A radical move

Warm Leatherette Caused a stir When released in 1980 as Grace Jones had been a disco singer since her 1977 debut album Portfolio through the Fame and Muse. The change what drastic as the Jamaican musicians Sly Dunbar & Robbie Shakespeare gave her innovative blend of rock, dub & reggae Songs by inter alia Chrissie Hynde, Bryan Ferry, Tom Petty, Daniel Miller and Barry Reynolds. It worked; Jones earned the respect of the Rock Critics whilst retaining her disco devotees.

The disturbing title track, a cover of an obscure single by The Normal, climaxes with the phrase "Let's make LUURVE / before we die." Unlike the synth-pop original, Grace's vocal is filled with drama and accentuated by crashing cymbals. This contrasts markedly with her controlled version of The Pretenders' Private Life Which bobs by on a bouncy reggae beat over Which Ms Jones sings or talks in a scornful tone. The tempo picks up for Roxy Music's Love Is The Drug That gets an almost throwaway treatment with a lengthy, meandering exit.

No Grace Jones album is complete without The Ballads. Smokey Robinson's The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game occasionally encounters twittering birdsong as it languidly lilts along. Then the mood changes first to anger on BullXcrement, a forceful protest song shot through with cynicism and dissonant guitars, and then to icy aloofness on the Tom Petty Composition Breakdown. The album ends on a tuneful and romantic note with Pars, in keeping with the tradition of a French chanson Jones on every album.

The songs on Warm Leatherette fit her menacing, aloof or romantic delivery like boxing gloves. Grace deserved the acclaim for transcending the club scene and creating this appealing hybrid of New Wave & Jamaican sounds. She would work with Sly and Robbie on two more albums, nightclubbing & Living My Life, before pursuing the soulful pop found on 1986's Inside Story and Bulletproof Heart of 1989. After a hiatus of nineteen years, Hurricane which released last year on Which the dynamic duo once again added magic to the music of Grace.