| Dreams That Money Can't Buy | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Holly Johnson | ||||
| Released | 1991 | |||
| Genre | Dance | |||
| Length | 40:06 | |||
| Label | MCA | |||
| Producer | Andy Richards, Dan Hartman | |||
| Holly Johnson chronology | ||||
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Dreams That Money Can't Buy is the second solo album by Holly Johnson. It was released in 1991 by MCA Records. Kirsty MacColl appeared on the track called "Boyfriend '65".[1] By the time of the release Johnson's relations with MCA collapsed over dissatisfaction with promotional budgets for the album. Johnson left MCA Records and the album was left un-released until later that year. This was the last studio album by Johnson until 1999 as he discovered he was HIV positive in November 1991.[2] The album failed to chart in the UK. The album was re-released in November 2009.[3]
Kirsty MacColl appeared on the track called "Boyfriend '65".[4] Johnson explained "I had wanted to do the song as a duet with her as far back as 1984, But Island Records and then MCA wouldn't allow it for some reason, so I asked her to do it when I finally got round to recording it properly".[5]
Johnson recently marked Penny Arcade and The Great Love Story as his favourite tracks from the album. Penny Arcade was one he would have liked as a single release. The title of the album was inspired by the surrealist film Dreams That Money Can't Buy.[6]
All tracks by Holly Johnson.
Select magazine gave the album two of five stars and wrote "Frankie Goes To Hollywood seems a long time ago when you listen to ‘Dreams That Money Can’t Buy’, and not always for the right reasons. Holly has scrupulously cleaned up his act since the messy demise of Frankie. ‘Blast!’, his first solo LP in 1989, was all muscular power pop in the then-fashionable House-free idiom. But it aged quicker than cheese on a radiator, and all the Andy Richards - sponsored hot House injections on ‘Dreams’ don’t dispel the fear of a similar fate. The same problem remains: Holly loves the maximum stomp of classic hi-NRG but he can’t always translate it adequately into ‘90s pop. When he can he’s on to a real winner, like on the opening single, ‘Across The Universe’, a self explanatory crazy acid whirl in space with much silliness and bucketfuls of Holly’s adorable camp naffness: “Astronauts in love!” he croons inimitably, as small aliens swoon and cheer from a passing asteroid.
But by the time you’re halfway through side one, the dense dancebeats and kitchen-sink arrangements (synth-brass, backing choirs, robo-percussion and unnameable noises by the hodful) will have you reaching for Ativan instead of Ecstasy. The only shade from Holly’s blinding disco lights comes in clunky ballads like ‘I Need Your Love’, and Holly the Lovelorn was never as much fun as Holly the Voracious Sex Puppy. Nor was Holly the Patron of the Arts. ‘Boyfriend ‘65’ was apparently birthed when Holly applied William Burroughs’ fold-in method to the Boyfriend Annual 1965, which doesn’t excuse such a pasty-faced love-tune but certainly gets a Brits nomination for Most Pretentious And ill-Advised Songwriting Device. Contrary to popular belief, Holly has a voice and a half and it seems crazy to swamp it like this. Put him in the studio with Frankie Knuckles next time and perhaps he’ll come to terms with the ‘90s as well as he did the ‘80s."[7]
One UK music magazine wrote "The title’s correct. Money can’t buy the dreams of a Bolan, Warhol and July Garland fixated scally who managed to escape the humdrum only through a gently wicked mixture of camp glamour, pervy promo-vids and orgasmic howls. Johnson’s exuberance and low humour made FGTH much more than Trevor Horn’s expensive executive toy. But as the engaging hedonist became a self-conscious aesthetic (with a growing art collection), the quirkiness was replaced by big but banal sounds, big but banal choruses and videos with plenty of big, bright colours. Poorly executed clichés, concepts and arty namechecks are de rigueur here. William Burroughs, Jacques Brel and Warhol are cited to the end only of a “love conquers all, be free to party but don’t get wasted on drugs” disco-blast. Occasionally this is effective, but it often lacks badly for the sleaze and titillation of ‘Relax’. Even the camp humour of ‘Across The Universe’ sounds hideously dated and forced. Sorry - but “astronauts in love” and Major Tom riding an atomic bomb? Do me a favour!"[8]
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