Saturday, January 19, 2008

Howard Jones

I know to each his own but ... I love Howard Jones.

If each decade's rock, in general, is heavy on one particular aspect or another, I'd applaud the 50s for audacity. I love the 60s for pure music-crafting (I think they added heart, and a message, to rock). The 70s ... well, they, in part, were swinging (drifting?) away from the 60s so, they did excess well? Then I will argue that the 80s added heart, and a message, to excess.

(Live Aid. Erasure's politics. Everything Depeche Mode is saying without really saying it.)

And PIANOS. Viva the much-maligned synth! And enter what slays me: complexity (have you ever really LISTENED to Just Like a Dream? Over and over? And over?) Then, these layers, ranges (the guy from A-Ha), and melody.

Melody, melody, melody.

Dismiss it as "hooks," unbeliever. Then dismiss Tolkien as plot-heavy. What a beach read! Great plane-ride paperbacks!

OK. High, high praise. But Howard Jones' melodies (which I've just admitted my weakness for) are surprising and brilliant. I guess they really are gems set in ... aluminum alloy pop trinket lockets. Which I, being a girl, and not too much of a music snob, root through greedily.

Howard Jones, maybe I've elevated these songs to sacrity, but I would love to see you spend the next 20 years weaving each of them into 15-minute piano "symphonies." Things Can Only Get Better "amplified," expounded, expanded?? That is your assignment, so stop reading my blog and get started. :)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah, sounds like you need to do THE LIST!

I had friends over the other night; we sat around all evening listening to music. Each of us had prepared a compilation of ten songs:

- Sunday morning song
- song/artist that you're ashamed to admit you like
- the apocalypse song
- dishwashing music
- driving on the M8 at night / long road trip
- study music
- song of personal change-like-ness (transformation)
- cold rainy scotland inside
- the song that most makes you cry / that's most likely to make you cry
- song to start a revolution to
- some about/from your home

Tangeline said...

- Sunday morning song -- Be Thou My Vision
- song/artist that you're ashamed to admit you like -- Madonna's Like a Prayer
- the apocalypse song -- Through the Fire and Flames, Dragonforce
- dishwashing music -- anything by Erasure
- driving on the M8 at night / long road trip -- mix of extremely familiar, extreme favorites
- study music -- Loreena McKennitt
- song of personal change-like-ness (transformation) -- Things Can Only Get Better, Howard Jones
- cold rainy scotland inside -- Loreena McKennitt or Cold Play. Or Iron and Wine
- the song that most makes you cry / that's most likely to make you cry -- Mad World by Gary Jules, or any Loreena McKennitt in a sentimental state of mind
- song to start a revolution to -- Through the Fire and Flames, Dragonforce
- some about/from your home,,,,,, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings

Anonymous said...

So...will the Apocalypse come as a result of the revolution or vice versa?

Tangeline said...

um ... yes.

Anonymous said...

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