Cargo Records

Same Bed, Different Dreams

A year after John Howard's album As I Was Saying, which its reviewer on Plan B Magazine made his Album Of The Year, and of which Uncut Magazine's Chris Roberts' wrote '"He's a British Jimmy Webb", John is back with a new album, Same Bed, Different Dreams.

First released in France in the summer of 2006 - John's debut local French release - where it received rave reviews from Les Inrocks Magazine - "takes us back to a time when Elton John preferred writing to shopping" - and Magic Magazine - "This powerful and graceful come-back should find a strong echo among all the nostalgic admirers of soft rock and the fans of Ben Folds", these songs are more arch and observational than the highly personal set on As I Was Saying. From the opening cut, 'My Girl' By The Temptations we find Howard in story-in-song mode, with his piano taking precedence once more, as it did so successfully on 2004's Technicolour Biography, of which Max Bell said "way beyond fashion yet uncommonly chic". Occasionally we do find the personal songs, as on the Scott Walker-like 'Til Then or the epic Success, but with hard-hitting cuts like A Death In The Life of Gutter Bitch or Punchin' Judy John gives us his no-holds-barred view on some controversial subjects such as abuse in the home and suicide. There is also the light-hearted 'campery' which we have come to expect from John Howard, and on this album we are treated to the outrageously fruity The Builder From Heaven, a Beatles-esque waltz-time romp, which has become a firm 'live' favourite in recent months. David Peschek, in his five-star Guardian review of one of John's performances, wrote of Builder, "It's a cross between Flanders and Swann and Momus. No-one can quite believe their ears." Also featured is a great tribute to ill-fated American singer-songwriter Jobriath, Stardust Falling, with lyrics supplied by Robert Cochrane with whom John wrote his 2005 release The Dangerous Hours*. With Same Bed, Different Dreams, John keeps pushing back his own boundaries and exploring new themes, both musical and lyrical.