Dare/Love and Dancing
Human League
(Virgin)
Reported Tuesday, February 25 2003
Courtesy of Jonty_Adderley @ www.skrufff.com
"People are talking about us again and all we ever get is requests for clearing up samples and cover versions. We are, in a strange way, trendy again, which is quite handy but totally down to coincidence."
When Human League mainman Phil Oakey spoke to Skrufff in spring last year, his band were just about returning to fashionability after years of dominating weddings, bar mitvahs and mobile discos. And while they went on to headline School Disco's outdoor megarave on Clapham Common several months later, the band's music also began popping up on ultra-cool compilations and in avant-garde clubs of the kind that hadn't existed since their original golden era of the early 80s.
And the reason for their continuing near universal popularity remains of course their music, a truly fantastic blend of synthesizer melodies mixed with witty, universal lyrics of life and love, delivered so superbly that they've stood the test of time for over 20 years.
And the band's finest moment remains unquestionably Dare, the multi-million selling album that saw the girls Joanne Catherall and Susanne Sulley making their debut, to deliver Love Action, Open Your Heart, Love Action and Don't You Want Me. Catapulting the Sheffield New Romantics to worldwide fame, the record's enormous success somewhat obscured it's sheer ground-breaking originality, though two decades on the entire album remains a master-class in how to make serious, yet not serious electronic pop.
Always more substantial than their pop image suggested, Human League also took the then ground-breaking step of releasing Love and Dancing, a co-album of largely instrumental versions of Dare's tracks and it's tracks from this add-on record that have really been lighting up electroclash clubs. Even ultra-pretentious jock Trevor Jackson selected Do Or Die for his K7 DJ mix CD last year, an ummistakable sign that London's self-consciously trendy elite had firmly taken the band back on board.
Perhaps the only chink in Human League's revival arm came with a horrifically naff TV advert, which featured a sad casual talking the words of Don't You Want Me? to his equally desperate girlfriend. For Phil Oakey, it presented a similarly squeamish moment.
"We actually begged them not to do it, with no success at all," he said.
"You see, though, I cannot sit here and ponder on the credibility of a song I wrote 22 years ago."
Dare and 'Love and Dancing', whether credible or not, are both fantastic albums that every electro fan should own. Both remain the (musical) things that dreams are made of.
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