Pop Music - The Human League Part II

The follow-up to my Ultraleague compilation I think I'll call Superleague. It has a slightly different flavour - these songs begin to delve into the more unusual faces the Human League have shown us over the years, whilst maintaining the sock-it-to-you punch of their absolute best.

1995's Octopus album features heavily. It's first and third singles (Tell Me When and Filling Up With Heaven) are on Ultraleague but many of the astonishing album tracks are on this one. The middle single, One Man in My Heart, is a strange case. It's quite a strong simple song, but hampered I think by an underdone production. It really comes into its own on one of the CD singles in the TOEC Nasty Sue Mix - every now and then the League can be criticised in this way - a wish for too much simplicity and not quite enough growl. 'Let that dark bass, or richer riff, curl its way into the mix Phil, Jo and Sue,' one feels like entreating, 'and you'll have another Dare! on your hands.'

Then again, there are some really fun examples of that simplicity winning out. The Orbisonesque Let's Get Together Again from 1990's Romantic? is a classic case. (Apparently it's a Glitter Band cover - never heard the original.) Pretty roundly reviled as far as I can see, but I can't help liking it. (If only their grotesque adventure into America, 1986's Crash, had sounded like this!) It sounds like it ought to have come from a late 80s teen film soundtrack, but as far as I can tell it never appeared on one. I like Phil as Roy - and it's a good enough song that its simple elements are enough to fill its own odd airwave completely.

Two others of these songs are unfairly extensively despised. The buzzy instrumental from Octopus called John Cleese; Is He Funny? is a fine little humming wire of a track, and the second single from the almost forgotten Romantic? called Soundtrack to a Generation is one of those strange ones that first strike you as quite dismissable and silly. Then its peculiar powers start to drag chemicals into your brainstream that no other song can, and before you know it you're addicted. Another song that comes into its ultimate state in the producer William Orbit's lovely long mix from the CD single: 'o,o,o,o,o,o,o,oh, WOW!' over a rumbling Bass-o-Matic bassline.

This compilation also sees the first emergence of a song from the first album, Reproduction, from 1979. The glorious Morale...You've Lost That Loving Feeling is another hidden gem of an excursion into classic cover territory. This set also includes a richly tonal rolling elegy from Romantic? called Rebound - apparently a firm favourite of Vic Reeves'. Nice to know he gets it, and glad to join him....

There are, of course, many other eligible League tracks and this compiling could go on and on. But I think these two are more than a sufficient statement of absolute excellence in the pop medium. In our modern Cowellised musical slipstream, The Human League at their best are a vital message from the old school.....and such a welcome one.

SUPERLEAGUE

1. Cruel Young Lover
2. Fascination
3. Housefull of Nothing
4. I'm Coming Back
5. John Cleese; Is He Funny?
6. Let's Get Together Again
7. Marianne
8. Morale...You've Lost That Loving Feeling
9. Never Again
10. Rebound
11. Reflections
12. Seconds
13. Soundtrack to a Generation
14. These are the Days
15. WXJL Tonight

Here's hoping the new recording sessions for Wall of Sound will produce some fantastic results, and form a typically storming reminder of what pop's all about........