Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
In a world without much clear-sighted optimism, to find a musician exalting, even with a pinch of notable British reserve, the sense of bravery and enthusiasm it takes to come back out of the audience perceived, or even self-imposed, musical shadows, is to find a place where the soul can be unburdened, where the sound of the scoundrel driven words of personal tediousness Ho Hum, can become a sense of enjoyable perspective, that a reminder of the past can move forward and tickle the fancy of memory in the future.
Pop history is such that many younger fans will not remember when the superb Human League were anything more than Philip Oakey, Susan Ann Sully and Joanne Catherall, such is the trick of memorial that in many ways Ian Craig Marsh and Martin Ware will be saluted for their contribution from the older and more established fans, yet in between those eras stood the building blocks of international success in which Philip Adrian Wright, Jo Callis and Ian Burden applied a sense of purpose that stands as the band’s arguably most productive and creative phase in a short burst of time but one that would be like a volcano, immense, all consuming, but eventually becoming dormant.
It is perhaps the dormant but still epic living in which the co-writer of many of the Human League’s hits and much-loved songs during that period, Ian Burden found the solace to deal with the retrospective, and in his first album and contribution to music in many years, Ian Burden has once again come out of those shadows and placed his life under the music driven microscope again in the recording of songs which make up the intense and distinctively enjoyable Hey Hey Ho Hum.
It is only in the album’s opening track of In Those Dreams that the past is looked up, whether fondly or indifference depends on the listener’s standpoint and take on history, what follows is a cascade of synth driven pastures, some of which were written in different times, but of which all resonate and give meaning to today’s society; if we are doomed to relive the past by not learning the lessons, then Ian Burden has taken great strides to distance himself from that period and come right up to date.
In tracks such as Let The Devil Drown, Stand Down, Big Big World, Stay In Tune and Hanging Around, Ian Burden unravels the cynicism of days gone and sees the future as something to hold on to dearly, to find pleasure in appearing at the mouth of the tunnel and being seen, being heard.
A memory of what was, resurfaced, like Odysseus in search of his wife Penelope, of slaying the mythical and the metaphorical, and returning with honour, Ian Burden is always above the Ho Hum, this is Hey Hey, this is prescribed music thinking.
Ian Burden releases Hey Hey Ho Hum on May 25th
Ian D. Hall