JOE JACKSON TRIO

Live Music – Europe 2010

[Razor & Tie]

Joe Jackson should be an expert by now on how to make in-concert albums. This edition of Live Music is the sixth in the series for the sharp-tongued new-waver turned Cole Porter enthusiast, and it carefully highlights the strengths of his touring band while also tossing in a few surprises for fans who bought the first five. A plurality of the set list comes from 1982’s Night and Day, and the guitar-less trio pounds home the hooks so insistently this jazzy pop fits in just fine next to some of Jackson’s earlier in-your-face rockers. Still, don’t confuse this with a career retrospective. A quarter of the performances pay tribute to three decades’ worth of other British stars: Jackson’s take on the Beatles’ “Girl” is sincerely romantic, while his cover of David Bowie’s “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)” gets you hoping that the Thin White Duke’s apparent retirement won’t last. –David Styburski

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