Heaven & Hell is the 13th studio album by Joe Jackson, a musical interpretation and song cycle representing the seven deadly sins.[1][2] It was released in the US on 2 September 1997 and in the UK on 29 September 1997.[3][4]
This album was subsequently performed on tour with Jackson on piano, accordion and melodica, Valerie Vigoda on violin and vocals, and Elise Morris on keyboards, glockenspiel and vocals. The drums were programmed with the exception of "Right (Anger)" - which had drummers Dan Hickey and Kenny Aronoff drumming on opposite speakers through most of the song, and Jared Crawford of the musical Stomp playing plastic buckets in Times Square during the bridge.
"Angel (Lust)" and "Passacaglia - A Bud And A Slice (Sloth)" were issued from the album as promotional singles in the US and Europe.[5][6]
Background
After the release of his 1991 album Laughter & Lust, Jackson suffered from writer's block for two years. Although his record company, Virgin Records, were expecting Jackson to continue writing contemporary pop material, Jackson decided he had to "go forward and do something fresh" musically, resulting in 1994's Night Music. Although Virgin released the album, the label were not supportive of Jackson's new direction and he subsequently signed with Sony Classical for his next recording project.[7] Wanting to record a concept album, Jackson chose to cover the seven deadly sins as it was a "particularly timeless and well-known" theme to interpret.[8] He said in 1997, "My [belief] of the seven deadly sins is that they can all lead to either heaven or hell. We all have all seven in us and we all have heaven and hell inside us as well."[9] To write the album, Jackson spent two years researching and reading literature on sin,[10] a process which he found "interesting" and made him "question a lot of things about what I believed".[9] After its release, Jackson called Heaven & Hell "the best thing I've done".[8] He also said, "I found a lot of humour in this theme. A lot of the record is satirical and funny, at least to me anyway."[10]
Song information
"Fugue 1/More Is More" (gluttony): Jackson provided the track with a fugue that becomes "excruciatingly full of notes to represent excess".[9] He described the song's narrator as "completely crass and just interested in shoving as much food and drink as he can down his throat". Jackson drew some inspiration for the lyrics from the third circle of hell in Inferno, the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri's 14th-century narrative poem The Divine Comedy.[8]
"Angel" (lust) utilises two female voices to represent a "virgin and whore contradiction". Dawn Upshaw provides the vocals of the "celestial virgin" and Suzanne Vega represents a hooker who uses "ridiculous" pick-up lines.[9] Jackson summarised the concept, "They're the archetypal Madonna and whore and the idea is that they're sort of fighting over the soul of some poor, confused, horny young guy, [who is] being tempted in two directions at once."[8]
"Tuzla" (avarice): Jackson said that, while much of the album has humour in it, "Tuzla" does not "except in the blackest possible sense".[9] He aimed to create a "heaviness and feeling of foreboding" on the track and drew inspiration from the concept of war where "smuggling, black marketeering and profiteering" occurs. Joy Askew sings the part of a conscience, with Jackson describing her role as "kind of the moral core of the whole thing, like a war widow or someone like this". Jackson provides the voice of both "greed" and "cynicism", with the latter based on a "cynical observer who's supposed to be like a UN soldier or maybe a journalist" talking through a radio. The other voices on the track resemble "regular people trapped in the situation" who are "reduced to whatever they have to sell or trade".[8]
"Passacaglia/A Bud and a Slice" (sloth): Jackson wanted to feature a "deep, world-weary and lugubrious" voice on the track and picked Brad Roberts for the role.[9]
"Right" (anger): For what he saw as the "childish" aspect of anger, Jackson inserted out of tune piano parts with "someone just bashing the keyboard with their fists like kids do". He also had the idea of using two drummers "thrashing away like maniacs". While recording the album, Jackson came across a bucket drummer, Jared Crawford, playing in Times Square and recorded him live in the street for inclusion on the track.[9]
"The Bridge" (envy): Jackson chose to portray envy between two sisters and was influenced by the story of Cinderella. Jane Siberry provides vocals on the track from the point of view of the envied.[9]
Upon its release, Julian Cole of the York Evening Press noted how, although the music is "difficult for a pop audience" and "perhaps pretentious for a classical audience", there is a "great energy and inventiveness about Jackson's compositions, mixing beautiful operatic vocals with cool adult pop".[19] Dan Ouellette of the San Francisco Chronicle believed Jackson had "struck gold" by "creat[ing] an unlikely marriage of classical pop", with "poignancy, humor and beauty" and "superb talents from both spheres to help him realize his compelling song cycle".[15] Ed Bumgardner of the Winston-Salem Journal felt that Jackson had successfully "intergrate[d] elements of rock and jazz within orchestral arrangements [to] keep the bold undertaking accessible", resulting in songs that "are as appealing as they are theatrical".[18] Chuck Graham, writing for the Tucson Citizen, described it a "very serious work", with "eerie", "melancholy" and "strong theatrical" feelings, and "shifting rhythms and textures giving each sin its own distinct mental image".[20]
David Patrick Stearns of USA Today summarised that Jackson had "lost none of his bite and originality", although he added that "not all the sins [produce] equally interesting" results.[17] Kevin O'Hare of The Republican praised the "stunning" "Angel (Lust)" for being "worth the price of the album alone", but felt the rest of the material was a "mixed bag", producing an album "more noteworthy for its ambitious nature than the actual execution of the concept".[14] Eileen M. Drennen of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said that the album is "packed full of highbrow guests, classical and pop", but felt the theme "exceeds [the] reach [of] Jackson's grasp".[13]
Dramatic adaptation
In Boston in 2007, the album was adapted into a jukebox musical under the name Heaven & Hell: The Fantastical Temptation of the 7 Deadly Sins, with the script written by Jason Slavick. The play followed the album's track listing, with each vice presented through a mixture of dance and a representation of each sin in daily life. Heaven & Hell had a five-day run at the Boston Conservatory.[21]
Joe Jackson – piano, bongos on "Prelude", vocals on "Fugue 1/More is More", "Passacaglia/A Bud and a Slice" and "Fugue 2/Song of Daedalus", voice of Soul in Torment on "Angel", voices of Cynicism and Greed on "Tuzla"
12345Joe Jackson (1998). Heaven and Hell: A Journey Through the Music of Joe Jackson (Radio programme produced by Smooth Operations Productions). BBC Radio 2.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
