Song of the Day: “The Face” by Joe Jackson
Joe Jackson has spent the better part of five decades treating the “pop star” label like an ill-fitting suit he’s constantly trying to have tailored—or, more often, burned. His latest offering, Hope and Fury, finds the 71-year-old enfant terrible in a remarkably focused state. It is a record that manages to be both a summation of his various lives (the pub-rocker, the salsa-lover, the jazz snob) and a sharp, contemporary elbow to the ribs of a world he finds increasingly exhausting.
The album serves as a spiritual bridge between the neon-lit New York nights of 1982’s Night and Day and the gritty, rain-slicked Portsmouth streets of his youth. For those who found his recent detour into the (ugh) “Max Champion” music hall persona a bit like watching your uncle perform a one-man show in a Victorian wig (double-ugh), Hope and Fury is a welcome return to form. It reunites him with his most reliable foil, bassist Graham Maby, whose lines are still as punchy and propulsive as they were in 1979. Jackson is no longer trying to prove he can write a symphony or a musical; he’s simply writing rock songs again, and the result is this “Bicoastal LatinJazzFunkRock” cocktail that goes down smooth but leaves a bracing aftertaste.
In the grand arc of his career, Hope and Fury feels like an artist finally settling into his own skin without losing his edge. He hasn’t mellowed so much as he has sharpened his tools. The record doesn’t have the frantic, “look-at-me” energy of Look Sharp!, nor the breathless romanticism of Body and Soul. Instead, it reflects a man who has realized that if you wait long enough, everything you once hated becomes vintage, and everything you once loved becomes a classic.
While the album is peppered with biting social commentary—notably the anti-nostalgic “Welcome to Burning-by-Sea” and “I’m Not Sorry”—it is “The Face” that emerges for me as the record’s high-point. Musically, it is pure Jacksonian bliss, leaning heavily into his love for the cool, sophisticated jazz-pop of Steely Dan. The arrangement employs just enough restraint to carve out space for a swinging, syncopated rhythm section that provides a trampoline for Jackson’s crisp piano stabs and Teddy Kumpel’s fluid guitar work. In a track list that occasionally leans into the “get off my lawn” energy of an old man who has seen too many pier pavilions close down, “The Face” feels light, observational, and musically adventurous. It reminds us that when Joe Jackson stops scolding the listener and starts simply swinging, he is nearly peerless. It is the most effortless thing on the record, which, ironically, makes it the hardest to ignore.
The Song
Spotify:
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/song/the-face/1851547711
The Album
Spotify:
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/hope-and-fury/1851547599
The Band
Be sure to check out the Audio Toxicity 2026 Bad Music Detox Protocol (AKA a playlist of songs covered so far…)