What Are You Listening To?

[CRAZY-HORSE]

THE HUMAN LEAGUE "dare" 1981. vinyl/cd #1UK, #3Aust, #3US

Georgio Moroder,Kraftwork,Bowie and Gary Numan amongst others had been paving the way for The Human League for a while, and they reaped the rewards for the former artists hard work and critical slagging, i guess the difference is, is that The League made their music less cold and mechanical than the others and more commercially mainstream.
thats not a criticism of the other names above, moreso an observation and of progression of electronic music in general.
the subtle barritone of Phillip Oakey and the sweet backing vocals of their two female singers all added to the accessability of their songs along with well written pop songs with catchy tunes.
i didnt buy the vinyl of this one until about a year after it was released and a friend at school played me "the things that dreams are made of" which blew me sideways, to this day it is still my favourite track The Human League ever recorded and one of my favourite songs from the 1980s, the only dud track here is the instrumental "get carter" which was inspired by the Michael Caine film of the same name, another song here, "i am the law" was inspired by the comic strip "judge dread", which later became a Stallone film. "seconds" was inspired by the assassination of JFK. "darkness" a song about depression and dispair.
another four tracks were massive UK hits for the band, they never achieved this level of fame and sales prior to or since this album.
overall, this is one of "the albums of the '80s".
Music Head would doubts he would give this as high a rating as i have, but this is me, its part of the era i grew up in and has a lot of memories attached to it, maybe that has influenced my score slightly, but thats your call to decide.

worst track: get carter
best track: the things that dreams are made of

tracks:

1. the things that dreams are made of***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1SS7owyLbw audio
2. open your heart** #6UK, #33Aust
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B60ZfTWk51I video
3. the sound of the crowd*** #10UK, #27US dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ECu-JzaVLY video
4. darkness**
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYVb8K2VmRw audio
5. do or die**
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq9VGgxyUH8 live
6. get carter*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqu_hmDdMYk audio
7. i am the law*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP_pU-PWd...re=related audio
8. seconds***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrYttRcaomE audio
9. love action(i believe in love)** #3UK, #12Aust, #57US dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMTPLGqcs9I video
10.dont you want me*** #1UK, #4Aust, #1US
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpbOkyuyADU video

3s=4
2s=4
1s=2

rating 2.2