#262
July 26 1983
Howard Devoto
Jerky Versions of the Dream
2.5 out of 5
The dream-synth-dance pop revolution continues. In this case the musicianship is stellar as is the production but Howard Devoto has the singing ability of Howard the Duck. He doesn’t sound like a duck. He sounds like…like…Oh! It’s like when Jim Steinman lost Meat Loaf to vocal nodes and sang his songs on his own album. He knows where the notes are but he struggles to find them. Or they are actively running away from him.
This worked for me on Magazine’s albums but there is a lushness that these songs are requiring that he isn’t up to. Imagine these sung by, say, John Foxx or even Simon leBon. They might be excellent. We’ll never know cuz Devoto is the star here.
I really like the music (“Cold Imagination” & “Topless” are standouts on side one) and the effort, but Devoto is his own worst enemy, which drags down the rating. But Side Two has “Waiting for a Train” and that is so abhorrently awful that I want to poke my eardrums. I believe my AirPods tried to pop out on their own.
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