Hurricane (Grace Jones album)

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Hurricane
GraceJonesHurricane.jpg
Studio album by Grace Jones
Released November 3, 2008
Recorded 2004–07
Genre R&B, electronica, reggae
Length 48:40 (Hurricane)
50:26 (Hurricane – Dub)
Label Wall of Sound, PIAS
Producer Ivor Guest, Grace Jones, Brian Eno, Antony Genn, Bruce Woolley
Grace Jones chronology
The Ultimate Collection
(2006)The Ultimate Collection2006		 Hurricane
(2008)
Alternative cover
Hurricane – Dub cover
Singles from Hurricane
  1. "Corporate Cannibal"
    Released: August 24, 2008
  2. "Williams' Blood"
    Released: December 8, 2008
  3. "Well Well Well"
    Released: 2009
  4. "Love You to Life"
    Released: May 3, 2010
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 72/100[1]
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 3.5/5 stars[2]
BBC Music Favourable[3]
The Guardian 3/5 stars[4]
Los Angeles Times 4/4 stars[5]
NME 7/10 stars[6]
The Observer 3/5 stars[7]
Pitchfork 7.5/10[8]
Record Collector 4/4 stars[9]
Slant Magazine 4/5 stars[10]
Spin 8/10 stars[11]
The Village Voice Favourable[12]

Hurricane is the tenth studio album by singer Grace Jones, released in 2008, and her first album of new material in nineteen years.

Background

Grace Jones' previous album, Bulletproof Heart, was released in 1989, and despite several comeback attempts throughout the 1990s, her next full length record would be released almost two decades later. The singer had decided "never to do an album again",[13] changing her mind only after meeting the music producer Ivor Guest via mutual friend Philip Treacy. After becoming acquainted, Guest played Jones a track he had been working on and she set her lyrics "Devil in My Life" to it. They ended up recording as many as 23 tracks and some of them might make up Jones' next album.[14] In 2007 Guest announced that he and Jones had completed recording the album.

The album included a number of autobiographical songs, these included "This Is", "Williams' Blood" and "I'm Crying (Mother's Tears)". "Love You to Life" was another track based on real events and "Corporate Cannibal" referred to the subject of corporate capitalism. The title track was first recorded as a 1997 collaboration with Tricky under the title "Cradle to the Grave". "Well Well Well" was dedicated to the memory of Alex Sadkin, who had died in 1987, having co-produced three of Jones' 1980s albums. "Sunset Sunrise" ponders mankind's relationship with nature, and the final song, "Devil in My Life", was written after a party in Venice while Jones was standing in the corner observing partygoers.[14] Four songs were ultimately removed from the track listing: "The Key to Funky" (co-written by Jones and Diane Pernet in the late '80s), "Body Phenomenon", "Sister Sister" and "Misery". Another track recorded by Jones, "Volunteer", was leaked in 2007 by Leslie Winer, together with "This", an early version of "This Is".[15] Winer also asserted that she had written both songs with Joe Galdo in the early 1990s.[16] Mainly with Sly and Robbie, Wally Badarou, Barry Reynolds, Mikey Chung and Uziah "Sticky" Thompson, aka the Compass Point Allstars as a backbone, the album retained the reggae-influenced sound of her three Compass Point albums even though it was not recorded at the legendary studios in the Bahamas.

Originally rumoured to be titled Corporate Cannibal,[17] the album's final title Hurricane and the release date of 27 October were announced in June 2008, at her signing with Wall of Sound.[18] The album was released on Wall of Sound on November 3, 2008 in the United Kingdom. PIAS, the parent company of Wall of Sound, distributed Hurricane worldwide, excluding North America.[19] It met with positive reception, obtaining a score of 72 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic.[20]

Prior to the release, Jones performed a two-hour concert at Massive Attack's Meltdown festival in London on 19 June 2008, during which she performed four new songs from the album and premiered the music video for the first single, "Corporate Cannibal".[21][22] For further album promotion, Jones appeared on British television talk show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, several awards galas, and embarked on The Hurricane Tour in January 2009, which garnered positive reviews.

Three years after the original Hurricane release, Jones released a dub version of the album. Hurricane – Dub came out on September 5, 2011. The dub versions were made by Ivor Guest, with contributions from Adam Green, Frank Byng, Robert Logan and Ben Cowan.

