Joe Jackson – “Health & Safety”

The British musician Joe Jackson has announced a new album, his follow-up to 2019’s Fool. It’s purported to be an album that, per a press release, revives “the songs of enigmatic early 20th-century English music hall artist Max Champion.” Though I’m no expert on English music hall, various searches have turned up no evidence as to the existence of a Max Champion. Instead, Jackson seems to have invented a relation to the real-life Harry Champion, who was indeed an extremely popular performer, and channeled the essence of music hall into an album of his own, which Jackson arranged with a 12-piece orchestra. It’s called Mr. Joe Jackson Presents Max Champion In ‘What A Racket!’, and it’ll be out in November.