One record at a time: 537. Howard Jones - One To One

This record came into my possession a couple of years ago, though I had completely forgotten where I bought it from until I pulled it from the shelves and spotted the charity shop sticker still proudly clinging to the sleeve proclaiming the sale price of £1.15. As I have lamented before on this blog, charity shops are not exactly awash with treasures these days, so finding something like this feels less like crate-digging and more like encountering a unicorn. There is not a mark on the record and it plays perfectly, so whoever owned it before me clearly treated it with more respect than I treat most houseplants. The median price on Discogs for this album is £2.66, which means I am already more than £1.50 in the black and can enjoy a brief, financially unjustified moment of smugness.

By 1986, Howard Jones had already scored hits around the world and secured his place as an international act. Produced by the legendary Arif Mardin, this album sees Jones using the Fairlight for the first time and aiming for a bigger, glossier sound. Or, depending on your point of view, making a slightly ill-judged bid for the attention of American radio.

The album kicks off with the lead single "You Know I Love You... Don't You?", which was something of a commercial disappointment on release. Personally, I like the song, although I can see why its less-than-fluid lyrics might have slipped past radio programmers with barely a ripple. Second track "The Balance Of Love (Give And Take)" brings in some deep, funky bass, and once the distinctive sound of the DX7 appears, it starts to feel almost perfect from an eighties production perspective.

As the first side progresses, we get a run of well-produced and perfectly competent tracks, but several are missing the little hook that would have pushed them from album-track territory into hit material. The backing vocals on "Where Are We Going?" could not be cheesier if they had been dipped in fondue, while the proto-electro of "Don't Want To Fight Anymore" is so out of place it is almost irresistible. One thing that stands out in Mardin's production is the deeper bass, which gives the record a different feel from Jones's earlier work. The trouble is that bass, however splendidly upholstered, cannot always carry a song on its own.

Side two opens with "Step Into These Shoes", which has a spring in its step but "Pearl in a Shell" it is not. "Will You Still Be There?" is gentler and more reflective, but boy does it go on, and on, and on. "Good Luck, Bad Luck" is one of the more immediate tracks here, with a brisker pulse and the sort of neatly clipped chorus that reminds you HoJo had not entirely mislaid his pop instincts. "Little Bit Of Snow" closes things on a more delicate note, complete with string arrangement and a sense that everyone in the studio had briefly looked up for Page R on the Fairlight and wandered outside to touch grass.

Overall, "One To One" is not Howard Jones at his most dazzling or immediate, but it is far from the misfire some might suggest. It is slick, occasionally over-polished and sometimes a little too keen to sound grown-up, but as a charity shop find for £1.15, it delivers considerably more than the purchase price demanded, which is all one can reasonably ask in this day and age. 3/5