Put The Needle On The Record Week #53 Howard Jones - Human's Lib
For this weeks feature we go back to March 1984 and the Howard Jones album "Human's Lib".
This was the debut album released by Howard Jones and received a fair few bad reviews, which is harsh when you look at the quality of some of the songs on the album, such as, "New Song", "What Is Love?", Hide And Seek", "Don't Always Look At The Rain" and "Natural", for me I can't decide if this album is his best or "Dream Into Action".
This was another purchase from the small HMV on Market street in Manchester back in 1984, I bought the album on the strength of the first 3 singles released from it. I never liked the artwork for the album.
The list of instruments used on this album make for interesting reading, Roland Jupiter 8, Roland Juno 60, Yamaha DX7, Roland TR-808 Drum Machine are the standout hardware used on the album.
Four singles were released off the album, "New Song", (which reached number 3 in the UK Singles chart, it also reached number 27 on the American Billboard Hot 100), "What Is Love?" (which reached number 2 in the UK Singles chart and also did well on the American Billboard Hot 100, reaching number 33), "Hide And Seek", my favourite track off the album (which reached number 12 in the UK singles chart) and "Pearl In The Shell" (which reached number 7 in the UK singles chart).
The album reached number 1 in the UK album chart
Track Listing
Conditioning
What Is Love?
Pearl In The Shell
Hide And Seek
Hunt The Self
New Song
Don't Always Look At The Rain
Equality
Natural
Human's Lib
If you have this album in your collection, dig it out and give it a spin!
