Howard Jones - "Dream Into Action" (1985)

A lot of the fun of this project for me is the idea of listening to random records, setting aside my biases for 40 minutes, and letting my ears do the judgment. I had never heard of Howard Jones before acquiring this album, and I admit I do tend to be biased towards artists whom I've never heard of, based on my optimistic theory that over time, good albums will always be remembered (by music critics at the minimum) and that the best artists will stand the test of time. So by this theory, the fact that I'd never heard of Howard Jones (keeping in mind that I read A LOT of music and album reviews and can expound on the traits and most highly-regarded albums of plenty of artists I have never actually listened to) is a red flag that that there was something lacking in his discography.

Yet much as I'd like to make a lot of corny jokes about how this album is a turkey in honor of Thanksgiving, I actually found "Dream Into Action" to be a very impressive record. Although the sound is very dated to 1985, with plenty of automated rhythm tracks, synthesizers, and a singing voice which is hardly distinguishable from other 80s British New Wave artists from the same time period, I found the songs to be consistently creative, interesting, and diverse. The singles that lead off each side - "Things Can Only Get Better" and "Look Mama," are both top-tier mid 80s singles and the surrounding tracks are not much worse.

My major criticism of the album lies with the fact that the sound is so dated - although the individual songs are fairly creative, I have to suspect that the major reason Jones has largely been forgotten is that the album is so locked into its time period, and worse yet, does not really have a personality that sets it apart from other artists working in the same genre. It's a good record, but there are better albums with a similar sound, making it all too easy for Jones to have fallen out of favor when recalling the best records of the 80s. But setting that aside, I enjoyed this album quite a bit, and would definitely recommend it.