FACE OFF: the human league vs depeche mode

Depeche Mode will win this one in a walk, they're basically the Beatles for 80s kids. That said, they always sucked.

it's depeche mode, come on man

It was The Smiths in the UK

mid DM (up to 'Ultra') > late DM > early HL (with Martyn Ware) > early DM (with Vince Clarke) > late HL ('Human' onwards)

If you randomly scrabbled that sequence it's possible I might agree with you

human league obviously

Yay!

Depeche Mode will win this one in a walk, they're basically the Beatles for 80s kids.

It's the other way round for me, I loved the Human League as a kid (and still do) but didn't really listen to DM that much.

Depeche Mode. This isn't even a fucking contest, man. Sure, The Human League were around first and I love their first three albums a great deal, but c'mon...

This poll would have made more sense if it were The Human League vs. OMD ...

The Human League. aero OTM, depeche mode suck.

I disagree strongly with Jupiter 8

hang on, I got that slightly wrong, and missed out mid period HL, what I meant was...

mid DM (up to 'Ultra') > early HL (with Martyn Ware) > early DM (with Vince Clarke) > mid HL ('Dare' etc.) > late DM > late HL ('Human' onwards)

No no no that will never do

HL (before human)>HL (human onwards)>DM

I'd just simplify it to Depeche Mode > The Human League, personally.

Human League recorded some utterly unimpeachable records, Dare is as clean and monumental still as its cover design, and the crazy moment of chance that led to Oakey getting Sulley and Catherall into the act and transmogrifying everything that followed is one of the Great Pop Flukes, period.

But yeah Depeche and nobody here is surprised I'm saying that, least of all aerosmith.

That can be expressed as DM<HL

this poll is silly

I know for some that statement is a tautology

All polls are silly really. It is just for fun. Nobody has to take part :)

I like this poll because it gives me an opportunity to hate on Depeche Mode a little. fuck you Depeche Mode. get the balance right more like get the balance wrong, haaaaa ya burnt, come and get me martin gore

The League by light years

lol way to go after a noted sacred cow single, aero

that's like going after Madonna by noting how much "Hollywood" and "American Pie" suck

djp that was just a dumb joke I actually like that song. if I were going in on a depeche mode song it would be all the other ones, here is my reasoned critique of them, they smell like poop and are bad

ITS 1983 OKAY
GOT A WAR ACROSS THE USA

anyway Martin Gore isn't going to come get you, unless by "come get me" you mean "mournfully sing a spiritual at me"

Or anything post Like a Prayer

my very thoughtful and reasoned critique of the Best of Depeche Mode Vol. 1

"Personal Jesus" – 3:47 (Violator, 1990)
unlistenable
"Just Can't Get Enough" – 3:43 (Speak & Spell, 1981)
good tune. wish it had been saved for yaz
"Everything Counts" – 4:01 (Construction Time Again, 1983)
terrible
"Enjoy the Silence" – 4:15 (Violator, 1990)
eat the shit
"Shake the Disease" – 4:52 (The Singles 81>85, 1985)
haven't heard it
"See You" – 3:58 (A Broken Frame, 1982)
same
"It's No Good" – 5:59 (Ultra, 1997)
same
"Strangelove" – 3:47 (Music for the Masses, 1987)
oh this one is really bad for sure. fuck this song
"Suffer Well" – 3:53 (Playing the Angel, 2005)
haven't heard it
"Dream On" – 3:42 (Exciter, 2001)
I co-wrote this one, recusing myself
"People Are People" – 3:46 (Some Great Reward, 1984)
ridicule and shame the people who wrote this horrible song
"Martyr" – 3:25 — new song
who knows
"Walking in My Shoes" – 5:01 (Songs of Faith and Devotion, 1993)
assume this is the same song as "people are people"
"I Feel You" – 4:35 (Songs of Faith and Devotion, 1993)
missed it
"Precious" – 4:09 (Playing the Angel, 2005)
missed it
"Master and Servant" – 3:49 (Some Great Reward, 1984)
it's a lot like life, I hate it
"New Life" – 3:46 (Speak & Spell, 1981)
probably ok but I don't know
"Never Let Me Down Again" – 4:18 (Music for the Masses, 1987)
again I gotta give credit where due, a good song, I howl like a vampire looking at a cross when I'm enjoying it

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/Old-Peoples-Home-01_zpsc4440fa8.jpg

Human League. Early DM is the only DM I can bear to listen to. All you crazy people with your >s.

