To be honest, other than her radio hits, I hadn't given much thought to Rickie Lee Jones in many years. But five years ago, I put together a list of Billboard magazine's jazz charts and found two of RLJ albums charted on said jazz charts. That got my attention, but then I noticed many of the social media accounts I follow mention albums such as The Magazine when listing the usual suspects in regard to "yacht rock" session musicians (i.e., Jeff Porcaro, David Hungate, Buzz Feiten, Neil Larsen, Jerry Hey, Steve Lukather, Steve Gadd - they're all here ). So, long story long, when I saw this beauty in the $2 clearance bin at the local used CD joint two years back, I didn't hesitate. Wise move on my part cuz this thing is fantastic.
Press of the time:
- Stereo Review: Best of the month.
- Rolling Stone (★★★★): "insists on staying one step ahead of herself and challenges her audience to keep up."
- Robert Christgau: B-
- CashBox: "Jones seems to have found a firm focus"
- Billboard: "what truly intelligent AC music can be"
"Truly intelligent AC music," huh? Sounds like something I'd get into. And I dig the risk-taking in the songwriting, even though some critics of the time did not. NME, however, ranked the album as 1984's tenth best.
I almost forgot: headphones mandatory.
Album chart peaks:
- US Billboard Top 200: #44
- Billboard Jazz: #20
- CashBox: #26
- CashBox CD: #16
- Rolling Stone: #16
Tracks: One of those albums that needs need to be heard top-to-bottom as it is apparent (to me, anyways) that a great deal of thought was put into the album sequencing. The singles were It Must Be Love (did not chart) and The Real End (#83 pop, #37 AC) but the Chuck E's in Love redux is Juke Box Fury.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None. While Jones had matured quite a bit for this album, the 1984 version of myself had not. So not only did I not hear this album until much later, I wouldn't have given the thing a second look in the record store bins. 1984 version of myself wasn't that bright.
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