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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
"BTO....Bachman,Turner,Overweight
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..." - Me 2014.
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I know this stuff doesn't go down well on here, but this is a great 3-CD set of trippy dance tunes.
Sounds fabulous.
Toes were tapped...
"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture"
Unknown
Posts: 17
Threads: 5
Joined: Oct 2010
Listening to Tripzone, Robert Babicz & Armin van Buuren 
great for all moods
Posts: 5,551
Threads: 146
Joined: Jan 2008
![[Image: 4.jpg]](http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/entertainment_mercury_prize_nominees_2003/img/4.jpg)
Chilled Trip-Hop with occasional Jazzy overtones, lots of acoustic guitars, and only "found" vocals.
Lovely, relaxing album...
AllMusic 4/5 stars.
"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture"
Unknown
Posts: 4
Threads: 1
Joined: Mar 2011
Listening to classic Human League, and new music by Mooli, having recently discovered them. Loving ' Here with me' from the Black Spring Ep, and Gliders from the same Ep.
Posts: 4
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Joined: Mar 2011
CRAZY-HORSE Wrote:
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
I absolutely love this album. A real classic, and one of the best 80's albums if not of all time. Production is amazing, sounds used, voices, songs, its got the lot.
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^ It's a good album. For some reason I opted for a Human League compilation rather than buy Dare, so I don't have the album currently.
I also liked the Love & Dancing remix album, which now comes packaged with the original. Purchase coming up...
"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture"
Unknown
Posts: 33,492
Threads: 3,353
Joined: Jul 2010
yes Tiggi it is very good, well worth getting on cd, whereas some synthesised music from that era sounds sparse and hollow, Dare actually seems to benefit on cd....im pretty sure it would be at a low priced/budget price nowadays.
"BTO....Bachman,Turner,Overweight
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..." - Me 2014.
Posts: 33,492
Threads: 3,353
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ULTRAVOX "vienna" 1981, cassette. #3 UK, #4 Aust, #164 US.
ok, i get it....there are instruments on this album but Ultravox were known as an electronic band!!
to me, Midge Ure had two claims to fame, firstly, the classic 80's pop song "vienna"(on this album), and being the co-organiser of Live-Aid and the Band-Aid single with Bob Geldof...Bob was the same with "i dont like mondays" and the Live-Aid thingy.
oh man, i hate this album, i cringed when i pulled it out today to play, but gave it the benefit of time to adjust my thinking, a difficult thing to do when you think you dislike it upon picking it up....oh well, here goes.
for the most part the music sounds flat,contrived and forced, like a lot of the synthesised music from the 1980's, the above human league album "dare" seems to be the exception to that rule IMO.
here, there's nine tracks, five i dislike, three i like a lot and one which is a masterpiece of 1980's pop, this is apparently, according to reviews, the best Ultravox album, i wouldnt know as i didnt buy anymore after this one, just the double album of singles they released in the late 1980's, if this album was anything to go by, Midge and Co. were a singles band rather than an albums band as the only decent songs here were issued as singles.
sorry if you are an Ultravox fan but this album sucks, big time!
I DO NOT LIKE THIS ALBUM
worst track: about five of them!
best track: vienna
tracks:
1. astradyne*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5-YeyOZmXo audio
2. new europeans*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbRTRf-oQ...re=related audio
3. private lives*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFvLKwJPfhM audio
4. passing strangers** #57 UK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEaGfAk0Ubw live
5. sleepwalk** #29
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kA932_lLPw video
6. mr.x*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BmKol5h44g audio
7. western promise*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlPrBTxDbvA audio
8. vienna*** #2 UK, #11 Aust.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9WdUgn0XkU video
9. all stood still**
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW9ImnTL2jk video
3s=1
2s=3
1s=5
rating 1.6
"BTO....Bachman,Turner,Overweight
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..." - Me 2014.
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