It’s a rare talent that can throw their CV on the table and declare highflying periods with bands as far apart musically as Level 42 and King Crimson.
One of those rarities is guitarist and singer Jakko Jakszyk, a man unafraid of leather trews and a blouse in his grandstanding Level 42 arena years and, later still, able to make a decent fist of David Bowie’s “Heroes” live, with Crimson’s Robert Fripp looking on.
Little wonder, then, that Secrets & Lies embraces Jakszyk’s pop instinct as well as material originally written with King Crimson in mind.
Level 42’s Mark King and Van der Graaf Generator’s Peter Hammill both contribute, on an album that bristles with pain and rejection but still thrills with melody and invention. Especially good are the lingering The Rotters Club Is Closing Down and the frenetic and thrilling Separation.
