Word: albums
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...JACKSON ALBUM!" screams the sticker from the demented cartoon-figured cover of Beat Crazy. But it doesn't quite explain itself; this isn't Joe Jackson's new album, it's the album by the New Joe Jackson. Jackson must have swallowed a bottle of ludes after I'm the Man and, while recovering, composed Beat Crazy. Nothing else could explain such a major departure in style, lyrics, and sound. Casting away his previous power-pop label, Jackson casts himself in the reggae/innovative rock mold...
...with the world's eyes trained on Iran, Afghanistan and Ronald Reagan, the war song is returning to album-sides and radio stations in a torrent as remarkable for its suddenness as for its size. There's been no similar topical fascination in rock music since the Beatles set off the psychedelic-drug-song craze in 1967. Listen to the titles: "Generals and Majors" (XTC), "World War" (The Cure), "Cold War" (Devo), "Battleground" (Joe Jackson), "Life During Wartime" (Talking Heads). There are songs about war in the Middle East, songs about nuclear war, political songs against war, jingoist songs...
After "Life During Wartime," different artists picked up the now-successful theme. But the concern with war reached an obsessive pitch only with this fall's album releases--records that went into production last winter and spring, as Zbigniew Brzezinski posed in the Khyber Pass and American helicopters crashed in the sands around Tabaz. Some examples...
...Beat Crazy, Joe Jackson. Here's an example of how a basically middle-of-the-road, modestly talented songwriter picked up on the martial atmosphere in his recording studio. None of Jackson's new songs actually depicts war scenes, but tank-treads grind throughout the album. From the title track...
...More Specials, The Specials. The keynote of the new Specials album, framing it at start and finish, is their cover and reprise of an old song titled, "Enjoy Yourself--It's Later Than You Think." If that melancholy note wasn't enough, their "Man from C & A" spells the point out plainly: it opens with a shout of "Warning, Warning, Nuclear Attack," and its simple ska beat is punctuated with machine-gun fire and high explosives...