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Known to most for the ultra-sophisticated pop of "Night And Day," Joe Jackson began his solo career with this eclectic gem, released in 1979 by A&M under the happy production of David Kershenbaum, probably one of the few people in the world incapable of pronouncing his own surname correctly.
Rightly compared to early Costello, he did not shy away from ska, rockabilly, and reggae digressions (in homeopathic doses), thus attracting not only the admiration of numerous pub-rockers but also of those who were frantically consuming the first two LPs of the contemporary Police.
Completing the (musical) picture are some new wave sounds, obligatory at the time, that make the album vibrant and relevant even today.
The variety of the work is well encapsulated in songs like "One More Time," with its irresistible chorus, the ska tunes "Fools In Love" and "Sunday Papers," and the pseudo R&B "Baby Stick Around." The extremes of the CD are on one side the almost-punk "Throw It Away" and "Got The Time" (the peak of the album, later brilliantly remade by Anthrax) and on the other, the melodic "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" Joe Jackson's most played single on the radio.
The other tracks, although far from mediocrity, have fewer noble qualities.
In times like these, where most bands are content to tend to their own small gardens or produce interesting but indigestible stylistic crossovers, it's mandatory to (re)discover an artist like Joe Jackson, one of the best exponents, alongside Graham Parker and the aforementioned names, of what we might term "art punk."
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