Joe Jackson

Since his 1979 debut, Look Sharp, Joe Jackson has delved into a variety of genres, traversing through pop, jazz, and Latin, and even trying his hand at classical. Though some of the 20 subsequent albums he has released have been grandiose affairs, his latest effort, Rain, is stripped to the bare essentials. This time around, he is backed only by bassist Graham Maby and drummer Dave Houghton, who have made up Jackson's timekeeping backbone off and on for the past three decades. Classic Jackson, Rain borrows some of the best elements of 1982's Night and Day, which was an homage to his former home of New York City. These days Jackson lives in Berlin, where, fittingly, it was raining while he was writing and recording the record. From the sound of it, though, the only thing that reflects that fact is the album's title. None of the gloom soaked into the songs.