Now where's my cup of tea and who are these people hosting Countdown it's not the same as in my day you know.

Early DM is a gigantic ball of poisonous twee awful except for like 6 songs

also aero you should totally hear "Shake the Disease", you would fucking detest it

I wouldn't mind a "Best of the Rest" Rough Guide to Depeche Mode - i.e. stuff that wasn't included on the 81>85 and 86>98 compilations. Actually it's about time they had a third one now surely? I listened the fuck out of the 86>98 one while I was doing my A-Levels.

lol noodle vague

I've only heard like 6 songs (which I couldn't name), maybe I've been lucky! On the other hand I certainly like my gigantic balls of poisonous twee awful. When I heard the early stuff I was pleasantly surprised at how chirpy and, uh, European it sounded, which is probably the same as poisonous twee awful.

that best of upthread is weird.

Richard Whitely died, Des Lyngham resigned and someone kindly shot the unbearably crap sky footvall presenter

counting the first two albums as early DM, I groove with:

Dreaming of Me
New Life
Just Can't Get Enough
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Shouldn't Have Done That
The Sun and the Rainfall
Ice Machine

in the correct mood, I can also dig:
The Meaning of Love
Leave In Silence
Monument

pretty much never want to listen to any of the other songs from that time period

No 'Puppets', 'Photographic', 'Nothing To Fear' = no credibility.

I feel they were at their best before Martin Ware joined

I have enjoyed covers of "Puppets" and "Photographic" much much more than I have ever enjoyed the originals, which I would charitably describe as "terrible"

Depeche Mode.

Depeche Rmde

We don't need this disease...

Not right now.

league all the way

still not getting any work done so here's the Human League

"Mirror Man" (Burden, Callis, Oakey) – 3:49
ok sure why not
"(Keep Feeling) Fascination" (Callis, Oakey) – 3:43
great song esp. w/drugs
"The Sound of the Crowd" (Burden, Oakey) – 3:56
#2 on the fascism hit parade after the entire Midge Ure era of Ultravox
"The Lebanon" (Callis, Oakey) – 3:43
powerful social message really makes you think
"Human" (Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis) – 3:46
powerful pop psych message really makes you think
"Together In Electric Dreams" (Moroder, Oakey) – 3:53
we'll always be together
"Don't You Want Me" (Callis, Oakey, Wright) – 3:57
almost unbelievably quaint
"Being Boiled" (Marsh, Oakey, Ware) – 3:38
I seem to remember this one being good but don't remember how it goes. D+
"Love Action (I Believe in Love)" (Burden, Oakey) – 3:50
on par w/fascination, great stuff
"Louise" (Callis, Oakey, Wright) – 4:55
who
"Open Your Heart" (Callis, Oakey) – 3:55
what
"Love Is All That Matters" (Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis) – 4:06
missed it
"Life On Your Own" (Callis, Oakey, Wright) – 4:05
when you quit the human league the remaining members sing you this one

Being Boiled is their best song imo, but also in some ways their worst...

Vince Clarke stated that the song was his favourite record and inspired him to form Depeche Mode.

loool

they're basically the Beatles for 80s kids.

This is false, surely?

What I love is that don't you want me was released against Phil Oakey's wishes because he considered it 'filler' loool

This is false, surely?

to be fair I would say the same thing about a dozen other 80s acts probably. Joy Division? The Beatles. The Cure? The Beatles. REM? The Beatles. They're all the fucking Beatles

Tears for Fears? I see you workin you Beatle bastards, don't try to hide

Husker Du? more like Husker the Beatles

My favourite DM photo is within this blogpost I'm linking here. I can't take them seriously after this picture. Feel free to insert it properly. Thanks.

http://manoferrors.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/rock-and-wool/

That is the greatest picture I have ever seen.

