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The Human League “Reproduction”

sfilzen — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 17:32:51 +0000

The Human League “Reproduction” 1979. The debut record from the UK synth band on Virgin Records. This album predates their synthpop fame of the early 80’s and features the original lineup and is before the addition of “incidental singers” Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall (two teenagers dancers that lead vocalist/keyboard player/only consistent band member Philip Oakey found at a nightclub) and the departure of Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware who formed Heaven 17. Reproduction did not chart initially in ’79 but its re-release in ’81 (after the release of their much more successful ’81 LP Dare) went to #34 in the UK. Reproduction is very sterile sci-fi synthpop – in the vein of Gary Numan (their contemporary who upstaged them commercially at most turns in the late 70’s) – with some industrial elements. They released one single from the album, “Empire State Human.” The track did not chart initially but upon its re-release in ’80, it went to #62 in the UK. The only other track of note is their cover of “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” (The Righteous Brothers) and it’s really weird – they scraped all the soul from the original and replaced with sparse bleep-bloops and an early auto-tune voice. This record has been in our should it stay or go pile for quite awhile now. I do find it interesting to hear the evolution of what, to me, was an incredibly influential band in the synthpop scene, but it’s not good enough to justify keeping. It’s a go.

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The Human League “Travelogue”

sfilzen — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 18:17:05 +0000

The Human League “Travelogue” 1980. Post-punk, dark and plinky-plunk’d electronica. Not quite new wave or synthpop. Travelogue was The Human League’s second LP and the last to feature founding members Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware (former computer operators, both on vocals and synths) who left to form Heaven 17 in 1980. About a year ago I read the book Rip It Up and Start Again about the origins of the post punk movement and recall that Marsh and Ware were frustrated with Philip Oakley’s desire to take the band in a more pop-orientated direction, which of course he did rather spectacularly with the revamp of Human League and the release of the hit album Dare in ’81. Ironically Heaven 17 also went in a more synthpop direction, veering hard from their anarcho-leftist and synth-purist roots, and released new wave hits “Let Me Go” and “Temptation” in ’82 and ’83.

Travelogue is not pop: it is heavily Kraftwerk-influenced, very techy and, at times, ambient especially on the tracks “Dreams of Leaving” and “Toyota City.” The Human League released two singles from the album. The first was “Being Boiled” which was originally released as a single in ’78 and then re-recorded in ’80 and included both on their Holiday ’80 EP and Travelogue. Weirdly, it was the original ’78 version that charted in the UK Top 10 in ’82. It is the most pop-orientated of the not-really-synthpop record in that it’s actually kinda catchy (“Crow and a Baby” leans pop but it also leans weird). “Only After Dark” which is a cover of Mick Ronson‘s 1974 song that appears on Slaughter on 10th Avenue, was the only other single from the Travelogue but it ended up being just given away for free with a purchase of their reissued ’79 single “Empire State Human.”

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The Human League “Fascination!”

sfilzen — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 14:22:51 +0000

The Human League “Fascination!” 1983. EP. Today, March 22nd, is the birthday of singer Susanne Sulley (b. 1963). Sulley as well as bandmates Philip Oakey, Joanne Catherall and Jo Callis all are featured vocalists on the hit track which reached #2 in the UK and #8 in the US. The EP has two versions of “(Keep Feeling) Fascination,” an extended mix and an improvisation. The song is relentlessly catchy and I suspect I’ll have it as my ear worm for the entire day. The video is worth watching if you want to see what overdone 80′s makeup looked like (for both men and women).

“Mirror Man” is also on the EP. The Human League released it as a single in ‘82 in the UK and in ‘83 in the US. “Mirror Man” is unique to the Human League sound as it featured the first non-synthetic instruments in the band’s output up until that point. According to Allmusic, lyricist Oakey has stated that the target of the song’s lyrics was Adam Ant “whose quite public transformation from bonage-trousered punk to doomy post-punker to flamboyantly colorful new pop pirate seemed crassly desperate to some. In this context, the otherwise inscrutable chorus clearly puns off of the most tabloid-like of British newspapers, The Daily Mirror, as well as the American gossip magazine People, references that wouldn’t make sense if this were the more conventional love song some have mistaken it to be.”

You know I’ll change
If change is what you require
Your every wish
Your every dream, hope, desire

Here comes the mirror man
Says he’s a people fan
Here comes the mirror man

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