Beat Crazy

Beat Crazy is the third album by Joe Jackson, released in October 1980 and credited to the Joe Jackson Band. It was a relative disappointment commercially, peaking outside the Top 40 in both the UK and the United States, with its singles failing to chart. One reason for the reduced sales in the U.S. may have been that the group did not tour to support it there. Nevertheless, the Joe Jackson Band was successful and toured extensively. This would be the last studio album released by the Joe Jackson Band's original line-up until 2003's Volume 4.

Background
Beat Crazy was intended to be a stylistic departure from Jackson's first two albums but as he recalled, the band lacked a clear direction during the recording. Jackson later stated that he felt the record "didn't really work". He explained,

"The stereotypical difficult third album, in which we tried to change the formula a bit without quite knowing how. It's darker than the first two and the reggae influence is more pronounced. There's some good stuff on it (I especially like the title track and 'Biology') but it’s not quite the triumphant swan song of this band."

Musically, the album saw the band take in reggae and ska influence as seen on songs such as "In Every Dream Home", "Mad at You", and "Pretty Boys".

Track listing
All songs written, arranged and produced by Joe Jackson.

Personnel

 * Musicians
 * Joe Jackson – vocals, keyboards, melodica
 * Graham Maby – bass, vocals, lead vocal on "Beat Crazy"
 * Gary Sanford – guitars
 * David Houghton – drums, vocals


 * Production
 * Joe Jackson - arrangements, producer
 * Norman Mighell - recording engineer
 * Nigel Mills - assistant recording engineer
 * Willy Smax - artwork
 * Anton Corbijn - photography