John Howard is no stranger to collaboration.
Around a decade ago he teamed up with Robert Rotifer, Ian Button and Andy Lewis, for his excellent Night Mail project.
And in 2005 he linked up with Robert Cochrane for his album Dangerous Hours.
Fast forward 20 years and he’s once again linked up with Cochrane on For Those That Wander By, which is scheduled for a February 14 release, a special day for love and one that coincides with the same day 50 years ago his first album Kid in a Big World was released.
The opening track Losing Myself in Others is among many standouts, mainly just Howard and piano and some fine lyrics from Cochrane. It really comes alive with the Beach Boys meets McCartney flourish in the middle segment.
Howard, who took a long break from recording after the 1970s to return to singing in the noughties, tells us that the aim of the album is to present musical short stories that is “sophisticated pop for people who read poetry at breakfast”
The intriguingly titled Dead At The Scene could also be for those who read Agatha Christie with their cornflakes perhaps?
The Man Who Was America takes the tempo and production up a notch as it presents what could be a missing track from the mid-1970s. This is my favourite. The title alone certainly captures the zeitgeist given the political change in the US this year.
Another high point is the also interestingly titled No Glitter in Revenge. Its another up tempo, straight out of the mid-1970s, pop number on another fine collection from the evergreen Howard.
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