I managed to catch Joe Jackson not long after he`d released his debut album `Look Sharp!` with that memorable track `Is She Really Going Out With Him?` at Birmingham`s Digbeth Civic Hall July 1979. He played an extra long set as the support band The Valves didn`t turn up and was honest enough to admit he`d run out of material and came back for an encore which included `Pressure Drop` a Toots and the Maytals cover, `Come On` by Chuck Berry, and `Ain’t That A Shame` a Fats Domino number. How could you not be won over?? Forty four years on and he has a new album `What A Racket!` which revives the songs of early 20th-century English Music Hall artist Max Champion.
The album kicks off with `Why, Why, Why?` a whimsical reflection with numerous questions associated with life such as why are we alive? Simple inquiries, not, but shared in a music hall oompah style with strings and horns and a backing choir, a simple but endearing introduction. There`s a racing velocity to `The Sporting Life` which is part sung, part spoken word and part shouted over a rhythmic musical backing.
`Dear Old Mum – A London Irish Lament` is an amusing witty reminiscence on being raised by a catholic Irish mother and has that tinge of Gaelic nostalgic songs like `I`ll Take You Home again Kathleen`. We move from the Emerald Isle to the Mediterranean island of Malta with `Monty Mundy (Is Maltese)!` a further humorous ditty which has a kind of football chant about the chorus.
`The Shades Of Night` has a kind of waltz like vibe and appears to paint a picture of an evening stroll and what is observed on such a perambulation. I could imagine the audience swaying along as this ditty is shared. Title track `What A Racket!` is a delightfully captivating track about the not so joys of Victorian London and has a kind of energetic `can can` texture about it.
`The Bishop And The Actress` usually placed the opposite way round in ribald jokes is a slightly risqué observative number shared over a tinkling piano about an elicit romance between this unusual pairing. We have a brief trumpet solo which I found somewhat enchanting. The show must go on is the idiom that originated in the 19th-century circus industry but applies here in `Think Of The Show! – A Thespian`s Lament`. A superbly fast paced thoughtful wordplay shared against a stabbed violin string arrangement.
`Never So Nice In The Morning` has an almost genteel Victorian cinematic feel as it runs through a variety of musical instruments before settling for a waltz like reverie on how the narrator is not a morning person. We have a fairly humorous reflection on fitness and wellbeing in `Health & Safety` which seems to have been viewed with similar disdain back in the day as it is today.
The album closes out with `Worse Things Happen At Sea` which has an almost patriotic sense about it musically and lyrically.
I have to admit that when I first listened to `What A Racket!` I thought, nah, not for me but i`m so glad I stuck with it. It`s may have a slight novelty value but to me it was original, unique, and innovative with songs that had a delightful intricate wordplay. The numbers depicted everyday life in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, and were most often sentimental, humorous, or satirical. Little is known about the Music Hall performer Max Chapman except that he was born in 1882 in London’s East End and may have sadly perished in the first world war. But Joe Jackson has brought him and his songs to life in this wonderful tribute. I was transported back to my childhood and the BBC television light entertainment programme The Good Old Days where an authentic atmosphere of the Victorian–Edwardian music hall was recreated with songs and sketches of the era performed in the style of the original artistes.
`What A Racket!` is a clever, well thought out and executed period piece which i`m sure will bring so much joy if you only allow it a little time to enter your life.
Rating 9 /10
