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Liam Carey reviews
V o l u m e # 8 1 4 M a y 2 0 0 3
KEEPING UP WITH THE JONES’
Ten years after he parted company with WEA, Howard Jones continues to release new material via his own label d-tox. Set up in 1996, d-tox has not only issued music by Jones himself but also contemporary electropop duo dba and most notably Martin Grech, who is licensed by d-tox to Island Records and enjoyed much critical acclaim with his debut album Open Heart Zoo last year.
Following a triumphant return to his synthesizer roots with The Peaceful Tour and its subsequent CD companion in 2001, Jones returned to the studio. The results were two albums of piano instrumentals, planned as separate releases during 2003, along with another, more conventional, set of new songs with full-scale arrangements and vocals. Such a burst of creative energy (Howard Jones’ last new studio album was 1998’s People) is unbound by major label dictates, and the first of the Piano Solos CDs was made available on his official website on April 28th.
Clocking in at 37 minutes, the 9 pieces of free-form tinkling are bravely apposite to current trends. As far back as 1989, Jones displayed his talent for piano-only compositions with Out Of Thin Air, the opener to Side 2 of his fourth album Cross That Line. Subtitled “For Friends And Loved Ones”, Piano Solos sees Jones literally following his muse, letting the music flow through him. With excellent, heartfelt sleevenotes from the man, it’s a refreshing alternative to the mindless onslaught of so much current chart music.
For more information, and details of a special 20th Anniversary concert to be held in September, check out www.howardjones.com
POPO’S GOT A BRAND NEW BAG
The bizarrely-named Grand Popo Football Club specialise in exuberant dance-pop from overseas, with brightly-coloured sleeves and goodtime sounds. Their debut single, Men Are Not Nice Guys, originally dates from 2001, but only recently got a UK release and new music TV channel The Amp (Sky 469) currently has the memorably kitsch video on rotation.
Funky basslines embellished by tres moderne electro touches, as if Miss Kittin were fronting Modjo, are the order of the day on the single. Shampoo Victims, the Grand Popo album, came out here last week. Head and shoulders above the rest? Possibly.
GET OFF SCOTT-LEE
Endemic of the short-sighted and artistically bereft UK music industry is the debut solo effort from former Steps girl Lisa Scott-Lee. Pointless doesn’t even begin to describe this most dispiriting of ventures. Lately, Scott-Lee’s first single released this week, is the kind of Kylie-wannabe disco pap dished out over and over again since the Hotpanted one reclaimed her throne with Spinning Around some three years ago.
Boasting no imagination, guile or indeed any discernable melody, Lately showcases the very worst of today’s inspid chart music.
FUTURE SOUNDS
The best music on the horizon:
- DAVE GAHAN – PAPER MONSTERS: Hot on the heels of bandmate Martin L. Gore’s Counterfeit 2 comes the first-ever solo set from the Depeche Mode vocalist.
Paper Monsters (out on June 2nd), is preceded by a single Dirty Sticky Floors on May 26th.
- ANNIE LENNOX – BARE: Long-awaited return from the wilderness for onetime Eurythmics star Lennox is already attracting media attention through its typically striking sleeve.
Song titles such as The Hurting Time, Bitter Pill, Loneliness, The Saddest Song and Oh God suggest the edge has returned to Lennox’s muse after the bland debacle that was Eurythmics’ 1999 comeback album Peace.
Page Content copyright © Liam Carey, 2003.
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.