Since we're all trolling here, I'd like to say that neither of these bands have released a song as good as 'Heavenly Action' :P

see I look at that DM picture and get instant 5th Doctor flashbacks, so if anything that picture makes early DM even more awesome to me

That whole post is great. Peter Murphy in entrelac!

While I'm trolling DM... I saw this at the time in 83, even noting in my diary at the time that if I wrote in and asked for OMD, maybe they'd give me an Emulator. Watching it now, it really creeps me out, but that's not DM's fault. This is the end of their performance of "Get the balance right" on "Jim'll fix it".

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k9-CCQsATWA&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dk9-CCQsATWA

Ah jimmy saville knew them well

aero r u saying you've never heard 'open your heart' - it has the pop-league's most beautiful verse, imho (and so true in regard to HL >>> DM - "you know your worst is better than their best")

Then by that logic Crash, Hysteria or Romantic? would be better than Black Celebration, Music For The Masses an Violator... and they aren't.

*and

Oh but they are so

If you're an idiot.

i don't really know both bands but to dance to and have fun on parties it got to be the human league...

I'd love to go to a party where someone slips on 'Dreams Of Leaving'...

Apt name for such a party

human league. though i respect dm in many ways for their envelope pushing in electronic music the resulting tunes by and large did little for me

Depeche mode, but Human League has aged a lot better.

As much as I love Depeche Mode it's The Human League all the way for me. DM have no albums as perfect as Dare and no songs I love as much as Empire State Human, WXJL Tonight, The Black Hit of Space or The Things That Dreams Are Made of. I know they went downhill from Hysteria to Romantic (although they still had a few classic singles) but for recent output Secrets is my favourite album by either of them by quite a long way.

Yeah, Secrets is amazing, way better than any contemporaneous electroclash and I've returned to it more than any DM album post-Violator. But yeah, the Human League in a heartbeat; the League Unlimited Orchestra, "The Black Hit Of Space", working with Jam & Lewis, the dodged rhyme in "Love Action" ...

Lol just went and bought dare! and reproduction on cd purely because of this discussion. I bet dare! sounds better on vinyl. Sounds too compressed...

Being boiled was recorded in 1978 in an abandoned factory in mono on a domestic tape recorder at a cost of £2.50

I can't see that title without thinking "but we were never being boiled"

Okay, that rules. Took me a sec.

"Prissy Anglophile" is no longer your middle name ;_;

Is prissy an American word or something from the middle ages?

Anyone else ever woken up in the middle of the night with a ravenous hunger for pizza crackers?

Human league, for 'baby and a crow' alone

Is that on travelogue?

lol first post in thread very otm

Ok so if you hold that point of view, do you vote depeche mode to prove your point or are you honest and vote the human league?

I don't really have any use for DM so, not voting for them

this is where i admit that depeche mode and dire straits and duran duran are all mixed up in my mind as two-word 'D' bands of the same era that i never listen to.

Deacon Blue

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

VOTES! VOTES! We need your VOTES!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Wow yes! The league by almost 2 to 1. Who'd a thunk it?

everyone who posted to this thread?

who will have won when the polling is done?

not depeche mode that's for sure

At least two people said DM would walk it

this is an outrage

this is an outrage clearly a troll thread.

― :C (crüt), Sunday, March 3, 2013 12:20 AM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

after this stirring victory the human league is almost ready to take on the beatles. they just have to get past mbv and the smiths. rootin' for you, league

I'll bet they'd lose to the Spencer Davis Group.

Mbv and Smiths both better than boring Beatles. If DM so good popular etc why people not vote for them? Nobody stopped them! Sour grapes I think.

I can't rank MBV vs. Smiths vs. Beatles in any permutation without feeling like a smug anglo-rockist jackass

^ sorry for implying that MBV are English

I'm English, so really can't help the anglo bit.

what about the smug rockist jackass bit?

That neither.

Add another vote for Human League up there from me.

This poll is dumb and bad.

All 12 DM fans think so

This poll is dumb and bad.

I know, who would have thought 28 people rated DM over HL?

Wow this really was a great but unexpected result. Good work everyone.