Having won a Grammy for best Pop Instrumental Album for his Sym-phony One, it's perhaps ironic that Jackson has, with this sequel to his hit 1981 album, done a commercially-minded U-turn on the classical/ soundtrack career which has sustained him since his initialburst of popularity in the 80s.
The original Night and Day, the English pointy-headed popsters' homage of kinds to New York which featured the hit single Steppin' Out, was Jackson's most successful album.
Like its predecessor, II is certainly awash with Jackson's spiky piano, quasi-classical strings meeting swishing salsa-ed rhythms in its expansive, atmospheric arrangements.
But there's something bloodless to it all, especially the stereotype Big Apple characters figuring in Jackson's lyrics, even when delivered by Marianne Faithfull, who cameos on the smoky cabaret of Dying Diva.
And while Glamour and Pain briefly echoes the piano motif of Steppin' Out, its tunes are generally on the less-than-inviting, esoteric side. But anyone with a lasting affection for Jackson's original might find something intriguing to this reprise.
