Before she took a 20-year musical hiatus, Jamaican-American singer and actress Grace Jones was known as one of many great examples of the survival of serious artistic integrity through the often unfairly frowned upon pop culture of the 1980s.
Jones has not released an album since 1989’s Bulletproof Heart. Now, Hurricane is hitting American shelves (it was released in the UK in 2008) and, even though Jones has never sold out or abandoned her fans, few people know just what to expect after a two-decade absence.
Like many stars of the ‘80s, Jones is as memorable for her looks as her music. The combination of her angular, androgynous fashion and increasingly experimental modern R&B music came to define her as she evolved from album to album, spawning plenty of commercial hits along the way.
So what could motivate her come back to recorded music after such a long break? She’s already seen plenty of commercial success while retaining her musical eccentricities, so one can only hope it was a love of music that made Jones return.
Either way, she doesn’t miss a beat. Jones is so much a product of her era that she would have quite a bit of trouble escaping it even if she tried, so instead she embraces it. Take a track like “Williams’ Blood,” an exciting, catchy ‘80s dancefloor track that perpetually feeds the listener one smooth bassline after another under a steadily building choir of intense female vocals.
Incredible production values aside, this track could easily be found on some late-’80s dance mixtape. “Well Well Well” is a fantastic encapsulation of the early-’80s new wave style of reggae that Jones knows well, with “Love You to Life,” among others, repeating the trend while also bringing back Jones’ spoken-word vocals.
Not every track is great though, such as the title track, co-written by Tricky, which naturally comes out sounding like a bit of an awkward take on old Massive Attack, while other tracks, such as “Corporate Cannibal” and “Devil in My Life,” feel too industrial and computerized for Jones.
Hurricane is a tough album to consider — fans of what Jones did in the ‘80s will find plenty to enjoy here, but the record is overly smooth for an artist known for rhythms. Take a listen and see if it’s for you; if it’s not, there’s always the back catalog.
VERDICT: More of a “welcome back” album than a “comeback” album, Jones shows she still has her ‘80s mojo, even if the record is slow at times.
berman@umdbk.com
