Joe Jackson was initially associated with the ``New Wave" of pop/rock music of the late 1970s and early 1980s (Blondie, the B52s, Elvis Costello, Siouxsie and the Banshees, etc…) that followed quickly on, and was often influenced by, the 1970s onslaught of punk, but he's quite eclectic in style, even drawing from experience in jazz and classical music from the outset of his career. I'd neglected him somewhat in my listening until recently, although like most people alive (at least in the USA) in the early 1980s I was familiar with the hit ``Is She Really Going Out With Him?" even if not its author and performer. I quite enjoyed a vinyl copy of his album Body and Soul, which features a largeish band and often-jazzy or musical-theater influenced arrangements, especially first track `The Verdict', which opens with a slick brass-and-reeds fanfare. On more recent listening (streaming in HD), I still liked it, although I don't recall much detail past The Verdict. I haven't listened to his entire output, but will here log the current state of my investigations.

My favorite album of his so far is Volume 4, credited to the Joe Jackson Band. I'd say it's a minor masterpiece. I tend to lean towards catchy melody and relatively emotionally involved lyrics; keeping that in mind, my favorite songs on the album are `Still Alive ' `Chrome', and `My Blue Flame'. Still Alive opens with a chiming guitar figure (5 1 4 1 3 1 4 1 2 1 4 1 4 3 2 1 in major --- or if you prefer solfege, Pa Sa Ma Sa Ga Sa Ma Sa Ga Sa Ma Sa Ma Ga Re Sa) that perfectly conjures up a certain 60s pop-rock guitar feel, and the vocal reprises this figure but then goes in a rather different musical direction... then, typically for Jackson, a denouement, or at least change of tone, in the lyrics is accompanied by a catchy-as-hell change of harmony and descending melody, with `I know I said I couldn't live without you but I'm still alive". As often with Joe, there may be points where the lyrics get a tad too cute, but still this song---like the other two I singled out---is candy. `Chrome' seems to concern a crush who has become a star... after a somewhat pensive verse, a sudden and faster (the backing tempo stays constant) "Guess I was wrong" (and come to notice it, on the same dramatic descending notes (4321, in major) as "I'm still alive" (4 4 3 2-1) from Still Alive) introduces the chorus: "Now you shine like chrome / You're a star and bold like chrome / And from Tokyo to Rome / We're all aware of you", which is repeated with the last couplet changed to "And I'd like to take you home / But I'm scared of you." I perceived all three of these songs (and many of the others on the album, especially Love at First Light, and Little Bit Stupid ("You know what they say about Cupid") and perhaps even "Awkward Age") as addressed to the same person. My Blue Flame similarly involves an ex-lover, or maybe just crush, who is cold but again there is a change in mood to a somewhat anthemic chorus: "There's a blue flame inside of you so beautiful and rare ... You'd be so hard to love if love was not just there." Pretty sentimental but it works. If you're cold to these three songs, you probably don't like Puccini either, and that's fine, I guess. To make another classical vocal analogy, I'll liken some of Jackson's writing to the songs of Richard Strauss, which often used some pretty purple poetry, often not quite of the first rank, and could be extremely sentimental. "Morgen", "Allerseelen", or in fact almost all the songs I'm familiar with are quite sentimental , but also extremely effective and dramatic as songs, with striking and sometimes somewhat lush harmonic effects. There is apparently a body of more humorous songs by Strauss that are not much sung---if one is to trust the great accompanist, pianist Gerald Moore, it's because they're not very good. Here too there might be a bit of an analogy with Jackson...his humorous songs seem to me a bit weaker than his romantic ones---although I would not deprecate them as Moore does Strauss' humorous songs, and indeed one should note that there's quite a bit of ironic humor leavening the sentimentality in most of Jackson's romantic songs.

Not that the other songs on Volume 4 aren't mostly excellent too. The opening `Take it Like a Man" works quite well musically, hard-hitting bright medium-uptempo piano-driven new wave, but I find the lyrics a bit inscrutable and the line "take it like a man" a bit offputting (and the "ah-ooo" a little too cute...like it was pinched from Warren Zevon's `Werewolves of London') though maybe I'm just not getting the point. `Awkward Age' is bouncy and uptempo, and relatively sunny-sounding, the most reminiscent of relatively mainstream 1980s New Wave sound perhaps, Love at First Light seems to be about the possibility of something more significant growing out of a one-night stand...a nice song but melodically perhaps less distinctive than Alive, Chrome, or Flame, with a mellower and sunnier, more lullaby-like feel, at a medium tempo... also excellent. `Fairy Dust' is an uptempo rocker that seems to be a bit of a dig at people trying to be hip by engaging superficially with gayness (Jackson identifies as bi, I believe). Dirty Martini is a rocker, somewhat slight perhaps but maybe fitting into the overall picture by depicting a reaction to romantic disappointment ("too many olives and too much gin"). Thugz'r'Us is a catchy, perhaps somewhat cheap shot at (probably) white wannabe B-boyz ("Thuz 'r Us, Thugz 'r Us, wearing hoods and baggy trousers on the bus"), and doesn't much fit into an overall theme for the album although I guess it's something of a pair with Fairy Dust in a way. 'Bright Grey' is an uptempo, slighty thrash-y song about he/she dissonance, with some dissonant chords thrown in for subtlety, and an uptempo backbeat (snare hits on 2 and 4) you'll recognize from countless alt-pop-rock songs of the 00's and later. It's also quite good.

My other current favorite album by Jackson is his 1979 debut, Look Sharp. `One More Time' is sharp and punchy if lyrically bitter new wave, `Sunday Papers' is a bit nasty and trite in spots, but extremely catchy, its reggae or ska reminiscent, slightly herky-jerky backbeat. `Is She Really Going Out With Him' deserved its hit status. The hook in the chorus of `Happy Loving Couples' ("Happy loving couples make it look so easy") seems to me nearly identical with the melody to the words "They say you better listen to the voice of reason" (and "They don't give you any choice 'cause they say that it's treason") from Elvis Costello's `Radio Radio', which hit in 1978 in Britain and was written and already performed in 1977, and parts of the verse sound like they're from a Costello song too, but it's a pretty good song with its own identity nevertheless. As the reminders of early Costello might suggest, this record has the most consistent new wave rock feel of Jackson's work among the albums I've checked out. The song quality is consistently very high, and it's strongly recommended.

The follow-up I'm The Man, also from 1979, just didn't move me on first listen; the melodies just didn't seem as distinctive as on Look Sharp or Volume 4. I may give it another try but for now it's not on my recommended list. I had a similar reaction to Night and Day but again am not sure I've given it a fair chance. Both of these albums are highly lauded by some. Beat Crazy didn't move me overall either, since I found it too melodically weak overall, despite being the most ska and reggae influenced of his albums, although a few of the songs are catchy...`Battleground ' with its Linton Kwesi Johnson influenced dub poetry style, for instance, though you might find the lyrics (another song about black-culture-appropriating wannabes) a bit trite, and also not dig the use of the N-word.

As far as more recent Jackson goes, I found 2019's Fool pretty good on a first listen, though not of the high caliber of Look Sharp and Volume 4. Dips into each of the 2015 Fast Forward and the live 1986 Big World also seem promising.