Hurricane (Grace Jones album)

Hurricane is the tenth studio album by singer Grace Jones, released in 2008, and her first album of new material in 19 years. The album includes a number of autobiographical songs, and the title track was first recorded as a 1997 collaboration with Tricky under the title "Cradle to the Grave". The album sold over 100,000 copies in Europe only and three years after the original release, Jones released a dub version of it. Hurricane – Dub came out on 5 September 2011.

Hurricane
Studio album by Grace Jones
Released	3 November 2008 (original) 5 September 2011 (Hurricane – Dub)
Recorded	2004–2007
Genre	Dub rock electro trip hop soul gospel funk art pop reggae rock thrash rock
Length	48:40 (original) 50:26 (Hurricane – Dub)
Label	Wall of Sound PIAS
Producer	Ivor Guest Grace Jones Antony Genn Bruce Woolley
Grace Jones chronology
The Ultimate Collection (2006) Hurricane (2008) Disco (2015)
Singles from Hurricane
"Corporate Cannibal" Released: 24 August 2008 "Williams' Blood" Released: 8 December 2008 "Well Well Well" Released: 2009 "Love You to Life" Released: 3 May 2010
Hurricane – Dub cover

Background and production

Grace Jones' previous album, Bulletproof Heart, was released in 1989, and despite several comeback attempts throughout the 1990s, her next full-length record would be released almost two decades later. The singer had decided "never to do an album again",^[1] changing her mind only after meeting the music producer Ivor Guest via mutual friend Philip Treacy. After becoming acquainted, Guest played Jones a track he had been working on and she set her lyrics "Devil in My Life" to it. In 2007 Guest announced that he and Jones had completed recording the album, originally rumoured to be titled Corporate Cannibal.^[2]

The album includes a number of autobiographical songs, these include "This Is", "Williams' Blood" and "I'm Crying (Mother's Tears)". "Love You to Life" is another track based on real events and "Corporate Cannibal" refers to the subject of corporate capitalism. The title track was first recorded as a 1997 collaboration with Tricky under the title "Cradle to the Grave". "Well Well Well" is dedicated to the memory of Alex Sadkin, who had died in 1987, having co-produced three of Jones' 1980s albums. "Sunset Sunrise" ponders mankind's relationship with nature, and the final song, "Devil in My Life", was written after a party in Venice while Jones was standing in the corner observing partygoers.^{[citation needed]} Four songs were ultimately removed from the track listing: "The Key to Funky" (co-written by Jones and Diane Pernet in the late '80s), "Body Phenomenon", "Sister Sister" and "Misery". Another track recorded by Jones, "Volunteer", was leaked in 2007 by Leslie Winer, together with "This", an early version of "This Is".^[3] Winer also asserted that she had written both songs with Joe Galdo in the early 1990s.^[4] Mainly with Sly and Robbie, Wally Badarou, Barry Reynolds, Mikey Chung and Uziah "Sticky" Thompson, aka the Compass Point Allstars as a backbone, the album retained the reggae-influenced sound of her three Compass Point albums even though it was not recorded at the studios in the Bahamas.^{[citation needed]}

Hurricane's sound is a singular blend of multiple different genres. AllMusic's Jon O'Brien deemed it "an appropriately titled whirlwind of dub rock, reggae, industrial electro, and trip-hop"^[5] According to Daisy Jones of Vice, the record "weaves together dub, electronica, industrial, reggae and gospel music",^[6] while The Washington Post's Allison Stewart categorized it as a "set of dancehall and electro-disco tracks".^[7]

The front and back covers of the album features pictures of chocolate heads of Jones, which she revealed on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross shortly before Hurricane's release. Photographs included in the booklet picture the singer as a chocolate factory worker, complete with uniform and name tag.^[8] Chocolate heads, as well as arms and legs were molded at the Thorntons chocolate factory in Derbyshire, England^[9] by lifecasting expert John Schoonraad, his son Tristan and artist Nick Reynolds.^{[citation needed]}

Singles

"Corporate Cannibal" became the album's first single, released in August 2008 and promoted at the Meltdown festival. The song did not chart. The second single, "Williams' Blood", was released in December, and subsequently became a charting success in Belgium. A promotional only single, "Well Well Well", was released in 2009. "Love You to Life" was chosen as the third commercial single in 2009, but its release would be postponed for over a year.

Release and promotion

Prior to the release, Jones performed a two-hour concert at Massive Attack's Meltdown festival in London on 19 June 2008, during which she performed four new songs from the album and premiered the music video for the first single, "Corporate Cannibal".^[10][11] For further album promotion, Jones appeared on British television talk show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, several awards galas, and embarked on The Hurricane Tour in January 2009, which garnered positive reviews.

