It's been almost thirty years since Joe Jackson released his first album, 1979's uber-hit-spawning ('Is She Really Going Out With Him?', for readers of a younger persuasion) Look Sharp. Since then, the UK-born singer and pianist's career has hovered between originality and mediocrity, and has seen him hailed by advocates as a quintessential example of classic songwriting and musicianship, and denounced by detractors as a poor man's Billy Joel (an insult if ever there was one). Nevertheless, one point that can't be argued is Jackson's sheer longevity and eclecticism - in the course of his career, he's undertaken new wave, pop, swing, blues and even Cole Porter tribute albums, and has had his songs covered by artists as diverse as Tori Amos and Anthrax. Now regrouping members of his original band for the first time since 1980, Jackson returns with his first new album in four years. Rain is very much a hit-and-miss affair; though his voice is as potent as ever for his 53 years, much of the album is just far too average to warrant repeated listening. The vast majority of the tracks are predictable, uptempo piano-led numbers that sound dated and listless (Citizen Sane, Good Bad Boy), or ballads that simply fail to ignite (Wasted Time). There's scant redemption in the brief flurry of interest midway - The Uptown Train is a slinky, sassy number that abruptly flickers with potential, King Pleasure Time's rock swagger is one of the few tracks with any sort of edge, but even the haunting Solo (So Low) is marred by its protracted running time. It's unlikely that Jackson's mission statement for Rain was to turn any particular genre on its head, or to win over a new generation of fans; but even longtime devotees will feel hard done-by on this humdrum offering from a man whose back catalogue intermittently displays that he's capable of so much better.
