After some 19 years Grace Jones is back with an album of new material. So seamless is this new collection of songs that you'd never know Jones has been away for so long. In the mid-eighties, after Jones's Slave To The Rhythm album, the singer took a more pop influenced direction on albums like Inside Story (1986) and Bulletproof Heart (1989). That last album was a bit of a fizzer.
Interestingly, Wikipedia says that Grace Jones made two albums, Black Marilyn in 1994 (what a title) and Force Of Nature (1998). Perhaps Jones is continuing the theme of that album with Hurricane.
Style wise, Hurricane is like being thrust back into Grace Jones's great period between 1980-1982, those three great albums Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing and Living My Life.
Those albums featured sparse, muscular Jamaican rhythms coupled with Jones's austere vocals. Hurricane continues on in that arresting vein, and it's a relief to see Grace Jones back to 'being herself'. Indeed, there's nothing in the album's tone to suggest that she's even been away for so long from making music.
This album is probably even darker than the 1980-1982 period I cited above. Especially tracks like Corporate Cannibal and the eponymous Hurricane. This is however offset by more reflective and personal tracks.
If you grew up in the eighties like Mr Pinky did, worshipping the rich and strange goddess like Grace Jones, then this new album will not disappoint.
P:)
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