JOE JACKSON — Will Power (review)

Album · 1987 · Third Stream

4.5/5 · 2024-07-12
Matti P

My knowledge on the British musician JOE JACKSON (b. 1954) were very limited before now. I had heard the early 80's hit 'Steppin' Out' and perhaps a late 80's weak pop album. I had a vague idea of him as a New Wave artist often compared to Elvis Costello, but I didn't really know about his musical versatility that stretches to jazz and even to classical or "serious" music. Will Power, his first foray into the latter, is cruelly bashed in All Music Guide as "a good exercise in self-indulgence but little of anything else" while the user reviews there are encouragingly positive.

Even the legendary prog or fusion musicians such as TONY BANKS, MIKE OLDFIELD or PEKKA POHJOLA (who wrote an actual symphony) usually haven't received much kudos from their orchestral works, although it feels pretty natural they should extend their already eclectic and ambitious oeuvre into that field. All the more harsh it feels to see it judged as mere self-indulgence when someone initially less oriented to classically inspired music makes an album like this one. In fact I'm indeed positively surprised by Will Power -- which I wasn't by Oldfield's orchestral albums. Perhaps it even would deserve to be performed live by a philharmonic orchestra, today. (Sadly the compositions of Contemporary Music are often forgotten after their premieres, or if they're originally albums they may never enter the concert halls, as it probably was the case with Jackson's work. Nowadays orchestral works composed by pop/rock musicians are hopefully ignored by fewer people than earlier.)

Will Power contains four shorter pieces plus a 16-minute 'Symphony in One Movement'. 'No Pasaran' is a sharp-toned and very urban-sounding 6-minute piece with hypnotical repetitive patterns slightly reminiscent of some Vangelis compositions of the 70's. Good use of percussion! The nearly 10-minute 'Solitude' has a moody atmosphere, slow tempo and lots of flute in the nuanced soundscape. Some human voices are added later. I find Jackson's arranging skills to be notable. Traditional orchestral instruments are joined by guitars, saxophones and synthesizers.

Also the title track has a colourful, vivant soundscape. All in all, one can sense some stylistic relation to the minimalism of PHILIP GLASS. The orchestral suite "Hjuvi" (1992) by the Dutch art-pop band NITS -- in practise it was an effort of their keyboardist Robert Jan Stips -- comes to my mind, too. The tender, ballad-like 'Nocturne' focusses on the acoustic piano. I like its introspective and emotionally deep melodies.

In the winter of 1985 Jackson was commissioned to write a 20-minute score for a Japanese film, "Shijin No Ie" (House of the Poet), and the orchestral piece was recorded with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. He adapted the music into 'Symphony in One Movement' to start this album project. His symphonic vocabulary is quite clearly of the 20th century. I like the way various instruments come to the fore in this dynamic and yet thoughtful composition.

Definitely one of the best orchestral works, if not the best, I've ever heard from an artist with a popular music background.