Consumer Guide Album

Grace Jones: Inside Story [Manhattan, 1986]
This isn't the weirdest album this weirdo has ever made, not with last year's stupid Trevor Horn cut-up in the running. Sometimes it goes too far, as on the religious title cut: "How great thou art/How great is art." And beyond the perfect "I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect for You)," Bruce Woolley's tunes aren't up to Nile Rodgers's beats or Grace's lyrics. But the beats strike the perfect balance between David Bowie and Diana Ross, and the lyrics--well, "Chan Hitchhikes to Shanghai," "White Collar Crime," "Barefoot in Beverly Hills"--what kind of disco diva sings about such things? You got it--a weirdo. B+