{"id":41426,"date":"2009-03-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/hurricane\/"},"modified":"2009-03-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-26T00:00:00","slug":"hurricane","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/hurricane\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurricane"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grace Jones is probably best described as an enigma.\u00a0 Born in Jamaica, Jones relocated with her family to New York in the mid-\u201860s.\u00a0 Before long, her exotic beauty and statuesque frame became her ticket to the big time, winning her many modeling contracts that took her all the way to the catwalks of Paris.\u00a0 It was to be the music world, however, that would send Jones into outright stardom.\u00a0 After being signed to Island Records, Jones became one of their prize finds.\u00a0 She went on to release an album every year from 1977 through to 1982 to varying degrees of success but always challenging herself and the record buying public.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Her best efforts, Warm Leatherette<\/i> and Nightclubbing<\/i>, released in 1980 and 1981 respectively, still sound as cutting-edge as they must have back then.\u00a0 They were a glorious mixture of original and cover songs reworked in her own unique style that often bettered the originals (\u201cPrivate Life\u201d and \u201cDemolition Man\u201d to name but two).\u00a0 Towards the end of the decade, though, Jones was showing signs of burnout not only creatively but personally, no doubt due to the lifestyle of partying she had become accustomed to.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

So as quickly as Jones appeared on the scene, she went into a period of self-imposed exile, occasionally making appearances but never entertaining the thought of recording new material.\u00a0 Until now, that is. Nineteen years after Grace Jones released her last album, the disappointing Bulletproof Heart<\/i>, <\/i>she has finally released her tenth studio album Hurricane<\/i>.\u00a0 I\u2019m pleased to say it\u2019s a definite return to form for Miss Jones, who has updated her signature sound to perfection without sounding like a has-been.\u00a0 Her voice hasn\u2019t aged, nor has the way she wraps it around the seriously infectious grooves dished up here.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The album kicks off with the sublime \u201cThis Is.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a defiant statement to announce her return and state of mind, which I\u2019m pleased to say, is optimistic to say the least.\u00a0 When Jones raps the opening line, \u201cThis is my voice, it\u2019s my weapon of choice,\u201d nothing could be further from the truth.\u00a0 Her voice has long been her most appealing feature, at times reminiscent of the sing-speak delivery of Marlene Dietrich; Jones is about the only singer I can think of that uses a monotone voice to such brilliant effect.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Next up is the equally appealing \u201cWilliam\u2019s Blood\u201d (co-written with Wendy and Lisa,) which is groovy, funk inspired and lyrically straightforward story-telling.\u00a0 Jones milks it for all it\u2019s worth, and the track also gives her a chance to show off her newfound vocal range.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cCorporate Cannibal\u201d is a new take on a much written about subject:\u00a0 an ode to the grossly overpaid CEOs, the fat cat shareholders that own us, and those belligerent bosses who take pleasure in their divide and conquer micro-management roles.\u00a0 Jones eerily delivering the lines \u201cCorporate cannibal, digital criminal \/ Corporate cannibal, eat you like an animal\u201d should make you think twice before taking that high-paying Wall Street gig.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m Crying (Mother\u2019s Tears)\u201d is better still with Jones channeling her childhood innocence to deliver the album\u2019s most heartfelt moment.\u00a0 \u201cWell Well Well\u201d follows and is the disc\u2019s most retrospective track both in style and lyric.\u00a0 It\u2019s heavily reggae influenced and could easily have made its way onto any of Jones\u2019 Island records from her decade of decadence.\u00a0 The title track meanwhile is a cool affair of minimalist proportions, with plenty of room here for Jones voice to fill the air with the storm warning, a metaphor for her much publicized mood swings.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Jones turns on her romantic charms for the obligatory love song of sorts, \u201cLove You To Life.\u201d\u00a0 Musically, it has a light and airy quality to soften the harsh beat which Jones weaves beautifully around.\u00a0 \u201cSunset Sunrise\u201d is an ode to Mother Nature and her gift to us, Planet Earth.\u00a0 It\u2019s another example of Jones ditching her dominatrix persona to reveal her sensitive side, which is a welcome surprise.\u00a0 Hurricane <\/i>closes with the fuzzy funk-fueled \u201cDevil In My Life,\u201d which is easily the most original moment here and comes complete with a beautiful string arrangement that should sound out of place but somehow doesn\u2019t.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

So when all is said and done, it was well worth the wait.\u00a0 Grace Jones is back sounding refreshed and revitalized, all the while retaining her domineering charismatic charm and wicked sense of humor.\u00a0 Having said that, this album (as with a lot of Jones\u2019 work) is not for everyone.\u00a0 The jive bunnies out there expecting it to explode into club thumping beats will be left feeling jibbed.\u00a0 And if you really don\u2019t care for the \u201canti-diva\u201d styled vocal delivery (i.e.: no pointless vocal gymnastics), then don\u2019t bother at all with this album, or any Grace Jones album for that matter.\u00a0 If you\u2019re cool, though, really cool like me, then you\u2019ll love it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":29811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8370],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-41426","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-grace-jones","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41426"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41426"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}