232) Human League - Dare

My partner and I do not agree on music for my love of The Fall, she goes Deacon Blue, for Liz Frazer for me she would go Whitney Houston and she is always choosing Rick Astley over Julian Cope.

However, we do both agree on our favourite Christmas number one, Human League Don’t You Want Me, even now over forty years later the video instantly comes to mind the second I hear it, Oakey thought it was the weakest track on the record he was wrong it was, and is, a classic.  

Martyn Ware and Ian Marsh had done a bunk to Heaven 17 and The Human League were down to Phil Oakey and Philip Adrian Wright. As well as bringing in some musicians to complete a tour Oakey had hired Joanne and Susan after watching them dance in a nightclub, surely, they were on a downward spiral?

No, they recorded the biggest selling album of their career and went to number one. Just because a record gets to number one doesn’t mean it’s any good, let’s not list the bad ones we would be here for days, but this is not one of them, it’s a magical record.

Of the ten tracks four were released as singles, usually by the fourth single its diminishing returns but the fourth was Don’t You Want Me, the quality of the other three singles should not be underestimated Open Your Heart (Oakey’s shout vocal fits perfectly), The Sound of the Crowd (this thing with Phil, Joanne and Susan is going to work) and Love Action (joyous pop)  

The album opens with The Things That Dreams Are Made Of the synth is a simple arrangement and Phil is deadpan from the start and Norman Wisdom and The Ramones get a name check, wonderful start.

Darkness clicks thirty seconds in, and Phil’s voice fits this eerie and atmospheric track perfectly. Do or Die starts with almost a samba beat before a non to subtle keyboard sweeps in and Joanne and Susan back Phil perfectly on the chorus, not one of the glorious singles but a top-notch album track. I Am The Law is futuristic and surely whoever made Robocop and Judge Dredd missed a trick not having this track on their soundtrack.

Seconds builds us nicely into the glorious end of Love Action and Don’t You Want Me.

I guess Phil knew exactly what he was doing.

9/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: Don’t You Want Me