Grace Jones - Nightclubbing (Deluxe Edition)

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Still gracing the airwaves!

Grace Jones is a Jamaican singer that has had a varied and illustrious career, having been a model for Vogue and appeared in ‘A View to a Kill’ James Bond film. It is her music that we are interested in here having released a number of albums in her career with the reissue of ‘Nightclubbing’. Her music has always had a unique sound and she has not been afraid to push the boundaries creating a new sound along the way.

It is a varied album mixing a number of styles but all sounding like Grace Jones, it has quite mellow numbers such as ‘I’ve done it Again’ a different side to those I am used to being more familiar with the disco and even some quite confrontational sounds. The stand out track is probably the one that would be most well-known to fans and those who only know the ‘hits’ being ‘Pull up to the Bumper’ a track which listening again does not sound as dated as you would expect for a track over twenty years old.

What also stands out is that the sounds are still incorporated into artist’s sounds now, there seem to be influences filtering down to the Electronica, Dance and even into the Rock and Indie scenes. The standing that she still has can be shown by playing at the Jubilee celebrations in 2012. There are some tracks that do have a pure 80’s sound such as ‘Demolition Man’ that perhaps do give away the age of the album, without affecting the overall quality of what’s there. I enjoyed listening to this more than I thought I would having not really appreciated seeing here in Hyde Park supporting Pulp a couple of years back.

Also released is an album or extra tracks, including 12 inch versions of ‘Pull up to the Bumper’, well actually three different versions of that particular track. It is very much for the hardcore fans, I have never personally been a fan of these extra’s, while it’s nice to hear different versions of tracks I am not sure you need four versions of one song over two cd's. That is a general bugbear of mine for all artists and does not detract from a well put together version of a classic album. This gives the chance for a new generation of fans to discover Grace Jones and her music that is still influencing artists today.

Review by Jon Cooper

Listen! to the Track 'Demolition Man' Below...