Have you met Ms. Jones? She's a bit.. um.. mad. Grace Jones's reputation precedes her, but there's no two ways about it - she's an icon. An icon of what exactly, is not quite clear.. it is music? Bond girls? The modelling world? Does it even matter? Anyone who witnessed her explosive performance at Electric Picnic 2008 will be well aware of the power that the 60-year-old (if reports are to be believed) commands on stage, and it's barely diluted on 'Hurricane', her first studio album since 1989's Bulletproof Heart'.
The fact that the album's original title was poised to be 'Corporate Cannibal' hints at the feistiness contained within - and with contributions from a wealth of well-respected musos, including Brian Eno, reggae luminaries Sly & Robbie, Wendy & Lisa and Tricky, Jones's singular domineering style is embellished without being overhauled.
Family life provides a strong lyrical theme on many of the songs: William's Blood sees her reference her siblings, while I'm Crying (Mother's Tears) vulnerably reflects on her maternal relationship over a smooth soul soundtrack. For the most part, however it's business as usual. This is Grace Jones, 21st century-style, and the dark menace of Corporate Cannibal ("Pleased to meet you / Pleased to have you on my plate") and the sparse, chugging funk of Sunset Sunrise portrays her modern panache terrifically. There's also a nod to her Jamaican roots on the likes of Love You to Life and the excellent Well Well Well, Caribbean-flavoured songs that have been slid through a blackened, corruption-addled filter.
It's no 'Nightclubbing', of course, but it was never intended as such, either. And at the end of the day, when Grace Jones yells "Here I come.. I'm a hurricane", on the standout title track (all sinister, swooping torment courtesy of Tricky's breathy beats), you'd simply be a fool to stand in her way.
