Howard Jones has always come across as an endearing blend of mad scientist and hopeless romantic. Since his 1983 debut single, “New Song,” he has blended obsessive technical detail with extreme emotionality. His newest album, Dialogue, is the latest example of this approach, in which intricate structures of synthesized sound grow into musical mountains supporting impassioned lyrics.
Dialogue is the third album in what Jones, 67, conceived as a trilogy. While sonically interesting, 2019’s Transform had lackluster sonics compared with the spectacular Engage from 2015, which was as inventive as it was beautifully produced. (Particularly recommended: the choral layers of “The Walk” and the Hanon-meets-Moog playfulness of “5 Pianos.”) Now, Jones is back on his game; this third album recaptures the vibrant energy and scintillating sound of the trilogy’s first installment.
More than just a songwriter, Jones is a skilled composer. When he’s at his best, his arrangements are integral to his songs, of a piece with their underlying concept. A good example is the bass melody that opens “Formed by the Stars” and then becomes contrapuntal against the vocal melody; that 400-year-old compositional technique (counterpoint) isn’t used often enough in pop music. A top-flight synth programmer, Jones stands out both for the range of sounds he creates and for his astonishing rhythmic dexterity; the acrobatic recorder-like riffs are especially fun on “Formed by the Stars.”
Soul music has been an important influence on Jones’s work for his whole career. “Celebrate It Together” has an electro-soul vibe at its center while employing many techniques at once, from funk to 8-bit. But while the 8-bit movement in indie rock, which was meant to evoke retro video games, can be painfully garish, Jones’s sonic brush deploys mere dabs of cascading blips, apportioning them appropriately into the song’s orchestration.
Despite the excitement of contrasting textures that, on “My One True Love,” clash like silk cushions against tiger’s claws, this song is a rare case of Jones being unconvincing. He says the song was inspired by a lockdown nightmare about losing the love of his life. (He’s been married to Jan Smith since 1977.) Yet, the arrangement comes across as calculated, which isn’t typical for Jones. It feels less like a nightmare than an intellectual parsing of what such a loss should feel like.
EDITOR’S PICK
RECORDING OF THE MONTH
HOWARD JONES
Dialogue
D-Tox Records (Multiple formats; auditioned as 16/44.1 stream). 2022.
