Joe Jackson
Night & Day

What are the most difficult records to review? Without a doubt, those to which you are sentimentally attached, those that, in one way or another, have changed your life.
If objectivity is, for me, often just a vague aspiration, with albums like Night & Day it goes out the window. Can you judge with detachment and objectivity a woman you are hopelessly in love with? It's impossible: you see her as if under a spell. For some albums, not many to be honest, similarly, my critical vision becomes clouded. And Night & Day is certainly among these.

The album is a reverse journey to that of the protagonist in Gershwin's famous musical, "An American in Paris." A European grappling with the "Big Apple"; a musician infatuated with America who decides to immerse himself in its cultures, sounds, quirks ("T.V. Age"); to explore that incredible microcosm of the sprawling metropolis, savoring its strong and contrasting flavors to the fullest.
The feeling of a journey, of a path is confirmed both by the captivating idea of dividing the vinyl (what nostalgia!) into "Day side" and "Night side", and by having some tracks flow seamlessly, linking them one to another. The music, of great class, composed and arranged with almost retro taste, wonderfully accompanies the many urban and sentimental landscapes, the many "points of view" (there's also "Chinatown") that are offered to the eyes of the artist and are transfigured by uncommon sensitivity. There are tributes to the great jazz, Duke Ellington first and foremost; frenetic Latin rhythms, especially "salsa" ("Cancer"); but also moving ballads, ("Real Man", "Breaking us in two", "Real Man"), which represent one of the best remedies, homeopathic of course, that I know for the deepest love wounds.

A work of this quality is also not lacking an unrepeatable single like "Steppin' Out", with its adrenaline-paced rhythm, with that crystal-clear melody, in an era where synthesizers dominated, with those lyrics that seem to rush towards you and invite you to hope: "We- so tired of all the darkness in our lives/ with no more angry words to say/ can come alive/ get into a car and drive/ to another side/me Babe- Steppin' out/ into the night/ into the light".
Joe Jackson had already contributed (Jumpin’ Jive) and would later give after Night & Day (Body & Soul is thoroughly discussed by Grasshopper in another review) other proofs of his unusual talent as a composer, but this album should rightfully be placed in the Olympus of pop music.