The album was released on Wall of Sound on 3 November 2008, in the United Kingdom. PIAS, the parent company of Wall of Sound, distributed Hurricane worldwide, excluding North America.^[12]

Jones dedicated the album to the memory of her father, Bishop Robert W. Jones".^{[13][check quotation syntax]}

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	72/100^[14]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[15]
BBC Music	Favourable^[16]
The Guardian	^[17]
Los Angeles Times	^[18]
NME	^[19]
The Observer	^[20]
Pitchfork	7.5/10^[21]
Record Collector	^[22]
Slant Magazine	^[23]
Spin	Favourable^[24]
The Village Voice	Favourable^[25]

Upon release, Hurricane was met with positive reception, obtaining a score of 72 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic.^[14] Phil Freeman from AllMusic website gave the album three and a half stars out of five and wrote that "Hurricane is possibly Grace Jones' most focused artistic statement and a worthy sequel to her classic early-'80s albums".^[15] Susie Goldring from BBC Music gave the album a favorable review and wrote that "the album is beautifully produced - with textures that just make you want to savor and unwrap each track, accompanied by the occasional oddity".^[16] Alexis Petridis from The Guardian gave the album a mixed review in which he wrote that even though Jones persona in the 80s seemed she was "trying to convince the world she was from another planet" in the record "you learn a surprising amount about her upbringing" and that after the "thrilling first half" of the album it "suddenly seems to run out of puff, as if exhausted by the effort of trying to keep up with its star".^[17] Evelyn McDonnell from Los Angeles Times gave the album four out of four star and wrote that Jones is still "cool" in her fifth decade in the show business and praised Jones collaboration with co-producer Ivor Guest, who "delivers this unquiet storm of a comeback".^[18] Anthony Thornton from NME gave the album three and a half stars out of five and wrote that in "revisiting the production of her ’80s records she paradoxically produces something that sounds timeless" even though "it's difficult to suppress the notion that by miring herself in the ’90s, inadvertently she occasionally sounds as dated".^[19] The Observer gave the album three out of five stars and said that the "contradictions that made her so compelling are now not so much within the songs as between them, leaving less room to maneuvre" and also that "Hurricane shatters the illusion, and flattens the force of nature known as Grace Jones into something quite humdrum".^[20] Eric Henderson from Slant Magazine gave the album four out of five stars and wrote that it become Jones's "autobiographical talking book". In his review for The Village Voice Barry Walters defined the album as "a multitude of instruments dance in orgiastic precision, paying tribute to an icon of pleasurable excesses, for which we now lovingly long".^[25]

Commercial performance

In 2009. It was awarded a gold certification from the Independent Music Companies Association which indicated sales of at least 100,000 copies throughout Europe.^[26]

Re-release

Three years after the original Hurricane release, Jones released a dub version of the album. Hurricane – Dub came out on 5 September 2011. The dub versions were made by Ivor Guest, with contributions from Adam Green, Frank Byng, Robert Logan and Ben Cowan.

The dub re-release of Hurricane features new artwork by Jean-Paul Goude of Jones smoking a cigarette whilst wearing a sparkling hat.

Track listing

Original release

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"This Is"	Grace Jones Mark van Eyck	5:35
2.	"Williams' Blood"	Jones Lisa Coleman Wendy Melvoin	5:57
3.	"Corporate Cannibal"	Jones van Eyck Adam Green Ivor Guest	5:54
4.	"I'm Crying (Mother's Tears)"	Jones Guest	4:31
5.	"Well Well Well"	Jones Barry Reynolds	3:51
6.	"Hurricane"	Jones Tricky	6:33
7.	"Love You to Life"	Jones van Eyck Bruce Woolley	5:20
8.	"Sunset Sunrise"	Jones Woolley Paulo Goude	5:11
9.	"Devil in My Life"	Jones Guest van Eyck Leopold Ross	5:48

Hurricane – Dub

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"This Is Dub"	Grace Jones Mark van Eyck	4:35
2.	"Williams Dub"	Jones Lisa Coleman Wendy Melvoin	5:40
3.	"Cannibal Dub"	Jones van Eyck Adam Green Ivor Guest	5:16
4.	"Well Well Well Dub"	Jones Barry Reynolds	4:10
5.	"Crying Dub"	Jones Guest	4:58
6.	"Hurricane Dub"	Jones Tricky	5:20
7.	"Love You to Life Dub"	Jones van Eyck Bruce Woolley	5:20
8.	"Sunset Dub"	Jones Woolley Paulo Goude	4:45
9.	"Devil Dub"	Jones Guest van Eyck Leopold Ross	5:17
10.	"Hell Dub"	Jones Guest	5:04

Personnel

Wally Badarou – keyboards Mikey Chung – guitar Neil Comber – mix assistance Cameron Craig – sound engineering, mix engineering Jonathan de Villiers – photography Don-E – keyboards, backing vocals Sly Dunbar – drum kit, programming Brian Eno – production, keyboards, backing vocals Richard Flack – sound engineering Antony Genn – production, arrangements, keyboards, backing vocals Paulo Goude – keyboards, marimba, backing vocals Adam Green – guitar Ivor Guest – production, programming, mix engineering, arrangements, keyboards Ladonna Harley-Peters – backing vocals

