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.