''Muse'' is the third studio album by

Grace Jones Grace Beverly Jones (born 19 May 1948) is a model, singer and actress. Born in Jamaica, she and her family moved to Syracuse, New York, when she was a teenager. Jones began her modelling career in New York state, then in Paris, working for ...

, released on September 4, 1979, by

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...

Production and release

''Muse'' was the last album of Jones's disco trilogy recorded with producer

Tom Moulton Thomas Jerome Moulton (, ; born November 29, 1940) is an American record producer. He experimented with remix in disco music and this led to its wide adoption as a standard practice in the industry. He also invented the breakdown section, and the ...

, which began in 1977 with debut ''

Portfolio Portfolio may refer to: Objects * Portfolio (briefcase), a type of briefcase Collections * Portfolio (finance), a collection of assets held by an institution or a private individual * Artist's portfolio, a sample of an artist's work or a ...

''. As in the case of two previous records, the first side of the album is a continuous medley of four songs, joined by a narrative about someone who has sinned. The second side, however, consists of disco songs with no lyrical relation to one another. All album art, including the cover image, is by Richard Bernstein. The album features a re-recorded version "I'll Find My Way to You", which Jones released three years prior to ''Muse''. It was originally featured in a 1976 Italian movie ''Quelli della calibro 38'' (international title: ''

Colt 38 Special Squad ''Colt 38 Special Squad'' ( it, Quelli della Calibro 38) is a 1976 Italian ''poliziottesco'' film. This film, by Massimo Dallamano, stars Ivan Rassimov and Marcel Bozzuffi. Plot Turin, Italy mid-1970s. When his wife becomes the latest innocent vi ...

'') in which she played a club singer. The original version along with a song called "Again and Again" were included on a single produced by composer

Stelvio Cipriani Stelvio Cipriani (20 August 1937 – 1 October 2018), also known as Viostel, was an Italian composer, mostly of motion picture soundtracks. Biography Though not raised with a strong musical upbringing, as a child Cipriani was fascinated by his ...

. Icelandic keyboardist Thor Baldursson who arranged most of the album and also sang duet with Grace on the track "Suffer" had previously worked in Munich, Germany with disco stars such as

Silver Convention Silver Convention were a German Euro disco recording act of the 1970s. The group was originally named Silver Bird Convention or Silver Bird. Career The group was initiated in Munich by producers and songwriters Sylvester Levay and Michael Kunze ...

Boney M. Boney M. was a German-Caribbean vocal group that specialized in disco and funk created by German record producer Frank Farian, who was the group's primary songwriter. Originally based in West Germany, the four original members of the group's o ...

Donna Summer LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948May 17, 2012), known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the " Queen of Disco", while her mus ...

Amanda Lear Amanda Lear (; born 1939) is a French singer, songwriter, painter, television presenter, actress, and former model. She began her professional career as a fashion model in the mid-1960s, and went on to model for Paco Rabanne, Ossie Clark, and ...

, and

Giorgio Moroder Giovanni Giorgio Moroder (, ; born 26 April 1940) is an Italian composer, songwriter, and record producer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering euro disco and electronic dance mu ...

. ''Muse'' was released in the year of the " anti-disco backlash" and both the album and its sole single, " On Your Knees", were largely overlooked by the record buying public at the time and is generally believed to be Grace Jones' "lost album". ''Muse'' remains her lowest-charting studio album in the USA and the only studio album not to produce any charting single. For many years, ''Muse'' had been the only Grace Jones studio album not to have been re-released on CD. Gold Legion, a record company that specializes in re-issuing classic disco albums on CD, finally released it on the format in November 2011, remastered, but with no bonus tracks. It was first released on CD in the UK in 2015, along with ''

'' and '' Fame'', as part of the ''

Disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

'' boxed set of Jones' first three "disco" era albums.

Track listing

Note: Tracks from side A are a non-stop medley, with the total playing time 20:26.

Personnel

* Thor Baldursson – guest vocals, keyboards, arrangements * Carla Benson – background vocals * Keith Benson – drums *

Evette Benton Evette or ''variation'', may refer to: People * Pamela Evette (born 1967), American politician People with the given name * Evette Branson (1924-2021), British philanthropist and mother of Richard Branson * Evette Dionne, American author * Evette ...

– background vocals * Richard Bernstein – artwork design * Eve Boman – photography *

Carl Davis Carl Davis, (born October 28, 1936) is an American-born conductor and composer who has lived in the United Kingdom since 1961. He has written music for more than 100 television programmes, but is best known for creating music to accompany si ...

– arrangements * Carl Helm – background vocals * Phil Hurt – background vocals *

Barbara Ingram Barbara Jane Ingram (February 9, 1947 – October 20, 1994) was an American R&B singer and songwriter who was active throughout the early 1970s until the mid-late 1980s, enjoying modest success as a backup singer for almost two decades. ...

– background vocals *

– lead vocals * Francis Jug – artwork design *

– production * Don Renaldo – strings, horns * José Rodriguez – mastering * Craig Snyder – guitar * Arthur Stoppe – mixing * Sweethearts of Sigma – background vocals * Neil Terk –

art direction Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the visi ...

* Ron Tyson – background vocals * Jim Walker – percussion * Larry Washington – percussion * Jimmy Williams – bass guitar

Singles

The original version of "I'll Find My Way to You" was released on a single with "Again and Again" as the B-side in 1976 and promoted an Italian movie ''Quelli della calibro 38'' (''

''). The song did not chart. The first, and internationally the only single promoting ''Muse'', was " On Your Knees", released shortly before album's premiere. The single was not a commercial success and did not chart. Its B-side was "Don't Mess with the Messer". Some German 7" feature the alternate title "Sugar and Spice" for "Don't Mess with the Messer".

Charts

Release history

References

External links

''Muse''
on

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''Muse''
on

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''Muse''
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Muse (Grace Jones Album) 1979 albums Grace Jones albums Albums produced by Tom Moulton Albums recorded at Sigma Sound Studios Island Records albums