One record at a time: 217. Howard Jones - The 12" Album

For whatever reason, I have never got round to buying Howard Jones's debut album on vinyl so "The 12'' Album" is the first HoJo record on my shelf. This record was a surprise find at a car boot sale in 2019 and it's in pretty good condition to say it only cost £1.

Things kick off with "Always Asking Questions" which sounds so good my memory says it must have been a single; but the internet tells me it was not. This is not the first time my memory has lied to me.

The "New Version" of "New Song" is a little more sparse than the hit single version but it is really interesting to hear Howard's vocal and his electric piano in a different context. The organ licks are especially spectacular.

Side one rounds out with another top ten single in the form of "What Is Love? [Extended Mix]". As far as I can tell this is the same mix found on the original 12" and it offers a classic eighties approach to remixing. For the first three minutes things sound much like the single but then the DX7 "BASS 1" preset is heard in isolation before the song gradually re-builds back to its grandeur.

Side two opens with the non-album single "Like To Get To Know You Well" which is presented as the "International Mix" from the original 12" single. I'm not a massive fan of this track as it doesn't really flow well and the production sounds a little flat. Things pick up with the excellent "Extended Mix" of "Pearl In The Shell" and an new version of album track "Conditioning" titled "Total Conditioning".  

I love old school 12" mixes and miss albums like this being released. Yes, remix albums were a marketing tool, but this one still offers great entertainment 38 years after it was released. 4/5

One record at a time: 216. Johnny Hates Jazz - Turn Back The Clock

This record might just represent the zenith of eighties pop. This is not to say I think this is the best album of the eighties, but rather that it was a high water mark for British pop before the likes of S'Express, Soul II Soul and 808 State came along and turned the charts upside-down with dance music.

On this record Johnny Hates Jazz seemed to distil everything that had gone before into a mix of catchy tunes, danceable rhythms and considered lyrics. The production is refined and played out on the machines whose sound defined the decade. Yamaha DX7, Roland D-50 and Fairlight sounds mingle with live percussion, orchestra and Clark's vocals. There's even some palatable guitar work.

One reason I might be alone in regarding this album as some sort of apogee is the way the band were portrayed in the music press and a general perception of them as being "yuppies" (was there a worse insult in the eighties?). I also think the emergence of dance music in the early nineties led to a revisionist attitude which regarded groups like Johnny Hates Jazz as anachronistic. Yet, there aren't many albums that get to number one in the charts and spawn six singles in the way this one did.

Right from the start this record lands a series of knock out blows with the hit singles "Shattered Dreams", "Heart of Stone" and "Turn Back the Clock" delivered in an unrelenting barrage of pop. Whilst the next track "Don't Say It's Love" was less successful when it was released, it is still a pleasing slice of pop that will be appreciated by anyone who enjoys the bigger hits. The first side closes with "What Other Reason" which is a bit of a dreary ballad, but it does have a good hook in the chorus.

Side two kicks off with the impressive "I Don't Want To Be A Hero" which has a bright pop tune with quite solemn anti-war lyrics. Whilst "Listen" sounds a little under produced, it has some great hooks and I love the little organ refrain that runs through it. One of my favourite tracks feels like it was an afterthought as it is buried away at the end of the record. "Foolish Heart" was released as a the band's first single a couple of years before the album and it wasn't a hit. I can see why the song didn't strike a chord with the record buying public as it isn't an immediate catchy tune but something more nuanced and strangely seductive. As the song begins you could be forgiven for thinking this is standard fare with a simple octave bassline and a relentless Linn Drum pattern, but as the the piano begins to weave its spell you realise this is something quite grand. The track continues to build and release until it reaches its sinister conclusion, "Hey Johnny. Where you gonna go with that gun in your hand..." 4/5

One record at a time: 215. Jean Michel Jarre - Oxymore

I started reviewing the Jean Michel Jarre records in my collection back in April and today we finally reach the end with "Oxymore".

This album seems to generate quite polarizing opinions amongst fans with some happy to declare it Jarre's best work since "Zoolook" or place it amongst the best 3 albums he has ever made. On the other side of the coin there are those of us who regard this as self-indulgent nonsense that finds Jarre devoid of ideas.

Before this album was released I became wary when I noticed it was to be made available as a binaural recording. To me this was a big warning sign that the music was going to be all style and no substance. To a certain extent this assumption was correct as there is little on this record that stands out and it just amounts to sound design rather than composing. Having said that, it is still better that the preceding album "Amazonia".

One online review describes this record as, "a hard listen" and I think that sums things up quite well. Nothing flows, ideas move in and out at random and parts of it are just plain annoying. I must have very different tastes to the people who love this album as I regard it as amongst Jarre's worst. 1/5

One record at a time: 214. Jean Michel Jarre - Amazonia

The music contained on this album was created as the background score for a 2021 media exhibition about the Brazilian Amazon region.  

As this is a 'score', the album doesn't contain the themes or melodic pieces that you might normally expect to encounter on a Jarre record. What we are presented with is an ambient soundscape created from a combination of electronic instruments and field recordings. If you can imagine Deep Forest with toned down beats and no melodies, you're about there.

