Joe Jackson - Beat Crazy
#416
by Tom Mott
October 25 1980
Joe Jackson
Beat Crazy
Allen’s Rating: 3 out of 5
Tom’s Rating: 3.8 Closer to a 3.5 but extra points for stretching out
Genre: Dissonant Garage Reggae
Highlights:
Beat Crazy
One to One
Crime Don't Pay
Pretty Boys
This album sits between Joe Jackson's first two "angry punk" albums and his abrupt turn to swing music with Jumpin' Jive. I loved all three of those albums. This one though. I ordered it blind. I dug the album cover, but I didn't know what make of the music. Angular, jarring, repetitive, dissonant. No singles. Nothing to play for a friend and say "Listen to what I discovered."
Listening 40 years later -- FORTY YEARS!?!?? -- it makes a lot more sense to me. A challenging mash up of reggae and ska beats, surf guitars, jazz piano, and garage fuzz. What's it like? It's a thing unto itself. It's not like The Clash, The Police, or The Specials. Rhoda Dakar maybe? I can't say I'll put it into regular rotation, but a couple of these songs will be a welcome addition to mixes -- and would have been really fun in a small club in 1980.
I normally like Joe Jackson's distinctive voice. (His guest vocals on Common People with William Shatner and Ben Folds are PERFECT.) But his voice is especially harsh on this album. Maybe some of these songs would have benefitted from female vocalists.
P.S. Graham Maby kills it on every song with his basslines. That man is an unsung hero.
https://open.spotify.com/album/0WOfjbwCkyhxM9dnmUvif4?si=COEdW91tQSmQzXpK0OE_5w
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