Joe Jackson

Since his 1979 debut Look Sharp, Joe Jackson has into delved into a variety of genres, traversing through pop, jazz, Latin, even trying his hand at classical. While some of the twenty subsequent albums he's released have been grandiose affairs, his latest effort, Rain, is stripped to the bare essentials. This time around, he's 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 sounds of it, though, the only thing that reflects that fact is the album's title. None of the gloom managed to soak into the songs.