Joe Jackson has spent nearly half a century not staying in one place too long. Through highlights (1979’s new-wave-meets-bar-band debut, Look Sharp!) and lowlights (the 1997 classical concept LP Heaven & Hell), the British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has crossed genres as frequently and effortlessly as the contemporary he’s most often compared to, Elvis Costello.
His previous record — 2023’s Mr. Joe Jackson Presents: Max Champion in ‘What a Racket!’ — was an all-original set of songs inspired by the waning days of British music hall, complete with boisterous horns, musicians banging on pots and pans, and numbers featuring plenty of double entrendes. At this point, there are only a few genres Jackson hasn’t yet graced.
For his 22nd album, Hope and Fury, Jackson throws several genres against the wall to see what sticks. Not everything does, but Jackson charts a mostly uncomplicated path for the first time since before COVID halted most of the planet, marking his return to the type of smartly written and exquisitely performed music that made his reputation decades ago.
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Without musical disguises clouding the lines between sincerity and irony, songs such as “I’m Not Sorry” and “Fabulous People” are Jackson’s most fuss-free in years. Springboarding from Night and Day‘s big-city sophistication and the Afro-Cuban jazz of follow-up Body and Soul, several of Hope and Fury‘s nine tracks showcase what the New York City and Portsmouth dual resident describes as “Bicoastal LatinJazzFunkRock.”
It’s not all readily classifiable, though. Opening song and lead single, “Welcome to Burning-by-Sea,” serves as a curious introduction, driven by percussive rhythmic thrust as Jackson chant-sings a presumed tribute to the fictional city: “It’s a tramp of a town, and it gets in your blood / Like Red Bull, champagne, lager and coke.” And the long, storytelling semi-jazz of “End of the Pier” forces the sometimes overly ambitious (and occasionally empty) characteristics of Jackson’s music to the fore. While Hope and Fury doesn’t fully disregard Jackson’s restless musical pursuits, it’s nice to see him on familiar ground from time to time.
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Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci
