own musical past. The title track sounds like a mix of new wave and ska, as in his peak years in the nineteen eighties. With the characteristic full bass line of his regular bassist Graham Maby, with whom Joe Jackson has worked regularly since his debut album. “I’m Not Sorry” then nods to his classic “Sunday Papers”. Or does “Made God Laugh” not strongly resemble “It’s Different For Girls”? The angular “Fabulous People” and the soft rock style “After All This Time” could easily have been single hits of his in the nineteen eighties. “The Face” is a Latin-flavoured echo of the album “Body And Soul”. “End Of The Pier” would also not have been out of place on that album. Closing track “See You In September” is another typical piano ballad as we already knew from Jackson, such as “A Slow Song” on the album “Day And Night”.
Barely nine tracks and thirty-four minutes long, but that is short and powerful enough. “Hope and Fury” can stand alongside his earlier-mentioned classic pop albums. It may not bring much new and sounds like a compilation of his earlier works. But all nine songs are catchy, and Joe Jackson is still in excellent vocal shape at the age of seventy-one. (8/10) (Ear Music)
