Fast Forward by Joe Jackson

Fast Forward, Joe Jackson's 19th studio album, came out on Caroline Records on 2 October 2015, and it's really four records in one. It started life as a plan for a set of four-track EPs, each tied to a city, and Jackson cut each batch where it belonged, with a different crew of musicians in New York City, Berlin, Amsterdam and New Orleans.

So the album travels, each city lending its own accent and its own players, and the whole thing hangs together on Jackson's sharp songwriting. The new wave veteran's wit is intact, and so is his taste in covers, from a remake of Television's "See No Evil" to "Good Bye Johnny", a vintage German cabaret song. "A Little Smile" was the first taste, previewed in July 2015 before the title track arrived as the first single.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.