Sharlene Hector – backing vocals Tom Hingston – artwork design Will Johnstone – sound engineering Grace Jones – lead vocals, backing vocals, production Bob Ludwig – mastering Robert Logan - drones, drum edits Steve Pelluet – sound engineering Barry Reynolds – guitar Leopold Ross – guitar Robbie Shakespeare – bass guitar Philip Sheppard – arrangements, conducting Martin Slattery – piano, organ John Justin Stewart – guitar Uziah Thompson – percussion Bruce Woolley – co-production, keyboards, backing vocals Will Worsley – sound engineering

Charts

2008 chart performance for Hurricane

Chart (2008)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)^[27]	123
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)^[28]	23
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)^[29]	14
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)^[30]	54
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)^[31]	63
French Albums (SNEP)^[32]	36
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)^[33]	19
Greek Albums (IFPI)^[34]	24
Italian Albums (FIMI)^[35]	40
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)^[36]	37
Scottish Albums (OCC)^[37]	60
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)^[38]	34
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)^[39]	28
UK Albums (OCC)^[40]	42
UK Independent Albums (OCC)^[41]	2

2011 chart performance for Hurricane

Chart (2011)	Peak position
US Top Dance/Electronic Albums (Billboard)^[42]	20

Release history

Region	Year	Format(s)	Label
Europe	3 November 2008	CD, digital download	Wall of Sound, PIAS
Argentina	14 April 2009	CD
United Kingdom	2010	LP	The Vinyl Factory
United States	6 September 2011	CD, digital download	Wall of Sound, PIAS

The Hurricane Tour

The Hurricane Tour

World tour by Grace Jones
Associated album	Hurricane
Start date	19 January 2009
Legs	5
No. of shows	31

The Hurricane Tour was a concert tour by singer Grace Jones to promote her album Hurricane. The tour sold well and received public and critical acclaim.^{[43][44][45][46][47]}

Setlist

The setlist varied from show to show:

London first show setlist^[48]

Act One

1. "Nightclubbing"
2. "This Is"
3. "My Jamaican Guy"
4. "Sunset Sunrise"
5. "Demolition Man"

Act Two

6. "I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)"
7. "Love You to Life"
8. "La Vie en rose"
9. "Well Well Well"
10. "Williams' Blood"
11. "Devil in My Life"

Act Three

12. "Pull Up to the Bumper"
13. "Love Is the Drug"
14. "Slave to the Rhythm"

Encore

15. "Hurricane"

Second London show's setlist ^[49]

Act One

1. "Nightclubbing"
2. "Private Life"
3. "My Jamaican Guy"
4. "This Is"
5. "Demolition Man"

Act Two

6. "I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)"
7. "Corporate Cannibal"
8. "Nipple to the Bottle"
9. "I've Done It Again"
10. "Love You to Life"
11. "La Vie en rose"

Act Three

12. "Williams' Blood"
13. "Love Is the Drug"
14. "Pull Up to the Bumper"
15. "Warm Leatherette"

Encore

16. "Slave to the Rhythm"

Tour dates

Europe
Date	City	Country	Venue
19 January 2009	Birmingham	UK	Symphony Hall
21 January 2009	Gateshead	UK	Sage Gateshead
23 January 2009	Glasgow	Scotland	Clyde Auditorium
24 January 2009	Manchester	UK	Manchester Apollo
25 January 2009	Bristol	UK	Colston Hall
27 January 2009	London	UK	The Roundhouse
28 January 2009	London	UK	The Roundhouse
17 March 2009	Berlin	Germany	Tempodrom
19 March 2009	Amsterdam	Netherlands	Paradiso
22 March 2009	Paris	France	Le Grand Rex
25 March 2009	Frankfurt	Germany	Jahrhunderthalle
26 March 2009	Düsseldorf	Germany	Philipshalle
29 March 2009	Stockholm	Sweden	The Circus
31 March 2009	Copenhagen	Denmark	Falconer Theatre
Europe (2)
19 June 2009	Barcelona	Spain	Sónar
3 July 2009	Roskilde	Denmark	Roskilde Festival
4 July 2009	Werchter	Belgium	Rock Werchter
9 July 2009	London	UK	Somerset House
11 July 2009	Montreux	Switzerland	Montreux Jazz Festival
16 July 2009	Stuttgart	Germany	Jazz Open Festival
18 July 2009	Southwold	UK	Latitude Festival
North America
26 July 2009	Hollywood	United States	KCRW's World Festival at the Hollywood Bowl
29 July 2009	New York	United States	Hammerstein Ballroom
30 July 2009	New York	United States	Hammerstein Ballroom
Europe (3)
7 August 2009	Monte Carlo	Monaco	Summer Sporting Festival
9 August 2009	Playa d'en Bossa	Ibiza	Space
15 August 2009	Helsinki	Finland	Flow Festival
21 August 2009	St. Poelten	Austria	FM4 Frequency Festival
23 August 2009	Biddinghuizen	Netherlands	Lowlands
30 August 2009	London	UK	Beachdown Festival
North America
21 November 2009	Guadalajara	Mexico	Sonofilla Festival

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46. . Archived from the original on 14 October 2009. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
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External links

• Hurricane on AllMusic
• Hurricane on Discogs
• Hurricane on Rate Your Music