Landlady

I guess I’m kind of behind the curve on this one, as Pitchfork just reviewed their album (with a dandy score in the sevens!), but Brooklyn’s Landlady deserves even more love. With free-flowing energy that has been severely lacking in so much of everything these days and a somehow tender abrasiveness, Landlady packs a […]

Leanids

Raw folk and earnest vocals describe Leanids well. The Swedish outfit builds intensity on one track and slows things back down on the next (or several tempos in one!). There’s a sense of sincerity on their new record, A Wildly, which few bands are able to convey. Leanids are making music they want to make, […]

New Letting Up Despite Great Faults: “Wrapped”

It’s taken me way too long to post the new Letting Up Despite Great Faults material, and for that I apologize. This crew has been one of my favorites over my blogging (and pre-blogging) years, in both personality and musicianship. I adore everything they put it out. Frankly, it’s hard not to. Not […]

[The Past Presents] Joe Jackson – Body and Soul (1984)

Joe_Jackson_-_Body_And_Soul

In a lot of ways, the 1980s were a strange decade. Speaking specifically to the musical output there was a lot to like, but it was dominated by fads and failed experiments. As someone who had limited access to music other than what my parents played or what popular radio had to offer, the 80s were a kind of dark period for me until much later in life. But during those dark times some names were always part of the conversation, even if they just skirted around the fringe. One of those names was Joe Jackson.

I feel like I’ve always known Jackson’s name. I knew that he had some radio hits but I absolutely could not name one of them. I knew he had a few hit records, one was Look Sharp, the other had a white and blue cover, maybe with a drawing of a piano or something on it. This is about as much as I knew about Joe Jackson. In my pursuit to fill in some holes in my fabric of music information I decided it was time to see what Joe Jackson was all about.

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