Warm Leatherette (album)
| Warm Leatherette | ||||
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Original artwork
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| Studio album by Grace Jones | ||||
| Released | May 9, 1980 | |||
| Recorded | 1979–80 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 39:04 (LP version) 46:40 (CD and cassette version) |
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| Label | Island | |||
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| Grace Jones chronology | ||||
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| 1984 Re-release artwork | ||||
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| Singles from Warm Leatherette | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Robert Christgau | B+ |
| Smash Hits | 3/10 |
| Pitchfork | 8.5/10 |
Warm Leatherette is the fourth studio album by Grace Jones, released on 9 May 1980 by Island Records. The album features contributions from the reggae production duo Sly and Robbie and is a departure from Jones' earlier disco sound, moving towards a new wave-reggae direction.
Although having established herself as a performer with a string of club hits in the US and a large gay following, Jones had only achieved very modest commercial success with her first three disco albums. For Warm Leatherette, Jones went through a musical and visual reinvention. The singer teamed up with producers Chris Blackwell and Alex Sadkin, and Sly and Robbie, Wally Badarou, Barry Reynolds, Mikey Chung and Uziah "Sticky" Thompson, aka the Compass Point Allstars, for a record that would be a total departure from disco and an exploration of new wave music, blending reggae and rock.Warm Leatherette was the first of three albums recorded at the Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas.
The album included covers of songs by The Normal, The Pretenders, Roxy Music, Smokey Robinson, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Jacques Higelin. Blackwell intended to make a record with "a harsh sound that was heavy with Jamaican rhythm".Sly Dunbar revealed that "Warm Leatherette", the first song on the album, was also the first to be recorded with Jones. For Jones' version of "Breakdown", Tom Petty specially wrote a third verse for the song. The album included also one song co-written by Jones, "A Rolling Stone", and one French track, "Pars" (French for "Leave"), a reggae re-imagining of Jacques Higelin's song. "Pull Up to the Bumper" was also recorded during the sessions for Warm Leatherette, but its R&B sound was found not fitting in the rest of the material and so it appeared on Jones' next album, Nightclubbing in 1981.
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