Dream into Action is the second studio album by British pop musician Howard Jones. It was released in March 1985 and reached No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart. The album also reached the top ten in the US. The album achieved a gold certification in the UK and platinum status in the US and Canada.
The album contains the hit singles "Things Can Only Get Better" (UK No. 6, US No. 5), "Look Mama" (UK No. 10) and "Life in One Day" (UK No. 14, US No. 19).[7][8] Additionally, the track "No One Is to Blame" was re-recorded in a new arrangement for single release, reaching No. 16 in the UK and No. 4 in the US in 1986;[7][8] this version was included on a later second European pressing of the album. The 1984 single "Like to Get to Know You Well" (UK No. 4) was included on the album's CD reissue (and is also on the US version of the vinyl album). A world tour accompanied the album's original release with Jones playing Wembley Arena and the O2 Academy Birmingham in the UK, and arena-size venues in the US, Europe and Japan. In 2010, a remastered edition of the album was issued alongside Jones' debut album Human's Lib.
In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine observed that in contrast to the "sleekly electronic" Human's Lib, Dream into Action "is a big, bright album that epitomizes the sound of the mainstream in the mid-'80s, a time when computers worked overtime to disguise themselves as human sounds". He concluded that it "is, in many ways, the apotheosis of Howard Jones' career: he'd yet to drift into softened adult contemporary, and he still had enthusiasm for his hooks, his machines, and his positivity, the very things that distinguished him from the legions of synth poppers in the mid-'80s."[9] Paul Scott-Bates of Louder Than War found Dream into Action more "chart oriented" than its predecessor, while noting that throughout the album, Jones "expressed his views and concerns... with compassion" and "upped the pace with as eclectic and wild compositions."[2]
In May 2024, Cherry Red Records released new Special Edition versions of both "Dream Into Action" and the debut album, "Human's Lib" as CD + Blu-ray packages. The releases feature new mixes of the albums by Stephen W Tayler. The Blu-ray contains both 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio and 96/24 LPCM stereo versions by Tayler, plus Dolby Atmos versions of "Things Can Only Get Better" and "Like to Get to Know You Well" mixed by Bob Clearmountain.
Personnel
Howard Jones – vocals, instruments, programming
The TKO Horns (Dave Pleurs, Alan Whetton, Jim Patterson, Brian Maurice) – horns (1)
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