CHRIS REA - The Blue Jukebox (Ristampa)

Twenty-five studio albums, a string of platinum records and over 30 million copies sold across Europe: Chris Rea never needed much of an introduction. He passed away in December 2025 at the age of 74; the British guitarist and singer-songwriter climbed the charts thanks to a cultured, elegant blend of pop, rock, blues and funky-disco. Yet it was precisely this cross-genre formula that weighed on critics' judgement of him. Hailed at the outset as one of English music's purest talents, Rea was often snubbed by the specialist press, accused by purists of having sold out his art for commercial success. It was an ungenerous prejudice against a reserved artist who steered well clear of rock-star excess, and who was even capable of turning down astronomical sums rather than compromise on a forced album of duets. Chris Rea was, in fact, a formidable craftsman of that middle ground where pop meets the noblest kind of rock, moving with the same authority as Elton John or his contemporaries in Dire Straits.

A composer and arranger of real pedigree, Rea gave his career its decisive turn by founding the independent label Jazzee Blue: a creative workshop born to free himself from major-label constraints and finally embrace his true rock-blues soul. In 2005, after a tough battle against pancreatic cancer, he released "Blue Guitars": a monumental eleven-CD-and-DVD project paying tribute to the history of the blues. A year earlier, its guiding principles had already been laid out on "The Blue Jukebox", without doubt one of his finest works, now finally reissued on vinyl.
Across these thirteen songs, the blues reigns supreme. Rea's pleasantly gravelly voice, his masterful touch on slide guitar and the enveloping sound of the sax blend with a solid rhythm section, enriched by touches of piano and harmonica. The album doesn't sound like a timid indulgence: Rea filters masters such as Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Eric Clapton and J.J. Cale with extraordinary personality. Case in point: the elegant, twilit jazz-blues of "Long Is The Time, Hard Is The Road" (which looks to early Tom Waits) and the loping delta-blues of "Let's Do It".

The instrumental command and quality of the songwriting elevate every single track: from the noirish melancholy of "Let It Roll" to the desert-blues shadings of "Baby Don't Cry", right through to the irresistible New Orleans-style boogie of "Speed". Even when the sound turns more intimate and romantic, as on "What Kind Of Love Is This", Rea steers clear of empty rhetoric. He navigates the hypnotic, J.J. Cale-like atmospheres of "Somebody Say Amen", turns into a smoky-dive-bar crooner on "Steel River Blues", taps into modal jazz on the aching "Monday Morning" and rediscovers the visceral power of gospel-soul on "Restless Soul".

"The Blue Jukebox" builds a surprising mosaic, especially for those who hastily pigeonholed Rea as merely the man behind summer hits like "Josephine" or "On The Beach" – excellent songs in their own right, all the same. The solidity and maturity of this record now demand a definitive, well-deserved reassessment of his artistic depth.

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17/07/2026