Flashback
Joe Jackson "Look Sharp" (1979)
David Styburski
Issue date: 11/5/04 Section: The Edge
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If Bob Dylan's 1974 album "Blood on the Tracks" is the classic introspective breakup record, Jackson's 1979 debut, "Look Sharp," is its immature evil twin. Jackson's narrators have passed the traumatic crying stage that comes with the severing of a relationship and reached the point where anger dominates every one of their thoughts and actions. But unlike the subjects of punk songs, who tend to translate furious feelings into calls for violent anarchy, these characters respond with simple but sharp smugness.
"Fools in love/Are there any creatures more pathetic?" Jackson grumbles at one point.
Jackson, however, never lets "Look Sharp" become an overly whiny experience for listeners who aren't in the mood to hear yet another depressed bachelor purge himself of romantic complaints. Nearly every track on the album contains either a surprising hint of masked sensitivity within Jackson's vocals or an engaging compositional trick that makes the material likable.
On "Happy Loving Couples," Jackson sings about lucky companions with the same sort of sympathetic jealousy that high school outcasts display for the cool kids whom they despise and idolize at the same time.
"Sunday Papers" blasts gossip-hungry media with lines such as "I've got nothing against the press/ They wouldn't print it if it wasn't true." But behind the pointed lyrics lies an infectiously funky pop melody.
Jackson delivers "Pretty Girls" in a sarcastic, nasty fashion. Yet the song's elementary hook of "Doo, doo, doo, doo, wop" and its obvious links to early rock add some bad-boy charm.
Jackson's signature tune, "Is She Really Going Out With Him," exemplifies the effective duality of "Look Sharp." The comfortably familiar piano-driven rock intro could have been stolen from a Bruce Springsteen or J. Geils Band songbook. When Jackson reaches the end of each chorus and declares, "If my eyes don't deceive me, there's something going wrong around here," he conveys a mix of exhaustive frustration and loneliness that puts last year's silly cover version by Sugar Ray in its proper place.
With "Look Smart," Jackson proves that although breaking up is hard to do, it can also be a surprisingly tuneful experience for a talented musician.
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