Howard Jones Dream Into Action: domo origato, Mr. Roboto...
Written: Jul 06 '04 (Updated Aug 17 '04)
Product Rating:
Pros: British Synth-Pop in top form. HoJo's best album. No Phil Collins arrangement.
Cons: beauty pageant wishes for a better tomorrow…
The Bottom Line: #7 of the Top Ten Albums that molded my musical tastes. It's still rock and roll to me, but new wave left it's mark early on, and stuck with me...
bob_tomato's Full Review: Dream Into Action by Howard Jones (Pop)
1985 was the year that I really began to expand my musical horizons – I was a freshman at Cal State Hayward working on a music major, an endeavor that began to expose me to a wide selection of classical and modern music and to the varied musical tastes of other students on campus. Throughout high school, I had listened primarily to pop-rock (see my recent reviews of Genesis, Rick Springfield and Journey for more information on this period), but somewhere in my senior year (1983-84), I had begun to take notice of the new British Invasion. Once again, the British were coming, this time not with mop-top haircuts and guitars, but with colorful coifs and synthesizers - LOTS of synthesizers. Other than Genesis, the only British group I'd really listened to up to this point had been The Police, and while they were certainly not synthesizer driven during the bulk of their short career, their final album was laced with electronica - Synchronicity was a huge influence on me. By combining their guitar punk with new sounds that only computers could handle, The Police helped turn me on to the new wave of British musicians flooding the American airwaves and MTV. (There will be more on Synchronicity later on in this series…)
HoJo Leads The Way
Howard Jones was one of those at the front of this electronic vanguard, with his orange hair teased into wild configurations, a penchant for wearing paisley and plaid (quite often at the same time) and an arsenal of various synthesizers with which he could perform one man concerts. I saw HoJo (as we original fans dubbed him) during his first American tour when he was supporting his album Human's Lib – the banks of synthesizers surrounding him were très chic to my young eyes, and it seemed so cool that the computer could synchronize all the various pieces together for the performance. All Howard had to do was start the program for each song, and then he would play along on one or two of the keyboards, singing along with his pre-programmed tracks – all in all, a very efficient and cheap first American tour.
I was impressed with all of HoJo's electronic gadgets and the interesting sounds he coaxed from them. Human's Lib was the first synth-pop record I ever bought, and when I saw him in concert for the second time several months later, he played a few of the songs from his soon to be released album. I waited in eager anticipation for this release, since the songs he played from the album were fantastic… soon enough, I had my very own copy of what would turn out to be his very best work, Dream Into Action.
Great Tunes, Butchered Lyrics
Of course, I use the phrase "very best" as a relative term – don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE this album – but despite the fact that HoJo's music made such a big impact on me at a young age, there is no escaping the fact that Howard is not a gifted lyricist. He crafted some really great melodies (which, for some odd reason, he sometimes stretched far outside of his best vocal range), and he put those melodies into catchy danceable rhythms guaranteed to bring out one's best whitebread Bandstand boy-bop moves (Oh, the humanity!) While the melodies are solid throughout the album, and the synthesized arrangements are really well done, his lyrics were quite often less-than-stellar – sometimes sappy odes to humanistic self-improvement (Why Look For The Key, Is There a Difference?, Specialty), sometimes strange or supernatural (Automaton, Hunger For the Flesh). I don't think it's strange that none of these particular songs were hits – it's hard to get your groove on when the singer keeps going on about lizard-skinned humaniform robots or a "perfect state of non-attachment". HoJo put his personal convictions on the line in many of his songs, but none was ever more strident than his PETA dance classic (!) Assault and Battery - hey, activists love to dance, too…
The lives were taken
For feasts at the table
A life of misery
Ending with a shock
Brutal murder
All hands to the slaughter
Mass torture
All hands to the knife
Nice guys CAN finish first – well, at least in the Top 40…
Despite this strong anti-carnivore stance, HoJo is most often the synth-pop equivalent of a yellow happy face sticker (with the odd exception of the supremely juvenile deathwish expressed in Elegy - the music is OK, but it reads like some Goth-wannabe diary entry). The balance of Dream Into Action is undeniably optimistic, full of innocence and hope, a joie de vivre surpassed only by Bobby McFerrin's Don't Worry, Be Happy. And just like that song caught on with the public's imagination for a short while, Howard's bouncy melodies propelled these joyful songs into prominence – during 1985, HoJo was hot on MTV, churning out Brit-typical videos with bad camera work, goofy effects and concert clips of Howard singing to his adoring fans. I loved these hits just as much (or more) than anybody, and I still do… some quick info:
Life in One Day - memorable synth-flute hook, wonderful backing vocals by Afrodisiac, and another lyric gem "time will wear away the stone / gets the hereditary bone" Huh? Whatever – it's a way fun song…
Look Mama - perennial crowd fave at concerts due to the teen-friendly mantra "you've gotta let me live my life" – but Howard loves his Mama too "I have my respect for you / I wouldn't try to change the things you do".
Like to Get to Know You Well - sigh!…it's one of OUR songs. I put this song on a few mix-tapes I gave my future wife while we dated… I luv u 2 hunny! (and pearannoyed just left the room to be sick…)
Things Can Only Get Better - WOH-OH OhOhOh WHO-OH OH! OH! OH! "and do you feel scared? I do…but I won't stop and falter" Damn, this song is catchy… Damn, that falsetto is HIGH…
No One is to Blame - forget the 1986 re-invention of this tune with pop-monster Phil Collins; it was a huge hit with the public that was not aware of it's special significance to us HoJo concert-goers. This song actually has clever lyrics (!) and those of us who regularly attended Howard's concerts quickly learned to love this song. HoJo would play this one using just the piano, wringing this song out for every bit of comic pathos he could get, and we all sang along, filling in the words for him as he fell to the floor or collapsed onto his keyboard in mock desperation. The later addition of the Phil Collins drum track and backing vocal only served to water down the true intent of the song for us faithful fans, though we loved the fact that our hero was getting more airplay as a result. The 1986 version of No One is to Blame can be found on the remix EP Action Replay (I've still got my original cassette…)
Vinyl Thoughts
The testament to how much I loved this album when it came out is best evidenced in my vinyl record collection – I have several of the 12" remixes that came out for the singles. I even went so far as to bring some remixes back from Europe after my first college choir tour of Austria and Italy (a few of these tracks can also be found on Action Replay). Dream Into Action is a synth-geek dream come true – I and others like me (Ross Geller, perhaps?) imagined a paradise of keyboards and drum machines, all producing the music within our hearts for all the world to hear. Computers made the one man band cool, and despite his lack of lyrical talent, Howard Jones helped to lead the way for the new wave of British synth-pop that permeated pop music in the mid-eighties. So, while The Police's Sting may have been able to turn a phrase very nicely, and was perfectly capable of crafting solid tunes, even I have to admit that he never made music as fun to listen to as HoJo could –
bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce…
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Howard Jones - Dream Into Action
Originally released in April, 1985 by Elektra/Asylum Records
All quoted lyrics are the property of the copyright owner Track listing
Things Can Only Get Better / Life In One Day / Dream Into Action / No One Is To Blame / Look Mama / Assault and Battery / Automaton / Is There A Difference? / Elegy / Specialty / Why Look For The Key / Hunger For The Flesh / Bounce Right Back / Like To Get To Know You Well
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My Top Ten List of albums that molded my musical tastes
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