Joe Jackson
Night & Day

Joe Jackson has been my favorite musician since way back in 1991, and every one of his records has always amazed me; he always manages to do something new, and even if sometimes there are echoes of the past in his music, there's always that feeling of hearing something completely different from what he has done before.

Between his debut (1979) and his latest album "Fool" (2019), Jackson has delved into all musical genres, from the excellent beginnings in rock-reggae-punk style in the first three albums to the jump-blues covers of "Jumpin Jive" (1981) and "Tucker" (1988), from the immense pop-Latin greatness of "Night and Day" (1982) and the excellent "Laughter and Lust" (1991), to the melting-pot of genres in other high-level albums like "Body and Soul" (1984), "Big World" (1986) and "Blaze of Glory" (1989), eventually reaching classical music with the great instrumental album "Will Power" (1987) and the excellent subsequent works in which Jackson blends pop, classical, new age, and folk, albums like the beautiful "Night Music" (1994), the brilliant and innovative "Heaven and Hell" (1997), and the great "Night and Day II" (2000), which holds its own even compared to the first "Night and Day."

The last 20 years Jackson has spent with a certain dose of nostalgia for the past, in albums like the excellent "Volume IV" (2003), the beautiful "Rain" (2008), the excellent "Fast Forward" (2015), and the great "Fool" (2019) where the musician often seems to recall the atmospheres of his previous works. However, there is always that spark of innovation that lets you know his creativity is still alive and well and that the nods to the past are just a natural way of moving forward without forgetting where one comes from.

The album I am reviewing here may be his best work. We are in 1982, and Joe Jackson with "Night and Day" composes what I consider a great masterpiece, an album that is also my absolute favorite in the entire history of pop-rock (the most beautiful? The best?...I have decided not to use these terms, as I have in the past, to not sound too absolute, after all, the way we perceive art is always very subjective).

Critics and audiences only render partial justice to the greatness of the album, which nonetheless enjoys great sales success, reaching number 4 on the USA sales charts and number 3 in England. In the Netherlands, it claims the 2nd spot and the 11th in Germany.

Musically, it is a complete album, with all the genres of the world mixed together in an incredibly original and genius way, from classical to pop, from rock to jazz, from funk to dance, from Latin music to Afro-Cuban rhythms. No other musician has ever reached such dizzying levels on an interpretative, compositional, and arrangement level.

Joe Jackson in "Night and Day" is at the highest level. An artist surpassing himself in an impressive way. His first four albums had indeed showcased a nice new talent on the English scene, but they did not lead one to hope for a surge of great class and skill like this "Night and Day."

ANOTHER WORLD opens the dance with frantic and edgy rhythms, ingenious and without brakes. Jackson's angry and desperate voice does the rest, transporting you to "another world" of music, that of "true" music.

CHINATOWN is the city's hell, the violence, the fear of a foreigner who finds themselves in the Big Apple, New York, the city to which the album is dedicated.

TV AGE is a rock-funk-jazz unregulated and crazy, mad rhythm, unpredictable voice, pure genius. Jackson paints the modern consumer society, where everyone is attached to the TV and no longer realizes that "real life" is elsewhere.

TARGET is no less than the previous ones. It is the paranoia invading the soul, the fear of being killed on the street (as it happened just a short time before to the late John Lennon).

STEPPIN' OUT is an unexpected oasis of romance, an extraordinary masterpiece of melody, interpretation, and arrangement. Pure class.

BREAKING US IN TWO is the song about the end of a love affair. Dramatic, sad, full of melancholy. Yet another great piece of music.

CANCER is pure technique and a demonstration of incredible instrumental skill, especially in Jackson's final piano solo, extraordinary for its speed and sudden rhythmic changes.

REAL MEN is the most dramatic and harsh song I've ever heard. A shout against war, against racism and against those who believe they are a "real man" and then do nothing but kill "all the blacks and all the reds," but (Jackson warns) "if there should be a war between man and woman, this time no one will survive."

A SLOW SONG is the most beautiful song in the history of pop-rock music. Immense melody, growing up to the wrenching chorus, where Jackson screams with all the soul and despair he has in his heart, screams all his anger at a world that often seems hostile, that often seems not to hear what we have inside, our pain, our need for sweetness and affection, Jackson indeed sings: "Play me a slow song," a sweet song with which two lovers constantly fighting can find each other again, can hear each other's voices, can caress each other and can love each other again.