{"id":31233,"date":"2026-07-16T05:30:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T09:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=31233"},"modified":"2026-07-18T16:58:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T20:58:54","slug":"joe-jackson-still-burning-with-creativity-part-1-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/16\/joe-jackson-still-burning-with-creativity-part-1-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Jackson: Still Burning with Creativity (Part 1 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Released April 10, Hope and Fury<\/i> is the 22nd<\/sup> studio album from British-born singer, songwriter, pianist, composer and band leader Joe Jackson. First coming to fame as an outlier in the era of new wave, Jackson scored early hits like \u201cIs She Really Going Out With Him?\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s Different for Girls,\u201d breaking through worldwide with \u201cReal Men\u201d and \u201cSteppin\u2019 Out\u201d in 1982. Throughout his career, Jackson has never allowed himself to be defined or hemmed in by stylistic constraints; resolutely charting his own musical path, he has created a body of work that continues to impress. The wide-screen musical vision of Joe Jackson remains a core feature of all of his work, and is once again on brilliant display with his latest release.<\/p>\n

Save for the fact that Hope and Fury<\/i> is an all-new set of songs from Joe Jackson, it plays like a greatest hits album, or an expertly-crafted sampler that leans into all of his strengths. The seething and subtly sinister \u201cWelcome to Burning-by-Sea\u201d opens the record in grand fashion. An insistent bass line and Latin percussion anchor the song as Jackson\u2019s lyrics paint a vivid picture of seaside England. \u201cI\u2019m Not Sorry,\u201d \u201cFabulous People\u201d and \u201cAfter All This Time\u201d all showcase the kind of musical textures that thrilled listeners on classic Jackson albums like 1982\u2019s Grammy-nominated Night and Day.<\/i><\/p>\n

The heartfelt balladry of \u201cMade God Laugh\u201d balances sentimentality and Jackson\u2019s inerrant sense of melody and finely-tuned songcraft. The bouncy \u201cDo Do Do\u201d wouldn\u2019t have been out of place on 1979\u2019s I\u2019m the Man<\/i> or Beat Crazy<\/i> (1980). \u201cThe Face\u201d swings for the creative fences, effectively wedding a complex Latin beat to a rock melody. The atmospheric \u201cEnd of the Pier\u201d leans into a melodic jazz feel. And Jackson wears his heart on his sleeve for the sublimely orchestrated \u201cSee You in September,\u201d a lovely song that could easily become a contemporary standard.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Hope and Fury<\/i>\u2019s release \u2013 and on the eve of an ambitious tour that would take him and his band across North America and Europe \u2013 Jackson spoke with me about his deep catalog, the new album, the tour, and explained why he doesn\u2019t like musical labels applied to his work.<\/p>\n

Bill Kopp: The tagline on your website for <\/b>Hope and Fury<\/b><\/i> says, \u201cFile under Bicoastal LatinJazzFunkRock.\u201d Can you unpack that for me? <\/b><\/p>\n

Joe Jackson:<\/b> That\u2019s my little joke, really, because you [music journalists and critics] have been debating for years: Where do I fit in terms of genres? You know, I was already sick of it 30 years ago. The most important thing to critics is the last thing I<\/i> ever think of, which is \u201cWhat genre does it fit into?\u201d It never even occurs to me. So I thought in this case I would just make up a genre.<\/p>\n

The bicoastal part is a joke that I used to make about dividing my time between New York and my hometown in England, which is Portsmouth on the south coast. So instead of being bicoastal \u2013 you know, New York and L.A. \u2013 I\u2019m bicoastal New York and Portsmouth.<\/p>\n

I used to say that as a joke, but when I think about it\u2019s musically true as well. Because if I have any roots in music at all, it\u2019s British pop music of the \u201860s, which is what I heard when I was a kid. That\u2019s the first influence, but the really important later influences are jazz and Latin music, which come from America, especially New York. And you can still hear a lot of that on this album.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t read what people write about me very often; I think it\u2019s a mistake to do that. But I have read people making lists of musical genres that I\u2019m supposed to have done. In quotes: \u201cDone.\u201d And some of them, I think, \u201cWhat are you talking about? Which was the blues album?\u201d Anyway, \u201cbicoastal LatinJazzFunkRock\u201d is a bit of a joke, but it\u2019s actually quite accurate, I think.<\/p>\n

Beyond your work as a songwriter and composer, one of the things for which you\u2019re admired is your championing of musical styles well outside of rock. Your 2012 album of Ellington songs, <\/b>The Duke<\/b><\/i>, is remarkable. And on a personal level, in large part I have you and your 1981 album <\/b>Joe Jackson\u2019s Jumpin\u2019 Jive<\/b><\/i> to thank for my discovery of Louis Jordan. Do you think of yourself in any sense as a musical anthropologist? <\/b><\/p>\n

It never occurred to me, but I\u2019ve always seen music as a huge ocean. I never saw any reason to be sort of confined to one corner of it. I\u2019ve always been really curious about all kinds of music going right back to when I first got interested in music. I\u2019m a huge Latin music fan, for instance; that\u2019s a really big influence. And I\u2019m a big jazz fan. What can I tell you? That\u2019s just the way I am. And why not?<\/p>\n

Your body of work encompasses so many different styles. Do you have a strong aversion to doing the same thing twice?<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, if that means trying not to repeat myself and become boring or clich\u00e9, then yes. I do try to avoid cliches; that\u2019s one of the few things that are conscious about whatever process it is by which I write songs. People are always asking me how I write; I try to explain it, and often it doesn\u2019t seem to make sense. And that\u2019s because it doesn\u2019t completely make sense to me, either. But if I\u2019m working on something and I start to think, \u201cThis is sounding like something I\u2019ve heard before,\u201d whether it\u2019s mine or someone else\u2019s, then alarm bells go off in my head. And then I look for some way to change it, or I scrap it altogether.<\/p>\n

Your 2023 album <\/b>What a Racket!<\/b><\/i> is a conceptual work that celebrates music hall. That style of music is an important part of British cultural history, and many critics loved it. But was it suited mostly for British listeners who would \u201cget it?\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

Of course, it\u2019s very English. The American equivalent is vaudeville, and it\u2019s quite a close equivalent, actually. A lot of the British musical stars performed in America in vaudeville, and some of them were very successful, [going on to become] superstars in America. Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel both started out in the London music hall.<\/p>\n

Obviously an English audience is more familiar with music hall, but a lot of them would tend to think that it\u2019s some kind of corny old thing, and they\u2019re not interested. But it\u2019s possible that an American audience might find it interesting or exotic in a way that a British audience wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

When we toured with this project, I really didn\u2019t know what to expect from audiences anywhere. And I was actually amazed at how well it went down in the States; people really liked it. So you never know.<\/p>\n

There’s much more from my conversation with Joe Jackson. Click here to continue<\/a>\u2026<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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