Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Human League - Fascination! (30th anniversary)

This month marks the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Fascination!, a six song EP from the British synth-pop band the Human League.

Click here for my full review.

1 comment:

HERC said...

For me, the definitive Human League album will always be Dare. It remains a solid listen from start to finish even after more than 30 years.

While visiting my Texas Grandma in the summer of 1982, "Don't You Want Me" dominated the Houston airwaves along with the Gap Band's "You Dropped A Bomb On Me". One day at the mall, I found the Love and Dancing EP by the League Unlimited Orchestra and begged her to buy it for me and she did. Spent rest of visit spinning it on her huge console record player. The remix of "Don't You Want Me" that closed out side one was played over and over. I have bought three different CD versions of Dare album: one with just the album itself, one with Love and Dancing tagged on and one from 2012 that has a second disc featuring most of the tracks from Fascination!.

My college roommate like you, Martin, loved the follow-up to that one: Fascination!. He would listen to it for days on end. I enjoyed the sixties throwback vocal vibe but the synth horns have always rubbed me the wrong way. It was weird because similar synth horns on tracks by ABC and Howard Jones were appealing. I have mellowed with age and now include the album on my iPod, though, but don't even get me started on Hysteria - it was proof that Dare producer Martin Rushent was essential to the group's success and when he left the project, Human League lost a crucial element of their sound. Of course they came back with a different sound under the guidance of Jam & Lewis a few years later but that's another story for another time...