Recommendations of the editorial team
She is an actress, model and style icon. With her androgynous appearance, she questioned gender norms decades ago. And as a singer, Grace Jones with her mix of R’n’B, Disco, Reggae and New Wave defined the sound of the eighties. It has postponed borders and merged as a total work of art image, fashion, style and music and inspired generations of artists: inside. We take a look at your work.
Haute Couture
Nightclubbing (1981)
In 1981 Grace Jones provided a little foretaste of the still young decade. The musical future is electronic and ice cold. On her fifth album Nightclubbing, the singer presents a number of radical reinterpretation of foreign compositions (Iggy Pop, Astor Piazzola, Sting, Flash and the Pan). In minimalist, electronic sound aesthetics, Dub, Reggae, Disco, Pop and New Wave find each other. Also included: Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, the most employed reggae rhythm group. Nightclubbing is the second album of the “Compass Point Trilogy”, which was recorded on the Bahamas in the studio of the Icelandic label founder Chris Blackwell.
Six stars
Island Life (1985)
Compilation that is not only incorrectly considered, but also because of the iconic cover photo for a regular album by Grace Jones. The much-cited and imitated motif recorded Jean-Paul Goude, her partner at the time. Island Life breaks down the artist’s work from 1977 to 1985 to ten songs. With the exception of Muse, at least one song is represented by each of their albums published on the Iceland label. The advantage: you can actually hear the best of your not always flavor -proof earlier albums.
Five stars
Hurricane (2008)
In the world of Grace Jones, the clocks run differently, market strategic publication cycles are not their business. 19 years after her last work, Hurricane appears-with a strange-looking mix of guest musicians: inside, including Brian Eno, Tricky, Indie-Darling Adam Green and again Sly and Robbie. The autobiographical songs move their android image towards humans. The mixture of triphop, r’n’b, digital dub and industrial gears was considered timeless 17 years ago and thus fit perfectly into that time.
Five and a half stars
Prêt-à-porter
Slave to the Rhythm (1985)
On this album, Grace Jones is most likely to sound as followed by afterborns probably the music of the eighties. This could be due to the producer Trevor Horn, who was then responsible for numerous large and shameful acts. Slave to the rhythm is a concept with partly extreme variations of a single song: “Slave to the Rhythm” – arranged between R’n’B, Funk, New Age and Kakophony. Jones tells short stories from her life. Nevertheless: After Nightclubbing your best -selling album.
Four and a half stars
Warm Leatherette (1980)
In 1980 the rather stubborn disco sound of its first three albums already appears. Electronics, New Wave and Post Punk determine the sound of the early eighties, nobody wants to know anything about Disco. Together with her new producer Chris Blackwell, Jones from these new influences develop an idiosyncratic sound that she will perfect a year later on nightclubbing. Mute label boss Daniel Miller may have been pleased that her version of his synth pop song “Warm Leatherette” caused movement in his account.
Four and a half stars
Inside Story (1986)
Once again Jones works with one of the great mainstream producers of the 1980s: Nile Rodgers, guitarist of the disco band Chic. This ensures that the musical backing on her eighth album is more pleasant, whereas Grace Jones sings courageously. Although the collaboration did not go without disputes about the musical orientation, Jones writes in her autobiography: “I don’t listen to all of my records, but I play them very often because it is interesting to hear what Nile thought.”
Four stars
Stagnation
Portfolio (1977)
The producer Tom Moulton is considered the intellectual father of modern remix and was not entirely innocent in the success of the 12-inch single. But as a producer of Jones’ debut, he uses a string-decorated disco sound that is considered antiquated with Giorgio Moroder’s fully electronic production of Donna Summers “I Feel Love”. You can only guess at portfolio, which is unexpectedly potential in the singer, even if two immortal Jones songs are contained with the Edith Piaf cover “La Vie en Rose” and with “I need a man”.
Three stars
Fame (1978)
As on portfolio and the following album, Tom Moulton mixed the songs on the first page of the LP without transitions. This early form of the DJ mix on sound carrier is due to the idea of the producer to transport a little studio 54 vibe into the global living room. But this plan alone does not wear a whole album. Musically, Fame is a continuation of the fairly successful disco formula. And Jones only functions as a vicarious agent for the ideas of the producer, who is not lacking in musical ideas, but who pass the personality of the singer.
Three stars
Muse (1979)
How little Jones appreciates her work with the producer Tom Moulton in retrospect, she has several in interviews. But the Reelease history of Muse, the third and last collaboration with Moulton, also speaks volumes. The album has been out of print for decades before it is finally re -published in the retro -Romanesque years. The recipe remains the same. The voice of Grace Jones is placed in a disco environment that also looks a bit more formulent than on the two predecessors.
Three stars
Discountware
Living My Life (1982)
The perfect sound design on Living My Life does not go over that the last album of the Compass-Point trilogy is a half-cooked affair. The arrangements of the songs and the production of the album have the cool aesthetics of the masterwork Nightclubbing from the previous year. However, this creates the impression of a mere pastiche, in which a collection of mediocre songs is well cleaned out in terms of production technology in order to shine in the light of the bright eighties. Grace Jones probably looks similar. Afterwards she devoted herself exclusively to her acting career for three years.
Two and a half stars
Bulletproof Heart (1989)
In addition to the iconic cover photo, there is not much Grace Jones left over her ninth album. Production sounds very like Electro Funk, a hip-hop subgenre that was the big new thing almost ten years earlier. The sound image of Bulletproof Heart has been hopelessly anchored in the period of its emergence and has not yet been declared Cool by any 80s revivalist. There is no reasonably memorable song on the album, no hit that would recommend a “Best of Grace Jones”. Perhaps that is why the artist should take a break of 19 years until she released her next album.
Two stars