Artwork

The front and back covers of the album features pictures of chocolate heads of Grace, which she revealed on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross shortly before Hurricane's release. Photographs included in the booklet picture the singer as a chocolate factory worker, complete with uniform and name tag.[23] Chocolate heads, as well as arms and legs were molded at the Thorntons chocolate factory in Derbyshire[24] by lifecasting expert John Schoonraad, his son Tristan and artist Nick Reynolds.

The dub re-release of Hurricane features new artwork by Jean-Paul Goude of Jones smoking a cigarette whilst wearing a sparkling hat.

Singles

"Corporate Cannibal" became the album's first single, released in August 2008 and promoted at the Meltdown festival. The song did not chart. The second single, "Williams' Blood", was released in December, and subsequently became a charting success in Belgium. A promotional only single, "Well Well Well", was released in 2009. "Love You to Life" was chosen as the third commercial single in 2009, but its release would be postponed for over a year.

Track listing

Original release

No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "This Is"   Grace Jones, Mark van Eyck 5:35
2. "Williams' Blood"   Grace Jones, Lisa Coleman, Wendy Melvoin 5:57
3. "Corporate Cannibal"   Grace Jones, Adam Green, Ivor Guest, Mark van Eyck 5:54
4. "I'm Crying (Mother's Tears)"   Grace Jones, Ivor Guest 4:31
5. "Well Well Well"   Grace Jones, Barry Reynolds 3:51
6. "Hurricane"   Grace Jones, Tricky 6:33
7. "Love You to Life"   Grace Jones, Mark van Eyck, Bruce Woolley 5:20
8. "Sunset Sunrise"   Grace Jones, Paulo Goude, Bruce Woolley 5:11
9. "Devil in My Life"   Grace Jones, Ivor Guest, Leopold Ross, Mark van Eyck 5:48

Hurricane – Dub

No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "This Is Dub"   Grace Jones, Mark van Eyck 4:35
2. "Williams Dub"   Grace Jones, Lisa Coleman, Wendy Melvoin 5:40
3. "Cannibal Dub"   Grace Jones, Adam Green, Ivor Guest, Mark van Eyck 5:16
4. "Well Well Well Dub"   Grace Jones, Barry Reynolds 4:10
5. "Crying Dub"   Grace Jones, Ivor Guest 4:58
6. "Hurricane Dub"   Grace Jones, Tricky 5:20
7. "Love You to Life Dub"   Grace Jones, Mark van Eyck, Bruce Woolley 5:20
8. "Sunset Dub"   Grace Jones, Paulo Goude, Bruce Woolley 4:45
9. "Devil Dub"   Grace Jones, Ivor Guest, Leopold Ross, Mark van Eyck 5:17
10. "Hell Dub"   Grace Jones, Ivor Guest 5:04

Personnel

Companies

  • Phonographic Copyright (p) – PIAS / Wall of Sound Ltd.[25]
  • Copyright (c) – Bloodlight Inc.
  • Recorded at Exponential studios
  • Recorded at Microcosm studios
  • Recorded at 2 Kilohertz
  • Recorded at Matrix studios, London
  • Mixed at Strongroom (a division of Air Studios (Lyndhurst) Ltd.)
  • Mixed at Microcosm studios
  • Mastered at Gateway Mastering

Album notes

"Well Well Well is dedicated to the memory of Alex Sadkin
The album is dedicated to the memory of my dad, Bishop Robert W. Jones" [26]

Chart performance

Chart Peak
position
Austria[27] 23
Belgium (Flanders)[28] 14
Belgium (Wallonia)[29] 54
France[30] 36
Germany[31] 19
Italy[32] 40
Netherlands[33] 63
New Zealand[34] 37
Sweden[35] 34
Switzerland[36] 28
United Kingdom[37] 42
United States (Top Electronic Albums)[38][39] 20

Release history

Region Year Format(s) Label
Europe 3 November 2008 CD, digital download Wall of Sound, PIAS
Argentina 14 April 2009 CD
United Kingdom 2010 LP The Vinyl Factory
United States 6 September 2011 CD, digital download Wall of Sound, PIAS

References

  1. ↑ http://www.metacritic.com/music/hurricane/grace-jones
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  25. ↑ Discogs - Hurricane (949.2050.020)
  26. ↑ Discogs - Hurricane (WOS050CD)
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links

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