My Own Biggest Fan

This is the third album in a row from the mid eighties. I could probably do a full week plus of these. It could be the Month of New Music Eighties Week. MONWEW is fun to say out loud. Don’t worry, this will be the last you will hear of that.

Howard Jones. Probably best known for Things Can Only Get Better (Grooveshark link), a great single that did well on the North American charts. Before that it seems he was very well known in the UK, and according to Wikipedia, around the world. Human’s Lib is one of those albums that had crazy success in the UK, while over in North America, we shrugged. It’s too bad, because this is a pretty decent listen. Let’s say if on a scale of one to ten, where one is yesterday’s first MONM album, and ten is a worldwide chart-topping undeniable classic, like say Purple Rain, then this is a solid 5. I’d even try to push 6. The lyrics don’t insult my intelligence, the music is well produced, his voice is strong and has a lot of character and his vocals often incorporate triplets, which for some reason always wins me over.

Hey, whatever, it’s a softball review. What can I say, I’m pooped. I’m posting my favourite song off the album, the opening track, which is a bit darker than the rest of the album.

Verdict: I’ve sort of given up on being clever in this part because I’m not all that clever.

Howard Jones – Conditioning