List | H | Howard Jones | 'Cross That Line' CD 1989

Track:	Name:	Time:
1.	The Prisoner	4:39
2.	Everlasting Love	4:20
3.	Powerhouse	3:29
4.	Last Supper	5:24
5.	Cross That Line	4:45
6.	Out Of Thin Air	3:06
7.	Guardians Of The Breath	7:37
8.	Fresh Air Waltz	4:04
9.	Wanders To You	5:12
10.	Those Who Move Clouds	5:48
	Total	48:24

Comments:

This is less synthetic sounding than Dream Into Action and even One To One; more pre-sample-based machines giving more-but-not-quite-naturally sounding instruments, like those breathy near-vocals that was quite popular in Yamaha machines in the late 80:s. One could almost assume Jones was sponsored by Yamaha, since his albums tend to reflect the most modern Yamaha equipment at the time.

Musically, there are a few typical HoJo pop songs as well as his own style of ballads, but also some more jazzy tunes with quite a bit of brass. There's also a fairly embarrassing attempt at making 'modern dance music' with some help from the hippest dance producer of the day, Danny D of D-Mob. If you skip that track (and don't mind a light touch of jazz) this is most definitely a well-crafted pop album, more mature than before and with somewhat diverse styles of music. It does sound quite a bit like typical late '80:s though, like Adolphson & Falk's album Indigo. Apart from the most obvious pop songs, the two first tracks, I particularly like the jazzy 'Wanders To You', a song about dreams and when fantasy meets reality.

Home