Which albums do you enjoy listening to front to back?

[Deleted User] · February 2019

@u0421793 said:

@MonzoPro said:
Brick by brick:

Actually I’ve been listening to a lot of that era Human League (ie pre-Dare) and although it’s what I grew up on with great enthusiasm, I’m gradually coming round to the view that it’s not that good, a lot of Reproduction was essentially practice pieces, and overall there aren’t as many good songs as I thought. I think the split-up was the best thing to happen to them.

Blimey, ah well we'll have to agree to disagree on that one!

They were using pretty rudimentary kit for the first album and early singles - funnily enough that loose demo feel is what attracts me to their work now, and I can't stand the majority of their 80's, glistening disco pap, though I do like some of it - Sound of the Crowd, Love Action etc.

They were the inspiration for my first band - Reproduction came out at the same time, but one of the guys in the band had their earlier singles. We had three MS20's, an MS10 and a Boss Dr Rhythm. No sequencers, everything played live by hand, and recorded onto a reel to reel for backing tracks.

It sounded pretty much the same - so that early sound was very much defined by the kit available. Wobbly and loose. That's the sound that appeals to me now - similarly Fad Gadget, early Numan etc.

Love the first two albums, Almost Medieval probably one of my favourite tracks.

u0421793 · February 2019

@MonzoPro said:

@u0421793 said:

@MonzoPro said:
Brick by brick:

Actually I’ve been listening to a lot of that era Human League (ie pre-Dare) and although it’s what I grew up on with great enthusiasm, I’m gradually coming round to the view that it’s not that good, a lot of Reproduction was essentially practice pieces, and overall there aren’t as many good songs as I thought. I think the split-up was the best thing to happen to them.

Blimey, ah well we'll have to agree to disagree on that one!

They were using pretty rudimentary kit for the first album and early singles - funnily enough that loose demo feel is what attracts me to their work now, and I can't stand the majority of their 80's, glistening disco pap, though I do like some of it - Sound of the Crowd, Love Action etc.

They were the inspiration for my first band - Reproduction came out at the same time, but one of the guys in the band had their earlier singles. We had three MS20's, an MS10 and a Boss Dr Rhythm. No sequencers, everything played live by hand, and recorded onto a reel to reel for backing tracks.

It sounded pretty much the same - so that early sound was very much defined by the kit available. Wobbly and loose. That's the sound that appeals to me now - similarly Fad Gadget, early Numan etc.

Love the first two albums, Almost Medieval probably one of my favourite tracks.

I like to listen to those, but I don’t revere them the way I did, I see them as trying things out. I think the big unwritten influential force was probably Martyn Ware’s push to get product out of the door rather than fanny around twiddling forever. This force got exported to Heaven 17 and it showed in a big way. I suspect Martin Rushent filled that particular gap, being fairly pushy in his own way.

RockySmalls · February 2019

@u0421793 said:

@MonzoPro said:
Brick by brick:

Actually I’ve been listening to a lot of that era Human League (ie pre-Dare) and although it’s what I grew up on with great enthusiasm, I’m gradually coming round to the view that it’s not that good, a lot of Reproduction was essentially practice pieces, and overall there aren’t as many good songs as I thought. I think the split-up was the best thing to happen to them.

How pre-Dare you!!
nope, absolutely not.. Reproduction is one of those perfectly executed first albums like Devo’s, Pere Ubu’s, Wire’s, XTC’s etc etc..
Travelogue has some filler, like pointlessly re-doing Being Boiled, I’ll grant you that..
but Reproduction has given 40 years of good service and is still in rotation in the car now..
“feel the sound rushing over you”
QED

[Deleted User] · February 2019

@u0421793 said:

@MonzoPro said:

@u0421793 said:

@MonzoPro said:
Brick by brick:

Actually I’ve been listening to a lot of that era Human League (ie pre-Dare) and although it’s what I grew up on with great enthusiasm, I’m gradually coming round to the view that it’s not that good, a lot of Reproduction was essentially practice pieces, and overall there aren’t as many good songs as I thought. I think the split-up was the best thing to happen to them.

Blimey, ah well we'll have to agree to disagree on that one!

They were using pretty rudimentary kit for the first album and early singles - funnily enough that loose demo feel is what attracts me to their work now, and I can't stand the majority of their 80's, glistening disco pap, though I do like some of it - Sound of the Crowd, Love Action etc.

They were the inspiration for my first band - Reproduction came out at the same time, but one of the guys in the band had their earlier singles. We had three MS20's, an MS10 and a Boss Dr Rhythm. No sequencers, everything played live by hand, and recorded onto a reel to reel for backing tracks.

It sounded pretty much the same - so that early sound was very much defined by the kit available. Wobbly and loose. That's the sound that appeals to me now - similarly Fad Gadget, early Numan etc.

Love the first two albums, Almost Medieval probably one of my favourite tracks.

I like to listen to those, but I don’t revere them the way I did, I see them as trying things out. I think the big unwritten influential force was probably Martyn Ware’s push to get product out of the door rather than fanny around twiddling forever. This force got exported to Heaven 17 and it showed in a big way. I suspect Martin Rushent filled that particular gap, being fairly pushy in his own way.

Maybe, but still I prefer the raw sound he caught, that made them unique at the time, and attracted the attention of the people making music, as well as listening to it.

I remember the first time I saw them on TOTP’s - one dressed as a ted, another with a leather jacket...a geek...and then Phil wobbly hair Oakey at the front. Synths everywhere...wonderful.

I read an interview with PE around the time of Travelogue. He was talking about recording a ‘disco single’ with an offshoot band called The Men. He dismissed a lot of the early stuff as experimental rubbish, and said they could knock out an album in a few days, and call it ‘space fields’ or summat. But he wasn’t going to do that, he wanted to make pop records.

That stuck in my head, and I’ve endeavoured to create albums of experimental rubbish ever since. I’ve even called several of them Space Fields.