News

Don’t crack up, bend your brain: a new triple-disc Howard Jones compilation is coming out from U.K. label Cherry Red Records.

The blonde keyboardist from Southampton was a staple of early-mid ’80s U.K. pop thanks to his catchy synth-driven melodies with often heavy, introspective lyrics. This combination took “New Song,” “What is Love,” “Things Can Only Get Better,” “No One is to Blame” and five more songs into his home country’s Top 20. Success in the United States was later but slightly longer, when the latter two reached the Top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 (the latter assisted by a re-recording with producer Phil Collins behind the drum kit); his last Top 40 hits charted in the early 1990s, including the effervescent “Everlasting Love.”

But Jones has energetically chased his muse since those heady days, founding his own independent label Dtox Records in 1994 and continued to record emotional and esoteric pop records, becoming an early adopter of direct sales in concerts and online. He even enjoyed a stint in Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band in the early 2000s. Today, Jones continues to tour worldwide: this summer, he’ll be back in the States as part of the Retro Futura ’80s package tour alongside Men Without Hats, The English Beat and Paul Young, and U.K. dates are planned for the winter.

Best 1983-2017 collects, for the first time, hits from his major label tenure on Elektra/WEA (albums that were wondrously remastered in a trio of box sets several years ago) as well as his Dtox-era works, even adding “Eagle Will Fly Again” from the soundtrack to 2016’s British sports biopic Eddie The Eagle. A third disc features audio from Jones’ 30th anniversary concerts in 2013 (previously presented on DVD with a super deluxe, PledgeMusic-exclusive version of his most recent album, 2015’s Engage) plus a new mix of “You’re the Buddha” by longtime collaborator Robbie Bronnimann. It’s all curated by Howard and housed in a deluxe digipak with a new cover design by Steg, who created the cover for Howard’s debut album Human’s Lib in 1983. It’s in stores July 28 and can be pre-ordered from the label.

Best 1983-2017 (Cherry Red PCDTRED707, 2017)

Disc 1

1. Things Can Only Get Better
2. No One is to Blame
3. What is Love?
4. New Song
5. Like to Get to Know You Well
6. Pearl in the Shell
7. Hide and Seek
8. Everlasting Love
9. Look Mama
10. Life in One Day
11. Specialty
12. All I Want
13. You Know I Love You…Don’t You?
14. Little Bit of Snow
15. The Prisoner
16. Will You Still Be There?

Disc 2

1. Lift Me Up
2. City Song
3. One Last Try
4. Cookin’ in the Kitchen
5. Nothing to Fear
6. You’re the Buddha
7. If You Love
8. Let the People Have Their Say
9. Just Look At You Now
10. Revolution of the Heart
11. The Presence of Other
12. Someone You Need
13. Soon You’ll Go
14. Ordinary Heroes
15. Joy
16. The Human Touch
17. Eagle Will Fly Again

Disc 3: Engage Live

1. Back in Your Life (Acoustic Live)
2. Building Our Own Future (Acoustic Live)
3. City Song (Acoustic Live)
4. No One is to Blame (Acoustic Live)
5. Everlasting Love (Acoustic Live)
6. Just Look At You Now (Electric Live)
7. Don’t Wanna Fight Anymore (Electric Live)
8. Like to Get to Know You Well/Cookin’ in the Kitchen (Mash Up Live)
9. You’re the Buddha (The Robbie Bronnimann Mix) (bonus track)

Disc 1, Tracks 1 and 9-11 from Dream Into Action (WEA/Elektra, 1985)
Disc 1, Track 2 from Action Replay (Elektra, 1985) and One to One (WEA/Elektra, 1986)
Disc 1, Tracks 3-4 and 6-7 from Human’s Lib (WEA/Elektra, 1984)
Disc 1, Track 5 from U.S. version of Dream Into Action
Disc 1, Tracks 8 and 15 from Cross That Line (WEA/Elektra, 1989)
Disc 1, Tracks 12-14 and 16 from One to One
Disc 2, Tracks 1-3 from In the Running (WEA/Elektra, 1992)
Disc 2, Track 4 from Working in the Backroom (Dtox, 1994)
Disc 2, Tracks 6-8 from Angels & Lovers (Pony Canyon (JP), 1997) and People (Ark 21/Dtox, 1998)
Disc 2, Tracks 9-11 from Revolution of the Heart (Koch/Dtox, 2005)
Disc 2, Tracks 12-14 from Ordinary Heroes (Dtox, 2009)
Disc 2, Tracks 15-16 from Engage (Dtox, 2015)
Disc 2, Track 17 from Fly: Songs Inspired by the Film Eddie The Eagle (Universal Music Catalogue, 2016)
Disc 3 recorded live in London and Birmingham, November 28-30, 2013. Previously released on DVD included in super deluxe version of Engage; previously unreleased on CD