Howard Jones 'Pearl In The Shell'

Chart Peak: 7

YouTube

The first song on this album I don't remember at all. In fact I was a bit surprised when I researched the Amazon link below and found that the 12" version was included on a compilation album I own on CD, although it transpires that my copy doesn't have that track after all (all but one track is identical so I presume it was a later change for contractual reasons). It does have the more familiar 'Like To Get To Know You Well', a song which I prefer but will never get to write about here.

'Pearl...' finds HoJo in his usual territory, exhorting us to realise our dreams, do the things we wanted to do, not be held back by fear etc., hence the central metaphor of a pearl remaining in a shell instead of coming out. The oyster might have a different opinion on this image, I suspect. The track is distinguished from most of his other output by a prominent saxophone, the one live instrument that seemed to be accepted in synthpop, played by Davey Gallagher of Ian Dury's Blockheads. It's distinctive enough for the video director to have based the entire premise around it, but it's not quite enough to make up for the unremarkable song which he'd done better before.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 2, 4
Available on: Human's Lib (Remastered Edition)

Howard Jones 'Life In One Day'

Chart Peak: 14

YouTube

You don't often see Howard Jones compared to the Damned, it's fair to say, but the one thing they do seem to have in common is that they were approaching the end of their hitmaking careers (in the UK at least) by 1985, and yet both remain very much in the business. Musically, though, this is a bit of a swerve from the rock-oriented sound of the Side 4 so far. Howard Jones is one of the hardest people to write about on here, not least because a fellow blogger whom I respect is a big fan and has been known to read here. Moreover, though, he's somebody where I find it very hard to shake off the eightiesness and hear the music as it was presumably originally intended; even though I always want to like him. He certainly seems more admirable than many of a star of this or indeed any pop era.

This time around I actually have a slight head start, because I have no memory of hearing the record at the time, let alone since. Even without external evidence, I wouldn't have mistaken it for any other time, but at least it arrives without baggage. It also arrives with that remarkable video which, especially for the time is a tour de force of imagination and technology - the only problem being that it's hard to imagine any TV channel actually daring to show it. For once, it's true to say that a video is truly ahead of its time: it only really made sense 20 years later when somebody invented YouTube. Anyway, it's worth a look if you've never seen it, but it can be a bit of a distraction from the song itself - you can find a sound-only version (without Tony Blackburn!) here.

The title lyric, repeating an "old man"'s warning not to try and live your life in one day seems almost the diametric opposite of stereotypical 80s values, although on more detailed inspection it seems that this is more a matter of trying to enjoy the present days and resist worrying about the future than a call to indolence. It's a good idea, even if not a very deep one, and I have to admit that in the few days since I first looked this song up I can't get that chorus out of my head. 1-0 to Mr Jones there, then.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 2, 3
Available on: The Best of Howard Jones

Howard Jones 'What Is Love?'

Chart Peak: 2

YouTube

It's not Howard Jones's fault. It's not his fault that the synthesiser-based arrangements that sounded so fresh at the time were dated by the march of history and make me think of a low-budget karaoke night. It's not his fault that popular imagination has tied him so closely to the 1980s that all his attempts to be taken seriously after that decade have been doomed to failure. It's not his fault that I sometimes get him mixed up with Nik Kershaw (the compilers here have done me a favour by putting them on different sides of the record).

With all that in mind, I feel a bit unfair saying this, but 'What Is Love?' fails to charm me. Jones and his mysterious co-writer William Bryant try to tackle the eternal question and don't shed a lot of light, although the tone seems unusually weary for the usually optimistic Jones. Musically, though, there's none of the eccentricity of 'New Song' and stretching the word "loooo-ve" over so much of the chorus sounds oddly slapdash. Still, this convinced enough people at the time to be the closest he ever came to a Number One.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 3, 5
Available on: Platinum Collection

Howard Jones 'New Song'

Chart Peak: 3

YouTube

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