The 1981 Listening Post - Grace Jones - Nightclubbing

 Grace Jones - Nightclubbing

#190

By Tom Mott

Grace Jones

Nightclubbing

Genre: Post-Disco Art

Allen’s Rating: 3 out of 5

Tom’s Rating: 4.75 out of 5

Highlights

Pull Up to the Bumper

Nightclubbing

I've Seen that Face Before (Libertango)

There is a certain dance club sound from 1980-81 that I absolutely love. Grace Jones, Tom Tom Club, Robert Palmer, Talking Heads, David Bowie, Blondie, Lizzy Mercier Descloux. It's a mix of funk, post-punk, post-disco, reggae, techno, and new wave. It's super sexy. It's cool. It's a club I want to be in, dancing into oblivion.

Chris Blackwell produced this and has a lot to do with the overall vibe. Sly & Robbie have a major role too. But Grace Jones was heavily involved and she needs to be talked about more. She should be idolized and tributed. She paved the way for so many later artists. This album was recorded in the same sessions that produced her 1980 album Warm Leatherette. These are the leftovers, but it's an even better album. It plays like a Greatest Hits album. It's smart and fun and idiosyncratic. It's Bjork before Bjork.

Most of the songs are covers, but that's not the right term because--like Devo reconstructing Satisfaction--she completely remolds them. Half the time, I didn't even realize they were covers. Of songs I love! 

Something else about this album--that something Stephen Lam mentioned about another album--it's full of space. She gives the music room to breath.

If you like Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, and Fame/Fashion/Ashes-to-Ashes Bowie, you probably already know this album. If not, give it a listen! 

WALKING IN THE RAIN (written by George Young the younger brother of Angus and Malcolm) plays out like Barry White 2.0 via Bladerunner.

PULL UP TO THE BUMPER is a dance-floor filler with an absolutely killer bass. Reminds me of L.A. apartment dance parties in the 90s. Co-written by Jones.

USE ME took me half way through to realize it's the Bill Withers song! In Jones's hands, it's a new song.

NIGHTCLUBBING is an Iggy Pop cover. Yes! I want to go nightclubbing with you! 

ART GROUPIE has a crazy sound. Guitar? Bass? What is that sound! She wrote this one too. Ohmigod I'm crushing on Grace Jones right now. 

I'VE SEEN THAT FACE BEFORE (LIBERTANGO) was cowritten by Astor Piazzolla the tango composer. It's lithe, lilting and sexy. I will forever associate this song with Emmanuelle Seigner in Frantic (Polanski). Can we please all move to France and live like Serge Gainsbourg?

FEEL UP is a groovy little world music mash-up by Jones. We talk about Malcolm McClaren (Duck Rock) and Paul Simon (Graceland), but Jones was right there fusing genres and beats from around the world. Magical song.

DEMOLITION MAN is perhaps the most infamous song from the album, due to the bizarre & fascinating music video. In my opinion not the strongest track, but around two-minutes in, it lock into a great hypno-groove. 

I'VE DONE IT ALL AGAIN is a Marianne Faithfull song, and a lovely change of pace. This is a real beauty. A song to wake up to after a night of drinking and debauchery. I'm in.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx7gRrgruAU&list=PLlvn8uktX5Lt4MKurBg5rbaDpiobndxLr

The 1980 Listening Post - Grace Jones - Warm Leatherette

Grace Jones - Warm Leatherette


#213

by Craig Fitzgerald

May 9 1980

Grace Jones 

Warm Leatherette 

Genre: New Wave? Reggae? 

Allen’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Craig’s Rating: 2.5 out of 5 

Craig’s Highlights:  

Warm Leatherette 

Bullshit Breakdown 

by Craig Fitzgerald

There is no way I would’ve ever heard this record in the whitebread, classic rock, dipshit hick town of Wilmington, Massachusetts where I grew up. If I had, I would’ve been given a wedgie beaten up by a fan of Foreigner. Therefore, my exposure to Grace Jones was limited. This record is a completely new experience for me. And given what I knew about her -- the video for “Demolition Man” which was in pretty regular rotation on MTV -- this is a pretty conventional album. It’s the kind of new wavey-dancy-reggaeish pop that sounds like about 97 percent of the other records I barely listened to at that time. As I found out, the reason for that was that it was one of the earlier Compass Point All Stars records. For a while there, a lot of records sounded like this because all the same people played on all of them, in the same studio. These guys were like the Swampers at Muscle Shoals for middle-aged recording artists in the ‘80s. Synth and guitar forward, super clean, generally non-offensive. It’s no surprise to me that Robert Palmer recorded two albums with the same people. MIck Jagger’s generally terrible first solo record was recorded here, along with every single musician known to man at that time. The other thing that was kind of a surprise was the fact that most of the songs on it are covers, and real bvious covers. Roxy Music’s “Love is the Drug” is on here. So is Tom Petty’s “Breakdown.” Both of these covers polish the rough edges right off of those songs. Unfortunately, the rough edges are what I like about them. That’s not to say they’re “bad.” The performers are great, but they sound like something you’d hear in any classy bar with a piano. The title track is probably my favorite song on the album. I tried to figure out what it was all about, and it turns out it was inspired by the novel -- which became the movie -- Crash, about people who got boners seeing car crashes. The song is better than the movie. It’s definitely the most “new wave” sound of anything on the album. “Bullshit” is a good song that had absolutely no hope of getting any airplay in 1980. It would’ve been great if somebody like Tina Turner belted it out. This is a record that definitely feels like Grace Jones is trying to figure out exactly what the hell she’s doing. She probably had that mapped out a lot better in her next record.

https://open.spotify.com/album/4rjhHrJA0OIVKNwXHKKKix?si=c3JCt1SyS3i315odeX8vdw