Grace Jones

Grace Jones – Warm Leatherette (Deluxe) (1980/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:55:44 minutes | 4,62 GB | Genre: Pop, Disco, Dance
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal Music Group International

Warm Leatherette represents a watershed moment in the career of Grace Jones. It was the first of her much loved and critically-lauded ‘Compass Point trilogy’ and also very much a leap into the unknown when it was released on Island Records in May 1980. At that time, Jones had a reputation as a disco-diva second to none, a fact underlined by her first three Island albums (Fame, Portfolio and Muse). But, by the end of the 70s, disco was over. It was time to move on.

This is a beautiful newly-remastered collection, bringing together the entire Warm Leatherette album, b-sides and rare in-era mixes and instrumental versions (to fit the album on to the 39 minutes prescribed for vinyl at the time, a considerable amount of editing had to be done). It is a perfect demonstration of players, writers, producers, at the very apex of their game, headed up by the most singular performer, singing as if her life depended on it.

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Grace Jones – Portfolio (1977/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 37:06 minutes | 1,60 GB | Genre: Disco, Soul, Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Island Records (The Island Def Jam Music Group / Universal Music)

Disco mix king Tom Moulton produced these tracks at Sigma Sound in Philadelphia using the same musicians Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff held hostage for their sessions. The results are quite different: though polished, these tracks don’t jump out at you. It’s really a producer’s album. Moulton probably had these tracks completed long before he knew who was going to sing them. Give Grace Jones credit though, she gives credence to old fuddies like “Send in the Clowns,” “La Vie en Rose” is lilting, and “I Need a Man,” displays a vulnerable Jones.

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Grace Jones – Nightclubbing (Deluxe Edition) (1981/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:55:10 minutes | 2,48 GB | Genre: Pop, Disco
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Island Records

By all means a phenomenal pop album that hit number nine on the black albums chart and crossed over to penetrate the pop charts at number 32, Nightclubbing saw Grace Jones working once again with Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare, and the remainder of the Compass Point team. Nightclubbing also continues Jones’ tradition of picking excellent songs to reinterpret. This time out, the Police’s “Demolition Man,” Bill Withers’ “Use Me,” and Iggy Pop’s “Nightclubbing” receive radical reinterpretations; “Nightclubbing” is glacial in both tempo and lack of warmth, while both “Use Me” and “Demolition Man” fit perfectly into Jones’ lyrical scheme. Speaking of a lyrical scheme, “Pull Up to the Bumper” (number five black singles, number two club play) is so riddled with naughty double entendres — or is it just about parallel parking? — that it renders Musique’s “In the Bush” as daring as Paul Anka’s “Puppy Love.” Drive it in between what, Grace? It’s not just lyrics that make the song stick out; jingling spirals of rhythm guitar and a simplistic, squelching, mid-tempo rhythm make the song effective, even without considering Jones’ presence. Sly & Robbie provide ideal backdrops for Jones yet again, casting a brisk but not bristly sheen over buoyant structures. Never before and never since has a precisely chipped block of ore been so seductive.

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Grace Jones – Nightclubbing (1981/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 38:24 minutes | 811 MB | Genre: Pop, Disco
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Island Records (The Island Def Jam Music Group / Universal Music)

Nightclubbing is the fifth studio album by Jamaican singer and songwriter Grace Jones, released on 11 May 1981 by Island Records. Recorded at Compass Point Studios with producers Alex Sadkin and Island Records’ president Chris Blackwell, as well as a team of session musicians rooted by rhythm section Sly and Robbie, the album marked her second foray into a new wave style that blends a variety of genres, including reggae, art pop, dub, synth-pop and funk. The album has cover versions of songs by Bill Withers, Iggy Pop, Astor Piazzolla, and others, and original songs, three of which co-written by Jones.

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Grace Jones – Muse (1979/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 42:49 minutes | 1,88 GB | Genre: Disco, Soul, Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal Music Group International

„Muse“ was the last album of Jones’s disco trilogy recorded with producer Tom Moulton, which began in 1977 with debut „Portfolio“. As in the case of two previous records, the first side of the album is a continuous medley of four songs, joined by a narrative about someone who has sinned. The second side, however, consists of disco songs with no lyrical relation to one another. All album art, including the cover image, is by Richard Bernstein.

Great work from Grace Jones – still riding high on a disco wave here, but also finding her own space and sound too! The mighty Tom Moulton produced, ensuring some great sound for the set – and arrangements are by Thor Baldursson and John Davis, both of whom bring in nice sense of fullness, but never smother Grace too much – a key factor, given that her vocal approach is often a bit more restrained than some of the other disco divas of the time. There’s less covers here than before, and Grace herself even penned some of the tunes. Titles include ‘Suffer’, ‘Sinning’, ‘Saved’, ‘Atlantic City Gambler’, ‘On Your Knees’, and ‘Don’t Mess With The Messer“.

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Grace Jones – Fame (1978/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 40:21 minutes | 1,76 GB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal Music Group International

„Fame“ is a classic disco stormer from Grace Jones – recorded at Sigma Sound with a real Philly groove, thanks to arrangements from John Monster Davis – and produced with a full, soaring sound from the legendary Tom Moulton!

The set may well be Grace’s true club classic from the late 70s – a record that works both on the quirky levels of her early rise to fame, and on the more soulful expectations mainstream clubgoers had at the time – a beautiful balance that owes plenty to the input from Davis and Moulton!

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Grace Jones – Disco (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 03:47:29 minutes | 4,86 GB | Genre: Disco
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal Music Group International

Disco is newly digitally remastered 3-CD set featuring editions of her “Portfolio” (1977), “Fame” (1978), and “Muse” (1979) albums expanded with unreleased tracks and rare mixes.

“The Disco Years” is a beguiling time capsule, bringing together Ms Jones’s three pivotal, era-defining albums recorded for Island Records from the late-‘70s, Studio 54 disco epoch. Produced by Tom Moulton, the undisputed ‘father of the disco mix’, and recorded at Sigma Sound studios in Philadelphia, ‘Portfolio’, ‘Fame’ and ‘Muse’ are three of the most disco-sounding records of all time. Only sporadically available as single CD albums for many years, ‘The Disco Box’ re-presents them as a single collection over three discs, lovingly remastered with a host of bonus B-sides, edits, instrumentals and in-era and extended mixes, some of them were previously unreleased!

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