Joe Jackson: Rain (OUT NOW!)

[WotUNeed]

Search function is off lately, so please point me in the right direction if there's already a thread.

Joe Jackson is probably best known for his work from '79-'91 (e.g., "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" and "Steppin' Out"), or perhaps for just being incredibly cool, but he's not stopped recording since his appearance on the scene. While some of his newer stuff has not particularly appealed to me, the upcoming Rain is very much the classic Joe Jackson sound.

Track listing:
1. "Invisible Man"
2. "Too Tough"
3. "Citizen Sane"
4. "Wasted Time"
5. "The Uptown Train"
6. "King Pleasure Time"
7. "Solo (So Low)"
8. "Rush Across the Road"
9. "Good Bad Boy"
10. "A Place in the Rain"

Amazon.com is selling it with a bonus DVD which includes a few live performances and an interview.

"Invisible Man" is now available for purchase from iTunes.

[WotUNeed]

Tour information is available at his website here.

Here's the bit it says about Rain:

"Recorded in Berlin and mixed in New York, the album features ten new songs, all of which Joe has performed on his last two tours. As on those tours, the band consists of just Joe on piano and vocals with the rhythm section of the original Joe Jackson Band: Graham Maby on bass and vocals and Dave Houghton on drums and vocals."

[WotUNeed]

Album reviews (Adele, Joe Jackson, et al)

2) Joe Jackson - Rain: "Hey, can you hear me now as I fade away and lose my ground?" So begins "Invisible Man," the opening track of Rain, and from most people who'd been making music for nearly 30 years that would be an accurate self-assessment.

But the wry lyrical wit and hummability which characterised hits like "It's Different for Girls" and "Is She Really Going Out With Him" remains intact. Perhaps it's because Jackson was never really a star as such, always having a sort of weatherbeaten everyman quality about him, but he doesn't seem to have faded. No revolution, but a worthwhile album.

Rating: 4/5

(Review by Alex Sarll)

[WotUNeed]

Defender of Ordinary Voices

"Joe Jackson, songwriter and contrarian, talks to Robert Sandall about smoking, Berlin, and his new album."

Pretty interesting. Here's a small excerpt:

Cradling a wheat beer in his local bar in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin, Joe Jackson is pondering a question which must have come up often over the past year or so. What impact does he think his moving to the German capital in 2006 might have had on the songs on his new album, Rain?

The answer says more about Jackson's view of obvious questions than it does about his feelings about Berlin. "I don't think it matters where I am," he says. "I don't buy the idea that the neighbourhood affects how I work while I'm on my keyboard and computer. I bet if I told people this album had been recorded in Istanbul, they'd probably say, 'Oh yes, I can hear the Turkish influence!"' (Note to self: shelve all further inquiries linking the absence of guitars on Rain, its fierce pianistic attack and cabaret-inflected vocal style with the East Berlin studio where it was recorded last summer.)

[Deleted]

Thanks for the updates WotUNeed. I'm going to check this album out, and might catch him on tour in May.

[WotUNeed]

Released today in the States!

Here's a review from the Boston Globe:

If a sense of nostalgia clung to Joe Jackson's reunion with his original band on 2003's Volume 4, it didn't hurt the music one bit. A scrappy, good-time elegance permeated the spiky pop tracks.
more stories like this

For Rain, the party has moved to a quieter setting (Berlin) and lost a few revelers (guitarist Gary Sanford has departed) for a more minor-chord-style celebration. Reflection and melody are favored in these tunes of missed chances, lost love, the wisdom of hindsight, and the superficial salves offered by modern prophets.

Stretching out in the trio setting, Jackson's piano playing emphasizes flowing lines, while Graham Maby and Dave Houghton anchor the sound with their skillful but unfussy bass and drum work, respectively. Although his falsetto isn't uniformly effective anymore, Jackson has retained his gift of juxtaposing gritted-teeth snarls and wispy vulnerability.

Lyrically, Jackson hits a real stride here on several songs. "Wasted Time" is all low-key piano and brushed-drum regrets as Jackson compares enduring love to locating the perfect rhyme. A whole relationship is remembered in a moment on "Rush Across the Road." And "Solo (So Low)" paints a bleak picture of a lonely heart subsisting on "three stale crackers and a fifth of gin."

The accompanying DVD is a real bonus. It offers a lengthy interview with Jackson about the album and his career, a tour of Berlin, an interview with Maby and Houghton, and a three-song live set of new tracks. [Sarah Rodman]

Joe Jackson plays at the Somerville Theatre April 7.

[Deleted]

Ok, the music I'm picking up this week is by Joe Jackson and Jack Johnson. The alliteration/name similarity amuses me a bit.

I'm definitely seeing Joe on this concert tour. A good friend of mine has been friends with Graham Maby, Joe's bass player, for many years. Maybe he'll be able to get us great tickets or even backstage passes (he was able to when Graham toured with Natalie Merchant)... but I'm catching the show regardless.

[WotUNeed]

Jan 29, 2008 16:07:13 GMT -5 @kungaloosh said:

I'm definitely seeing Joe on this concert tour. A good friend of mine has been friends with Graham Maby, Joe's bass player, for many years. Maybe he'll be able to get us great tickets or even backstage passes (he was able to when Graham toured with Natalie Merchant)... but I'm catching the show regardless.

That sounds awesome!
I wish he had a date anywhere remotely near me.

MSNBC recently posted another interview with Jackson. Same basic stuff but I thought the part about influences was interesting.

[WotUNeed]

Rain has a Metacritic score of 70 currently. Not too bad.

I can't find any info on Billboard chartings. Perhaps it didn't debut anywhere?

[busyboy]

Feb 8, 2008 10:23:44 GMT -5 WotUNeed said:

I can't find any info on Billboard chartings. Perhaps it didn't debut anywhere?

That's only because Billboard still hasn't updated its online archive...

But where there's a will, there's a way, LOL: he charted at #133 on the Billboard 200, #18 on both Independent Albums and Internet albums.

www.billboard.com/bbcom/images/pdf/index_artist.pdf ;)

[WotUNeed]

Feb 8, 2008 10:31:00 GMT -5 @busyboy said:

Feb 8, 2008 10:23:44 GMT -5 WotUNeed said:

I can't find any info on Billboard chartings. Perhaps it didn't debut anywhere?

That's only because Billboard still hasn't updated its online archive...

But where there's a will, there's a way, LOL: he charted at #133 on the Billboard 200, #18 on both Independent Albums and Internet albums.

www.billboard.com/bbcom/images/pdf/index_artist.pdf ;)

Excellent! Thank you!

[Deleted]

This album is pretty good. As usual, I love his piano, but there's something about the tone of Joe's voice that I find a bit grating. I think the quote from an article above sums it best for me: "No revolution, but a worthwhile album."

I particularly like King Pleasure Time, Wasted Time, Uptown Train, Rush Across the Road, and Good Bad Boy.

Ending the album with the sound of rain and distant thunder is a nice touch.