The Joe Jackson Look Sharp! Poll!

This album and the next album are sooooo good. The band kills.

I love how the title track goes from more or less straight pub rock to this total Steely Dan styled bit of the chorus. Also, the rare (sort of) drum solo in the middle of a track. Just as "Got the Time" has the rare bass solo (hat tip: Anthrax).

i don't think there is any denying "Sunday Papers" such a beautiful song.

Just looking at this list... I think that three of the songs will get zero votes. Any of the other eight? Could get zero, could win it. Such a solid album.

Voting for One More Time. One of those albums you know will be great from the first few seconds of the opening track.

The big singles are great and all but "Got The Time" is punk as f*ck!

Yeah "One More Time" is a killer track

(Though I might love Night and Day slightly more, largely on the strength of "Stepping Out")

The bass playing by Graham Maby is fantastic on all the early Joe Jackson records.

"Any of the other eight? Could get zero, could win it."

there are totally seven songs on this album i could vote for as my fave depending on my mood.

it really is one of those "i think i'll play it again!" albums for me a la cars/pretenders/b-52s debuts.

love this album. v hard for me to look beyond one more time for this poll tho, it's an all time banger.

blasting this record before i open for the day. the bass is just so friggin' cool. what a sound. production is tighter than the tightest drum. my klipschs are dancing. listening on vinyl but even old CDs of it sound great.

would buy an analog remaster 45 rpm version though....

u.s. a&m vinyl from this era pretty cheap/surface-y. i probably just need a near mint u.k. copy.

God, so great. "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" is the one that's been the biggest part of my life, but "Happy Loving Couples" is the one I think gets unfairly overlooked. The rhyming in those lyrics is sick.

oh mannnn this is tough. yes, incredibly good songwriting, and such a tight, hopped-up rhythm section. "is she really going out with him?" is so colossally classic, and yet there's a lot of others here that I've rocked out to more over the years...

good b-side:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0v8t1L13EY

a million late-70s skinny tie power pop bands would have KILLED for a song as good as "baby stick around".

i was looking up what david kershenbaum produced before this record and it was mostly rural and folk rock that you would never listen to unless you were me. marginal gallagher and lyle albums. ozark mountain daredevils. after this he did produce that excellent album by the reds in 1979. a chuck eddy favorite. and he worked with joe again a lot in the '80s.

Scott you prompted me to go and take a look at how much the 7" 45 box set of "I'm the Man" goes for - basically nothing. Outrageous! I won my copy in a competition in Smash Hits.

man, just got to "fools in love". so good!

haha, yeah, i have one of those i'm the man boxes around here somewhere. nobody really wants them.

I listened to an interesting interview with JJ who said they were thinking of the bass guitar as the lead instrument while they were recording "Look Sharp" - that made a lot of sense but wasn't something that would've occurred to me.

my brother was an early elvis and joe fan so i heard all the singles as they were coming out. he would bring home the import 12-inches and records. a lot of motorhead and a lot of elvis costello coming from my brother's room in 1979.

He had at least one hit in the US before he had any over here IIRC.

"Look Sharp" may have been the first LP I ever bought for myself - I'll have been 8 I guess - it was early enough that my copy's on white vinyl, which was at least a little bit limited-editiony. I played it so very much but I don't supposed I've played it in 25 years; I did hear it played in full at Hot Doug's in Chicago a few years ago and I was shocked by how well I knew it, totally programmed into my brain.

I am at a loss as to which song to vote for.

There is near nary a not totally killer diller song on this record. Perhaps Instant Mash and Pretty Girls. The rest is kinda unfuckwithable, imo. In fact, I'm with Tim, I have no bloody idea where to place my vote yet.

never been able to get over what a blatant rip of EC this is, it's so shameless

so I'm a little baffled that scott loves this record cuz scott I thought you hated Elvis...? I know you can't give away his back catalog lol

he's EC without the baggage, it's not hard

this is a better album than My Aim is True or at least more fun

nah

well, maybe. it's def not as good as This Year's Model, EC's rhythm section is really the heart of what's good about his early stuff. I'll take Bruce Thomas over whoever Joe Jackson's bassist is any day.

Joe Jackson splits the difference between Elvis Costello and Graham Parker.

I like this sooo much more than any Costello or Parker or other Stiff-like records circa 1978. There's an effortlessness to Joe Jackson's first moves. Like the Cars and Pretenders as noted, also Blondie. Hooks and riffs in equal measure.

I like Joe's persona/voice way better than Elvis's. He really sells the sweaty hormonal intensity of these characters, how the sneer when it shows up is an affected defense mechanism... Copeland was going for this as well but usually seems to be looking down on his protagonists.

I think I voted for one of the "zeros"
cuz it gets to feel more pain..

i like the first three elvis records. those early singles. they were cool. "pump it up" will always be my fave EC song because i'm dumb like that. but i never listen to that stuff. i always listen to the first two joe jackson records when i get them in at the store. i play them a ton for about a week and then i'm good for the year.

i like the early elvis hits basically. i'm the same way with the clash. i just like to hear the hits.

basically all that stuff reminds me of my brother. he worked at a record store in town back then and he bought all of it. nick lowe. dave edmunds. stiff stuff. he played a tonic for the troops a lot. i was glad. i got to hear it all. it all sounded pretty cool to me. it was definitely "his" stuff.

my new wave explosion was a year later. kings of the wild frontier. and i was off to the races. and that was "my" stuff. straight from rush and judas priest to antmusic.

i like the early elvis hits basically. i'm the same way with the clash. i just like to hear the hits.

I'm the same way with both those artists, and I've certainly tried to expand my interest in them to no avail.

Joe Jackson's early LPs deserve revisiting, I'm surprised there's never been deluxe reissues.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

That result looks about right. "Got The Time" is a monster.

Like I said!