Joe Jackson
is a gifted pop songwriter who clearly believes that isn't enough for him.
Jackson
has been pushing at his own boundaries for decades, embracing jump blues, cool jazz, and swing in the '80s, abandoning pop for classical and symphonic music for a few years in the '90s, and reworking a set of
Duke Ellington
pieces on 2012's
The Duke
.
's ambition is as great as his talent, but his talent has always been best served writing intelligent pop tunes, and his most earnest efforts outside the form have also demonstrated just where his skills wear thin. 2015's
Fast Forward
suggests
is trying to reach a middle ground with this material, delivering a set of intelligent, sophisticated pop numbers that also leave room for him to experiment with a range of stylistic approaches.
blocked out an unusual strategy for making the album;
was recorded in four parts, with
cutting four songs each in four different cities, with a different set of musicians accompanying him for each of the four sessions.
's refined melodic sense and straightforward but splendidly executed keyboard work dominate the performances regardless of his surroundings, and while he has some impressive talent joining him here --
Bill Frisell
and
Brian Blade
in New York,
Stefan Kruger
Stefan Schmid
of
Zuco 103
in Amsterdam,
Greg Cohen
Earl Harvin
in Berlin, and several members of
Galactic
in New Orleans -- above all, this sounds like
, complete with his arch wit, polished songcraft, and intelligence that only occasionally dips into stuffiness. (It's worth noting that the tracks with
boast a bigger and stronger swing than the rest of the album, and
Frisell
contributes a superb guitar solo on an unlikely cover of
Television
's "See No Evil"). Predictably, it's
's smarts that get him in trouble here, in particular on an overwrought version of the German cabaret tune "Good Bye Jonny" and "Far Away," an attempt to evoke the thoughts of a troubled child that sounds like a song from some unfinished Broadway musical. But the sizable majority of
finds
in excellent form, singing as well as he did in his salad days and leading his various combos with intelligence and cool enthusiasm. If this isn't quite up to the standards of his '80s high-water marks like
Night and Day
Big World
, it comes close enough that longtime fans will find plenty to enjoy, and some bits that will challenge them. ~ Mark Deming