Background
After the major commercial success Grace Jones achieved with her comeback album Slave to the Rhythm in 1985, Island Records decided to release a best-of compilation at the end of the same year. Island Life would feature songs from most of Jones' Island Records albums: Portfolio, Fame, Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing, Living My Life, and Slave to the Rhythm. No tracks from Muse were included. Some of the songs appeared in edited forms, and a remix of "Love Is the Drug" was included. No new songs were recorded for the album. Island Life consists only of previously released material, produced by Tom Moulton, Chris Blackwell, Alex Sadkin and Trevor Horn. American writer and journalist Glenn O'Brien wrote an essay for the record sleeve.
Australian LP release of the album came with a bonus 12" disc containing four songs: "My Jamaican Guy", "Pull Up to the Bumper", "On Your Knees" and "Warm Leatherette", and the 1986 UK cassette release included three bonus tracks: "Demolition Man", "Nipple to the Bottle" and "Grace Jones Musclemix".
Island Life met with a warm commercial reception worldwide. It was a major success in the UK, reaching number 4 on the UK Albums Chart in December 1985, and New Zealand, where it topped the chart in March 1986, thus becoming the only chart-topper in Jones' entire career. CD sales of the album in the United States since 1991 have reached 112,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
In April 1996 Island Records and Universal re-released the album under the name Island Life 2. Released only in France, it featured four additional tracks: "Pars", "Feel Up" and two versions of a 1993 single "Sex Drive", intended for the Black Marilyn album, which remains unreleased to date. Album retains the cover picture of the original Island Life album, with the only difference being the yellow-coloured background.
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