Mr. Joe Jackson Presents: Max Champion In 'What A Racket!'

Never let it be said that Joe Jackson lacks ideas. Over the course of a complex, sometimes confounding career, Jackson has dabbled in almost every style of post-war popular music, so its only fitting that he turns back the dial to the start of the 20th century for What a Racket!, a collection of 11 songs styled after the salad days of Music Hall. Its a high concept made even grander by Jackson inventing a character called Max Champion who, according to a concocted lore, was born in 1882 and died on the Western Front in World War I. Jackson "discovered" the Champion songs in the 2010s, then set about to cut What a Racket! as a way to preserve the tunes. The resulting record is indeed a racket -- a joyous, bawdy one filled with barreling pianos, shouted affirmations, careening horns, dirty puns, and boozy singalongs. Jackson walks the thin line separating satire and tribute, exaggerating his cockney accent and barely disguising his double entendres. His gusto is the reason why What a Racket! is such a delight: its as audacious in its execution as it is in its conception. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine