Review Revue: The Human League - Fascination!

I love it when I stumble across an album that got regular play in my house growing up in the KEXP stacks  - especially when the super-cool college DJs of yore actually thought it was pretty good! I'm certain that by the time my parents were buying records by The Human League they were getting plenty of airplay on commercial radio - and in fact this stop-gap EP of remixes and b-sides probably wouldn't have been pushed out by Virgin Records if they weren't already quite popular - but it's nice to see the KCMU gang assessing it on its merits, rather than slapping white dots on it and talking smack about the other radio stations you might hear these songs on. Of course it is 1983 at a college radio station, so you will come across phrases like "good . . . for a synth-pop record."

The Human League is one of those rare bands that I cover in this series that still exists! Our European/UK readers can catch them on tour this fall. Here's hoping they find their way back to the States sometime soon.

"They're back, and you didn't even know they had left... a couple of remixes/repeats, a couple of new trax. Probably one of my fave synth-pop bands... there's just something... 1-1 has some 'fascinating' in & out of tune synths. 1-2 - nice choral sound, big vocals. 2-3 - and interesting club instrumental version w/those same weird synths. (Too long)"

"Philip Oakey is lovely."

"Great stuff - brutal ending on 2-3."

"'I Love You Too Much' - nice DOR, but sounds like 'Don't You Want me' too much (maybe)."

"Good tunes for a synth-pop record."

"2/3 of stuff is B-side material."

"Try the song 'Being Boiled' on the Machines compilation. It outshines anything on this record or on Dare."[Hey, it's "I liked their earlier/more obscure stuff better" guy! I was wondering where he might be.]