Like the majority of Jarre's more recent output, "Amazonia" is also available as a binaural or Dolby Surround recording. The predominance of these spacial mixes indicates to me that this is is intended to be a listening experience rather than a 'pop album'. Which begs the question why release it as an album? Like AIR's "Music for Museum" (sic) this would probably have been better left as an exhibition piece. Anyone who isn't a Jarre fan or collector can give this one a wide berth. 1/5

One record at a time: 213. Jean Michel Jarre - Welcome to the Other Side

I'll be honest, this record is unopened and unloved. When I first watched the virtual reality 'concert-event' this music is taken from I had no idea what was gong on. 

This 'event' occurred on New Years Eve 2020 in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and seemed to involve Jarre performing with IMU sensors attached so that a virtual reality performer could be animated. For some unknown reason Notre-Dame cathedral was chosen as the backdrop for both the real images and the VR representation. 

The music was even more puzzling as Jarre seemed to want to recreate a rave by playing a series of EDM influenced tracks and remixes. The fake applause and audience noise was ridiculous and it didn't take Einstein to work out nothing was being played live.

As a Jarre fan of 35 years I was pretty disappointed by the whole thing. I guess the concept for this event must have passed me by as I just thought it looked and sounded second rate. This record is basically a Armin van Buuren DJ set dressed up with some Jarre tunes. I'm off to listen to "Equinoxe". 2/5

One reord at a time: 212. Jean Michel Jarre - Equinoxe Infinity

In 2018 Jarre decided that revisiting "Oxygene" wasn't enough and it was about time he set about creating a sequel to his other seventies masterpiece "Equinoxe". Rather than rework the themes and ideas of the original, Jarre set out to create a new work which had little musical connection to the original album. 

Whilst "The Watchers (Movement 1)" features a small echo of the Eminent strings from "Equinoxe Part I" it is nothing more than a cursory reference. Tracks like "Flying Totems (Movement 2)" are in the old tradition of uplifting and anthemic pieces, but there is no doubt this is a new approach. This track is also the closest Jarre has ever come to sounding like his contemporary Vangelis. 

"All That You Leave Behind (Movement 4)" is a darker, brooding piece that has some very seventies touches harking back to the earliest material Jarre recorded on "Deserted Palace" and "Les Granges Brûlées". "Infinity" is another strong and jaunty theme that sounds almost like the classic Jarre of forty years ago. Another favourite of mine is the atmospheric "Don't Look Back" which sounds like it was recorded by a string quartet that has been wired up to the mains. Weird but good.

When I first heard this album I have to admit I dismissed it as being rather disappointing and haven't listened to it much. When I posted my initial thoughts on this blog, I went as far as describing some tracks as "cheesy" and "less than convincing". As I sit listening to these tracks today, I can see I was too hasty in my evaluation. 

I think I rushed to a conclusion due to the sheer volume of music I have access to. I am only limited by the amount of time I can spend listening to music and it feels like everyone is vying for my attention. Back in 1985 when I bought the original "Equinoxe", I only owned a few LPs and tapes. These four or five albums were my world and I listened to them over and over until I almost lived within them. In 2023,  I don't seem to be able to devote time to albums that might need repeated listens to make an impression. Going back to this record today has certainly made me appreciate it more and I now intend to listen to it far more often. 3/5

One record at a time: 211. Jean Michel Jarre - Planet Jarre

I knew I had a lot of Jean Michel Jarre records, but I'm beginning to think I might never reach the end of them. This feeling is caused, in part, by the fact that I' don't enjoy his more recent material. I've posted before about the inexorable decline in the quality of Jarre's output and with every step away from his eighties pomp, things move further away from the things I enjoy. 

Happily this "50 years of music" compilation box set brings together the cream of Jarre's output and might serve to remind me why I was such a fan in the first place. 

This is a four disc set where the tracks are divided into "Soundscapes", "Themes", "Sequences" and "Explorations and Early Works". 

"Soundscapes" presents a largely predictable selection of nine of Jarre's more minimalist tracks from albums such as "Waiting For Cousteau", "Equinoxe" and two selections from "Oxygene 3". There are a few edits and tweaks but this material is largely faithful to that heard on the parent albums.

To my eternal surprise the "Themes" disc doesn't start with "Oxygene Part IV" but rather goes for the second part of "Industrial Revolution". Whilst all of the familiar tracks are contained on this disc, there are some surprises as "Zoolookologie", "Magnetic Fields 2", "Rendez-Vous 4" and "Chronology 4" are all presented as new remixed versions. The mastering on the beginning of "Equinoxe Part IV" is very strange to my ears as it is over compressed and sounds like it is in mono, but this seems to resolve when the main theme begins.

"Sequences" kicks off with a new track called "Coachella Opening" that would go on to be included on the "Equinoxe Infinity" album later in the same year as "The Opening (Movement 8)". The fantastic "Arpegiator", new track "Hebalizer" and "Equinoxe Part VII" are the standout tracks on this disc with "Oxygene 8" also given a new mix for the occasion. Less satisfactory is the Edward Snowden collaboration "Exit" and the mix of "Revolution, Revolutions" is pretty dire compared to the original album mix from 1988.

Collectors and Jarre fanatics would probably have been most pleased to see a "Explorations and Early Works" disc that saw the first release of "AOR Bleu" and a "demo" of "Music For Supermarkets Part 1". The remainder of the disc was taken up with material already released on the "Rarities" compilation (which probably explains why the "Essentials and Rarities" collection hasn't been repressed).4/5