Great Songs from My Favorite Year in Music: 1985, Part 17

Howard Jones - "Things Can Only Get Better" & "No One is to Blame"





(Album Release: March 1985)
Howard Jones' Dream Into Action was a consistent go-to album in my life, through most of 1985. His radio-friendly synthpop was easily accessible and spoke of universal themes. There were elements of Howard Jones' repertoire that particularly spoke to adolescence. As a fourteen-year-old, I found solace in that. "Things Can Only Get Better," for instance, the first single from the album, was a bouncy and reassuring voice that spoke to the teenage angst within me. It was a more hip and palatable "Don't Worry, Be Happy" or "Break My Stride." "Look Mama," the second single, was very much a teenage plea of independence. "Like to Get to Know You Well" was a very innocent and simple love song that was part of a very large mixtape that was the soundtrack to all of my 7th and 8th grade crushes. However, most of those crushes being unrequited, I would gravitate more toward the ballad, "No One is to Blame." The song is a long string of metaphors for not being able to express one's love. Being painfully shy (and as St. Morrissey would remind us, "Shyness is nice and shyness can stop you from doing all the things in life you'd like to"), it was always difficult for me to approach girls. That may be why most of the girlfriends I've had have been outgoing or the aggressors. More than anything, Howard Jones' songs were reminders that I was not alone, and not just that he had gone through the same things, but by extension, he is singing to literally thousands of young people who could relate. I think if there is an artist from 1985 who is criminally underrated, it has to be Howard Jones.