Search - John Howard :: Technicolour Biography

Casting Shadows

K. H. Orton | New York, NY USA | 12/01/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Fans of John Howard's 1975 cult album, "Kid In A Big World", will not hesitate to pick this up. Except for the bonus tracks, every song here is accompanied by voice & piano alone. The end result is something far more darker & focused than "Kid". If "Kid" were the sound of hitting the big city all wide eyed & wet behind the ears, "Technicolour Biography" is all dashed hopes & broken promises. Or as Howard writes in the liner notes, the sound of "being overwhlemed by fame that seemed to be just around the corner".



The jaded,"Take Up Your Partners" opens the album & is sort of a black tie dinner party for the damned. The romantically doomed opera continues with the title cut, which Howard describes as a sort of more debauched "Goodbye Suzie 2" aimed at himself. If "Technicolour" were given the big production Howard obviously had in mind, alot of this may actually not have been as powerful. Hate to say it, but it's the stark sound of Howard's crumbling ambitions that makes this song & the entire album sound so moving.



"Blink In The Darkness" with it's "trees scratching the backdoor" is another standout, showcasing Howard's gift for Pop melody. The Gospel tinged,"Deal" continues in this melancholic vein. Here our lonely man at the piano agrees to wake up alone for the rest of his life "for one night of good good loving". The fine art of self-pity comes to a cynical fore with "Don't It Just Hurt". An anthem for a rainy day if I ever heard one. Now if you ever felt like, "Loneliness has never been a very faithful lover" or that "darkness has never been very much of a mother" then "Hall Of Mirrors" is the song for you.



All this is capped off at the end by a wonderfully lavish orchestral version of "Kid In a Big World". Not to mention, a single edit of "Goodbye Suzie". A song that deserved to have been a big a hit & is a classic in every sense of the word. Also included is the song Howard composed for the film "Open Season", which brings Scott Walker to mind. So if you found "Kid" a bit too naive, this one casts more than a few shadows around it. Glam Rock devotees of early Bowie & Elton John will certainly get more than a few spins out of this & I might add, fans of Rufus Wainwright. It's Howard's unique brand of dandyfied After Hours decadance---unplugged.





"