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I don't mind admitting that I found this title quite confusing at the time. And that was even before I had to try and remember which ones were Howard Jones and which ones were Nik Kershaw... Sometimes I still wonder whether he could have had a Number One if he'd actually called it 'Don't Crack Up' or 'Throw Off Your Mental Chains'.
Oh yes, if you hadn't already realised it's that one. The one where he has his little friend dancing around and throwing off some (physical) chains. Whether this was intended as a joke I don't know, but if so it seems to have worked only too well in preventing anyone from taking it seriously. Or maybe it was Jones' knitwear. Still I've tried to figure out why this doesn't convince - sure the lyrics are clicheed but they're almost so far into rock cliche as to come right out the other side. The glory of music is that it can make even trite or obvious sentiments sound convincing if they hit you hard enough, and that's probably where this falls down; the tune is moderately catchy but doesn't deliver (in melody or arrangement) the uplift that should accompany a rallying cry. It would have worked better as an advertising jingle. Also, as one YouTube commenter pointed out, the melody in the verses is actually quite similar to 'Solsbury Hill' - that's even more obvious if you compare it with Erasure's version, which is played on similar instrumentation.
Also appearing on: Now 2, 3, 5
Available on: Ultimate Collection
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