Big world 1986

Ever the chameleon Joe Jackson pulled another complete 360 with the release of "Big World" in 1986. On this album he pulls away from the sound of his previous two (very successful) albums, puts together a basic rock combo (Keys, bass, drums, guitar) and records the whole thing in front of a live audience. All audience noise has been edited out, so it sounds like a studio disc. When the album came out on vinyl it spanned 3 discs, and on CD it fits in at right around 1 hour. Along with "Laughter And Lust" this is definilty one of Jackson's most underrated albums. Much of it comes across almost as AOR rock which one would not think would be Jackson's forte, but he pulls off everything admirably here. "Big World" would unfortunately start a commercial slide for Jackson as it would only chart in the high 30's. The only single to do much was the song "Right And Wrong" which would get some airplay on mainstream rock / AOR radio, but then faded away fairly quickly. This is too bad as I think this might have been Joe's best album up to this point in his career. There are 15 tracks on this disc and just about all of them feature prime Joe Jackson songwriting. I am not going to go through all of the tracks, but suffice to say that I don't think there is a weak one in the bunch. This album tends to get overlooked in the cannon of Joe Jackson's catalogue, but if you are at all a fan, this along with "Laughter And Lust" are two must own albums that are often sadly underappreciated.

Joe Jackson proves his ambitiousness here, taking world politics as his theme and live recording as his format. You won't hear the audience -- they were instructed not to applaud -- but you will hear a band live on stage playing provocative and interesting music. It's not always great -- Joe doesn't strive for that -- but it is always worthwhile. Some of the details have changed since 1986, but not the sharp eye and sharper brain at work here. This was my first Joe Jackson album, and it served to undermine the general truth of 80s music as superficial if not narcissistic. Joe would expand even more further three years later, but that's another story

Joe Jackson Live at height of popularity with his best band!!

Joe is brilliant. Period. He can crystallize ideas into song like nobody else. Sensitive and muscular motifs mix in a way that is completely organic. Like nature.

I have a strong feeling JJ and I would disagree on just about anything you could imagine...except my feelings about this album. It is simply a great album. It's a very rare treat. In my opinion, there's not a single throw-away track...and there are a lot of tracks.

Joe Jackson is fantastic. Severly underrated. I like almost every cut on this album. Great 1980's sound! Jazz with a touch of rock.

I missed this cd years ago amd now I'm happy to have it in my collection. Arrived in time in good condition.

I bought this on CD back in the day. I'm glad to see it's available again. One of my first CDs...several thousand CDs later it is still one of my favorites!