GRACE JONES AT HER FINEST

Review Score: (8/10)
Grace Jones second album on Island Records is possibly the greatest of her recording career to date. It features a string of very remarkable recordings, containing a multitude of styles such as New Wave, Reggae, Funk and Jazz.

The album opens with the curiously compelling, Walking In The Rain, which is one of her most bizarre and off the wall recordings, yet there is something fascinating about this recording despite its blatant weirdness. She then delivers what's possibly her very, very best recording ever - Pull Up To The Bumper. This funk-driven track is totally infectious - a fact reflected in her sales as this became one of her biggest ever hits in the U.K where it sailed into the Top 20 singles charts on it's re-release in 1986 (although struggled into the lower reaches of the Top 75 the first time round). The Reggae-style, Use Me has an interesting musical arrangement as does the title track, Nightclubbing which is full of strange, synchronized sounds. The New Wave soundsof Art Groupie is another catchy affair, whilst the music steadily steers into jazz on the eccentric but undeniably excellent, I've Seen That Face Before. The disappointment of the album comes in the lacklustre version of Feel Up - the reason being was that she did a far better version in her A One Man Show (1982). However the album soon gets back on track with the stomping rock track, Demolition Man and then finally the album ends with a surprise in I've Done It Again. This late night jazz number allows you to appreciate the surprisingly soothing qualities of her voice. Never have I heard her sound so effeminate as she does on this track. All in all a very good album, packed full of red blooded performances from Grace and a string of vastly remarkable recordings that only an artist as eccentric as Grace Jones could record. The album was a big seller, going into the British Top 40 album charts and was incidentally voted album of the year by the magazine, New Musical Express.

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