Grace Jones

Around the time that Studio 54 trendies began limo-ing downtown to Manhattan's Mudd
Club, Grace Jones, former model and ersatz disco queen, redesigned herself in the image
of dance-oriented rock. Worked over visually by her artist-husband Jean-Paul Goude and
reshaped musically by the ace reggae rhythm section of drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist
Robbie Shakespeare, Jones became more than a New Wave camp follower. On h... More >

I still don't know why people get hot and bothered about Jones's statuesque if not motionless voice, but that sure is one great disco band, and each album edges her a little closer to her material. "Everybody Hold Still," about getting mugged, moves the New Yorker in me almost as much as Melvin Van Peebles's unblinking urban matin "The Apple Stretching," and three of the five remaining cuts convince me Jean-Paul Goude doesn't know the half of her. (Grade: B+)