Joe Jackson has made a career out of defiance.<\/p>\n
From the first we heard of him\u20141979\u2019s edgy New Wave collection Look Sharp!<\/i>\u2014Jackson\u2019s persona has shouted untamable iconoclast. From his initial punk-inspired, guitar-focused records, the Royal Academy of Music-trained pianist-vocalist quickly veered into jump blues, big-band jazz, sophisticated nightclub pop, dance hall and more. In Jackson\u2019s case, \u201cfollowing the muse\u201d has meant jumping from style to style and project to project, a musical omnivore with the brassy confidence\u2014and chops\u2014to back up his own restless nature.<\/p>\n
From time to time, Jackson has circled back to more familiar pop-rock forms as if to prove, once again, that he can adapt his work to any genre he wants, sometimes honoring its conventions, but more often seeking to bend or extend them. At 71 years young, Jackson is unleashing Hope And Fury<\/i> on his audience, a new collection of nine songs that at times feel almost like an amalgamation of all of the above styles. It\u2019s a convergence we should welcome, a strategy for aiming his many shades of smartly-crafted vitriol without taming them.<\/p>\n
Opener \u201cWelcome To Burning-By-Sea\u201d functions as a sort of overture for the album, a brash and cutting profile of a fictional British coastal city that resembles Jackson\u2019s English home base of Portsmouth while also functioning as a microcosm of the nation. Then the even-darker \u201cI\u2019m Not Sorry\u201d matches a typically acidic\u2014and unapologetic\u2014rant to a shape-shifting arrangement that hybridizes several of his past musical flings together: a rocking blues-funk-nightclub jazz anthem.<\/p>\n
The sophisticated urban jazz-pop of Jackson\u2019s 1982 smash Night And Day<\/i> is referenced in \u201cMake God Laugh\u201d as Jackson ruminates on the futility of making plans and \u201cthe fickle flash of fame.\u201d The tight yet airy arrangement features all four principal supporting players\u2014Graham Maby (bass), Teddy Kumpel (guitar), Doug Yowell (drums) and Paulo Stagnaro (percussion)\u2014though to my ear the unsung hero of this track, and album, is self-described bassist-for-life Maby.<\/p>\n
The brief (2:21) \u201cDo Do Do\u201d follows with a pastiche of New Wave sass (love that wheezy Elvis Costello organ) and early Beatles, a silly novelty that\u2019s nonetheless Joe all over, full of brio, attitude and a self-aware sense of absurdity. A Night And Day<\/i> intro\u2014a chiming piano melody doubled by bells\u2014leads into \u201cFabulous People,\u201d a steady-rocking, expansive number exploring identity and ambiguity in a vaguely autobiographical way (Jackson has been open about his bisexuality).<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter All This Time\u201d gives a kind of moody \u201970s piano rock feel, laced with typically sharp Jackson lines. \u201cThe Face\u201d offers a rather jazzy, tidal push and pull, piano that\u2019s percussive until the bridge, where he trades solos with guitarist Kumpel. Then the penultimate \u201cEnd Of The Pier\u201d opens with urgent piano that jump-cuts to an airy jazz-funk bass-drums-guitar arrangement that\u2019s full of unreleased tension as Jackson sketches a gritty working-class life.<\/p>\n
Hope And Fury<\/i> closes out as Jackson often has, with a billowing, bittersweet ballad. \u201cSee You In September\u201d is anchored on his tinkly jazz piano, conjuring a bit of melancholy nostalgia: \u201cI know there was a wild time or two \/ Some of which I still remember \/ If the years keep going faster \/ There\u2019s not much I can do \/ I\u2019m just happy no one\u2019s bugging me \/ For sleeping in the afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve caught references attempting to cast Hope And Fury<\/i> as a \u201creturn to rock\u201d for Joe Jackson, but it really isn\u2019t. It\u2019s pure Joe all the way: led by his piano and voice, acerbic and melodic, adventurous and witty, angry and sad. The drums might be up louder on a few tunes, the guitars more present here and there, and the rhythms do tend to set one\u2019s feet to tapping, but there\u2019s more on this album that\u2019s descended from Night And Day<\/i> than from Look Sharp!<\/i>. Hope And Fury<\/i> is simply Joe being Joe, as he always has\u2014and, one hopes, always will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":35460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6542],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-47356","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-joe-jackson","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47356","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47356"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}