No Frills Joe

Rip It Up, Issue 24, 1 July 1979, Page 10

No Frills Joe

John Malloy

Joe Jackson Look Sharp! A&M T haven't liked pop music since I was fourteen,, when the British Invasion started to dredge up the third division bands for mass acceptance. With pop, once you get past the catchy melodies and slick arrangements, you find a big plastic void. I like music with some kind of real feeling. Lately there has been a few talented performers in the pop field, most of them British, starting with Costello and including latter day bands such as the Police. It can be dangerous stuff; you’ll be singing it in the lift and the doors open suddenly on the eleventh floor, to vast crowds. Be warned. Joe jdCJISC IO is one of ,he more talented English chaps writing pop , r CCk- He sounds a lot like a lot of current British bands (ey 1.3? Members), but he certainly has the tunes to cut it. Put “Is She Really Going Out With Him?" on your turntable and instantly recognise a great pop song. It could be 1963. What makes it different from Abba and Boney M (who are, after all, the epitome of Pop Success) is one thing: production. Look Sharp is as clean as a whistle, no overdubs, no digital delay, no added fat. The band is a three piece, with Jackson’s piano adding frills about twice during the whole album. They duplicate their live sound perfectly. The guitar (Gary Sanford) is so thin, it could be David Byrne (Talking

Heads to you) and the bass (Graham Mayby) holds down most of the melody.-Like 1963. Jackson can actually play piano well, but on stage with his band he is the vocalist, welldressed and wired up to the point of overt antipathy. He’s reasonable harmonica player too, but he’s no blues man. His songs are about common subjects, teen love, lust, the music biz, the Sunday papers. More than a few of them stand out. --One More-Time” has a bitter Jackson exposing the ironies of his ex’s parting shots. ... I’m not going to back down, though.-Pop Music is still a dirty two words, in my wellthumbed book. Here’s one thing: When you’ve had enough of aggression and petty fascism in music (there’s a lot of it about, I hear), let your ears stop ringing long enough to let a few tunes in.