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Howard Jones - Cross That Line (1989)

Posted By: Designol

Date: 4 Jul 2025 21:18:27

After a three-year wait, this album was a bit of a disappointment. Musically, it is his best yet, but it lacked a certain energy that the others had. The songs seemed to replace vivacity with length. The album didn't do very well on the charts; the number 13 single (U.S.), "Everlasting Love," was the biggest hit. Ironically, the best song on this album, "Out of Thin Air," does not use a single synthesizer but instead is a solo piano piece performed by Jones himself. After all those years of electronic music, a song featuring a real instrument is a welcome relief.

Review by Iotis Erlewine, Allmusic.com

On his fourth album of what turned out to be a fruitful decade for him,he found himself several years from his previous release. 1989 turned out to be a crucial year for changes in music. Various embellishments not withstanding,the music world at this point was witnessing the official end of the pop revolution and the beginning of the what was essentially the modern music era. The age of superstars were no more. It was all about keeping it real. And most musics from this point would actually be either some variation of hip-hop or alternative rock. A lot of people would begin sacrificing songcraft and melody for "credibility". And since those were two qualities that defined Howard Jones he could've all too easily found himself in an artistic quagmire. The fact that several years had passed since One To One had come out,Howard knew for sure that the synth pop/new wave era was officially over by this time. The result of this awareness resulted in what sounds to be the most engaging and creatively potent of all his albums.

Beginning with "The Prisoner" was an excellent idea since it was the one song here that most resembled his previous synth pop/dance type material. His interests in jazz and funk,apparent a bit more heavily on his previous two albums are where he takes the rest of what's here. And it's amazing the combinations he comes up with. "Everlasting Love" and "Last Supper" again both wax philosophical on matters of love and life and both with upbeat,soulful grooves to match. The title song finds him grooving out on some pounding funk that actually gets very percussive at the bridge. "Powerhouse" finds him realizing the potential of a House type dance number,the sort of techno/DJ inspired dance music that became the standard after the demise of the synth pop/new wave sound. On the piano based instrumental "Out Of Thin Air",the long and rather abstract "Guardians Of The Breath","Fresh Air Waltz" and the closing,topical/cold war musing of "Those Who Move Clouds" he's moving towards a richly textured jazz/world fusion sounds full of exotic drum effects,fretless bass layering and unusual vocal harmonies.

Things would never quite be the same for Howard Jones after this album. Starting here,he just wasn't getting the type of hits he'd earned with his first three albums. And was gradually becoming less a pop artist than someone with a more self expressive bent. This happened to a lot of British new wave artists,especially people such as Thomas Dolby who as you'll see in my other Howard Jones reviews is one of the few people with whom I can give Howard the closest comparison. This is his swansong for the 80's too. And likely the best possible way to end the decade too. And it was more than just a creative juncture in this artists career. It represented the end of an era. Perhaps as another reviewer pointed out Howard Jones tended to end his albums with downbeat songs. But in a way it was appropriate here. Howard,the new wave artist who'd poetically encouraged creative freedom of expression in his lyrics throughout his career was about to be succeeded by artists who would demand the same thing very explicitly. And they like Howard did actually have the right idea. But "HoJo" succeeded aesthetically in one area where others later struggled. He realized that those who cannot hear an angry shout in music may strain to hear a whisper. And that kind of sums up this one record in a lot of ways too.

Review by Andre S. Grindle, Amazon.com

Howard Jones at Allmusic
Howard Jones at Wiki

Tracklist:

01. The Prisoner (04:39)
02. Everlasting Love (04:20)
03. Powerhouse (03:29)
04. Last Supper (05:24)
05. Cross That Line (04:45)
06. Out Of Thin Air (03:06)
07. Guardians Of The Breath (07:37)
08. Fresh Air Waltz (04:04)
09. Wanders To You (05:12)
10. Those Who Move Clouds (05:48)

EAC log

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 15. February 2016, 11:05

Howard Jones / Cross That Line

Used drive : ASUS DRW-20B1LT Adapter: 2 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 896 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=EAC FLAC -8" %source%

