Joe’s the man

Press, 7 May 1981, Page 14

Joe’s the man

JOE JACKSON BAND

“Beat

| Crazy” (A and M L 37431). Upon being handed the Joe Jackson album, the comment was “it's a, critic’s album.” Well, that was a bad mistake; because “Beat Crazy” is not only a critics delight, it should be the listener’s as : well I From the moment the I stylus touches the album and the opening track “Beat Crazy,” with its loud scream, recalling a Madness act, it is clear the Joe Jackson third album is one of the .best reviewed this year so far. The track “Beat Crazy” is' a mad mixture of reggae and Latin American rhythms, an-, other “Young Generation”' song as the parent disapproves — (“Can't get no jobs — can't get careers/With safety pins — stuck through their ears”}. • But the next song, “One to One,” is completely different, from a younger song to an older, more melodic track complete with hypnotic metronome beat. It is also '■ humorous in its attitude toi wards feminism and human relationships (“You’re beautiful when you get mad/or is J that a sexist observation”). , In fact it is this contrast that is a delight. “In Every Dream Home (A Nightmare)” is a superb song about “fings ain’t being what they seem,” namely that

your so-called normal suburb is filled with strange(ers) playing sinful midnight ludo or worse. Seriously, though, the chorus is a treat, and it recalls Elvis Costello in the use of vocals. Another excellent track is “Mad At You,” a six-miriute tour-de-force guaranteed to wear the listener down as Jackson really articulates his anger only to find the song is a hit. Side two is not quite as strong, although the irony of the criminal and the victim again meeting face to face on “Crime Don’t ;Pay” is good', ' and' “Battleground,” adopts Linton Kwesi Johnson’s .style. of. delivery • -- being more poem than song, and incidentally about blacks and "whites. Joe Jackson takes on the big ones, risks all, and .comes out on top. The pity is' that the band have broken up, and worse that he and The Police are 3-all in the album stakes. But Jackson definitely plays better than the blondes on “Beat Crazy.” THE BOOMTOWN RATS “Mondo Bongo” (Mercury 6359 042). It> sounds like; the Rolling Stones. No it doesn’t. It sounds like lOcc. No - it doesn't. It sounds like Elvis Costello. No.it doesn’t . “Mondo Bongo” is a complete departure from . the

previous albums by the Boomtown Rats, so much so that it takes a lot of getting used to. Often, brilliant, occasionally crass, Bob Geldof continually sends the critics off on guessing games, the more so before “Mondo Bongo” was released in the U.K. at the end of last year because of the slagging he and the band were getting from the musics. -

“Mondo Bongo” opens on “Mood Mambo,” an up-tempo Latin American piece which is meant to be a free-floW consciousness thing, from a bass riff by Pete Briquette. Surprisingly it sounds like the. Stones and more surprisingly it works. “Straight Un” and “Elephant’s Graveyard” both evoke the ghost of Elvis Costello, • the latter about 7a retirement town, using Geldof’s favourite device of trading off his voice against those of the rest of the band.“Go Man Go” , is a snazzy little number about pressures on Geldof’s life from being in a touring rock 7 band,; .complete with snatches of "sax and asides that complicate the song. New Zealand gets a. mention on “Another Piece of Red,” about how thd .Rats were in Godzone when Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, hence the sun . sets, on the Empire. But, he is dealing more with the outposts — New Zealand looked like

Britain in the 50s, we had to turn out the light when we left, is Geldofs comments in an interview.

THe single, “Banana Republic,” is about Ireland. Geldof is Irish, and also fancies himself as another Van Morrison, and while he •may have buzzed. the Blarney stone, “Republic” takes on Irish history with occasional success (“heroes going cheap these days/Price: 7a- ' bullet in the head”). The album ends on a doodle by the producer, Tony Visconti,, called, “Whitehall 1212;” All work and no play makes producers dull. “Mondo Bongo’’- will find Rats fans listening seriously, as it is the type of album to suddenly leap up and hit the listener over the head.