Get the "Best Of" disc instead

The good thing about this disc is that it contains Howard Jones' music.

The bad things about this disc are:

1. Too few tracks for the money. The "best of" cd which was released when Howard left WEA several years ago contains much more music and only costs a few more dollars.

2. Rhino used the album version of "No One Is To Blame," not the hit single version. Perhaps this will corrected on future copies.

3. The remastering probably helps when compared with the U.S. editions of the original albums, but the UK/EU imports always bested the U.S. pressings anyway. At any rate, the "Best Of" cd sounded pretty good, even on the U.S. pressing; this new compilation doesn't change much except for more emphasis in the bass region. The only other benefit regarding buying a Rhino disc with "Things Can Only Get Better" is that it has a slightly longer fade (only a few seconds) which matches the original U.S. 45rpm single.

4. It's strange that the disc includes "All I Want," which only reached #76 on the US pop charts, but leaves off "Lift Me Up," Howard's last US Top 40 hit.

My biggest disappointment is that there is nothing new here -- not even rare photos. What would have really made this disc a treasure would have been to use the original 12" single mixes, since most of them have never appeared on cd in their full form. (The non-US '12" album' was issued on cd, but that compilation has some crossfades and different edits.)

Get the official Best Of instead

Howard Jones. Though a synth-pop superstar in the eighties, he has been forgotten by many in the modern age, due to the shifting of the music industry. Fortunately, with the release of this compilation, his work won't have to go forgotten much longer. Read on for my review of Howard Jones - The Essentials.

PROS:
If you want the Howard Jones hits you'll hear on your local eighties station, you've come to the right place. Things Can Only Get Better, No One Is To Blame, What Is Love?, and Everlasting Love are all here. Plus, you get one of Jones' underrated masterpieces - Like To Get To Know You Well, as featured in the 1985 film Better Off Dead. The other tracks are excellent too; there are very few fillers.

CONS:
For the amount of tracks you get on here, it just isn't a very good value. The offical Best Of has several more. Likewise, at least one song on here is the album version, and not the hit single version. And some big hits were omitted in favor of songs that were never very big hits!

OVERALL:
Do you like Howard Jones? Get his offical Best Of disc instead, it's WAY better.

Great Songs But DON'T BUY THIS CD!!!

This is an excellent CD with most of Howard's biggest hits. However, I would highly recommend that you purchase his other greatest hits CD, released a few years earlier. It has a few more average songs and a few more excellent songs, such as Hide and Seek, that are missing from this release. You will be glad that you did not sacrifice a few songs for a few dollars.