Greatest Hits

by

The Human League

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Strangely enough, The Human League actually has four completely different "Greatest Hits" compilations. The first was "Human League Greatest Hits" released in 1988 with 12 tracks. The second was "The Human League Greatest Hits" released in 1995 with 16 tracks. The third was "The Best Of The Human League" released in 1997 with 16 totally different tracks, and finally there's "The Very Best of The Human League" (hmm...yet another original title) released in 1998 with 13 tracks. What's even stranger, for Human League fans anyway, is that the song "The Things That Dreams Are Made Of" does not appear on any of these albums. So in addition to one of these compilations, you will still need to buy the League's signature album, "Dare!" to get this song, which IS one of their best songs ever.

Besides "Don't You Want Me", "(Keep Feeling) Fascination", "Mirror Man", "Human" and "Tell Me When", the other songs will probably not be so familiar with people in the United States because they were actually U.K top ten hits. The song "Being Boiled" which appears on three of the "Greatest" albums is the only disappointment simply because it is not the revamped techno-punk version that appears on the "Travelogue" album, but rather the original (and very bland) version that was recorded in 1978 on the Fast Product independent label. Otherwise, this really is a chock full of goodies from The Human League, the undisputed pioneers of synth pop.

What a mixed bag after a few listens this album became. The Human League is a great new wave group that had a few really important records throughout the eighties and nineties. Not enough though to make this monstrous hits set. Let's get into the songs you most certainly know.

There is the defining track of new wave and eighties that is "Don't You Want Me". A scenario of a man makes a star and her going it on her own. And she leaves him? The engaging dialogue really captures you and the techno savvy mix of keyboards is just legendary and catchy. "Keep Feeling Fascination" is a cute upbeat keyboard number with a touch of ska feel but without the horns. The things this group did with keyboards, I'll tell ya. "Human" is a sensitive love song and is a continue in the direction of new wave brilliance but this time R&B masters Jim Jam and Terry Lewis take a crack at the group. The production is a simple blend of drum machines and light touches of ivory. A classic of the big hair era and their second number 1 ("Don't You Want Me" being their first). Their next well known hit on here might be kind of obscure, but if you had an eye on MTV and VH1 for about a month or so in 1995 you got a listen to this clubby record with a retro feel. "Tell Me When" is very much like "Don't You Want Me" but the sound is updated for a Europe dance effort that is very catchy, but I don't know that it was a huge chart topper here.

You might know and be fond of those four songs like I was and still am, but looked at the rest of the set and wondered "This Could Be Good". Well the truth is revealed in this set that The Human League really isn't that pop of a band, but more of an out their New Wave experiment that worked a few times. The rest of the songs are for the most part dark sounding accounts of love. "Mirror Man" is Motown like trip to "The Church Of a Poison Mind" (although this came first). No one asked for this, did they? Trippy desire comes off as scary in "Open Your Heart" and "Love Is All That Matters". These early efforts along with "The Sound Of The Crowd" are just plain dated and horrible. "The Lebanon" gets so much talk here that you think it was a great political song, but it's so dry and pop rocky that it feels stale.

The non big hits aren't so bad, but a required taste that you don't expect on here. The fun pop hits on here, though, are quite essential and very danceable. For those hits, you might want to get this set, but the aging eighties synth arrangements drag the album down. Also, I know it odd that I have the import, but I found it on a trip and just had to get something musically different from the UK. Maybe next time I should go for something modern.