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 4:39.05 | 0 | 20929
2 | 4:39.05 | 4:20.05 | 20930 | 40434
3 | 8:59.10 | 3:29.47 | 40435 | 56156
4 | 12:28.57 | 5:24.08 | 56157 | 80464
5 | 17:52.65 | 4:45.57 | 80465 | 101896
6 | 22:38.47 | 3:06.73 | 101897 | 115919
7 | 25:45.45 | 7:37.55 | 115920 | 150249
8 | 33:23.25 | 4:04.52 | 150250 | 168601
9 | 37:28.02 | 5:12.68 | 168602 | 192069
10 | 42:40.70 | 5:48.17 | 192070 | 218186

Track 1

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Extraction speed 3.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 57881694
Copy CRC 57881694
Accurately ripped (confidence 19) [83624A5E] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename M:\EACrips\Howard Jones - Cross That Line\02 - Everlasting Love.wav

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Test CRC 028EAFB2
Copy CRC 028EAFB2
Accurately ripped (confidence 19) [819ACE7A] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename M:\EACrips\Howard Jones - Cross That Line\03 - Powerhouse.wav

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Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 28DC98CE
Copy CRC 28DC98CE
Accurately ripped (confidence 19) [EDD7F3A8] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename M:\EACrips\Howard Jones - Cross That Line\04 - Last Supper.wav

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Extraction speed 4.7 X
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Test CRC 7B53AAB0
Copy CRC 7B53AAB0
Accurately ripped (confidence 18) [0AEEE013] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename M:\EACrips\Howard Jones - Cross That Line\05 - Cross That Line.wav

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Accurately ripped (confidence 18) [B60B114A] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 6

Filename M:\EACrips\Howard Jones - Cross That Line\06 - Out Of Thin Air.wav

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Accurately ripped (confidence 18) [BFC7167B] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 7

Filename M:\EACrips\Howard Jones - Cross That Line\07 - Guardians Of The Breath.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 5.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 53DF1765
Copy CRC 53DF1765
Accurately ripped (confidence 18) [5FCAD006] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 8

Filename M:\EACrips\Howard Jones - Cross That Line\08 - Fresh Air Waltz.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:01.58

Peak level 97.8 %
Extraction speed 4.8 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 354E3E56
Copy CRC 354E3E56
Accurately ripped (confidence 18) [CBF55955] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 9

Filename M:\EACrips\Howard Jones - Cross That Line\09 - Wanders To You.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.20

Peak level 98.5 %
Extraction speed 6.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC B4335BAC
Copy CRC B4335BAC
Accurately ripped (confidence 18) [BF7FA9C6] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 10

Filename M:\EACrips\Howard Jones - Cross That Line\10 - Those Who Move Clouds.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:01.48

Peak level 98.0 %
Extraction speed 6.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 01A863D6
Copy CRC 01A863D6
Accurately ripped (confidence 19) [857BFB48] (AR v2)
Copy OK

All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

==== Log checksum E273B2DA035E8C39F0FEA0E10CC72ACAAEE6F5FF79DD44ADF37F421F397C6BB8 ====

DR log

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2016-11-05 15:24:52

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Howard Jones / Cross That Line
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR12 -0.52 dB -15.41 dB 4:39 01-The Prisoner
DR12 0.00 dB -15.11 dB 4:20 02-Everlasting Love
DR13 -0.15 dB -14.95 dB 3:30 03-Powerhouse
DR11 -2.15 dB -16.32 dB 5:24 04-Last Supper
DR15 -0.22 dB -17.10 dB 4:46 05-Cross That Line
DR14 -1.69 dB -20.59 dB 3:07 06-Out Of Thin Air
DR13 0.00 dB -16.85 dB 7:38 07-Guardians Of The Breath
DR13 -0.19 dB -15.29 dB 4:05 08-Fresh Air Waltz
DR13 -0.13 dB -14.76 dB 5:13 09-Wanders To You
DR11 -0.17 dB -15.46 dB 5:48 10-Those Who Move Clouds
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 10
Official DR value: DR13

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 854 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

All thanks to original releaser

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