Human League's post-"Dare" Albums

So, let's see... "Hysteria" may not have been a bad album, but will always have to be put up against "Dare", which is a competition it just cannot match in any way.

"Crash" is probably their worst, and strangely enough, the best two tracks were both written by outside writers and sounded nothing like one would expect Human League to sound.

"Romantic?" was a return to form in a lot of ways, and "Heart Like a Wheel" may be their best single moment after "Dare" and "Mirror Man". Working with Martin Rushent again was obviously a great idea, but sadly they did for two tracks only, and with a couple exceptions, the rest of the album doesn't quite hold up as a whole.

"Octopus" put them back near the top of the charts, which was nice, and it contains several great tunes. But again doesn't hold up entirely as an album.

Which leaves us with "Secrets", a release possibly even more low-key than their first two. And yet, it's their best post-"Dare" album for me, crowded with great synthpop tunes. Human League, like many others, have benefited greatly from the arrival of the softsynths :).

So "Secrets" it is, for me anyway...

Yup, Secrets.

Secrets thirded. I read somewhere that the reason it had such a low media profile was that their label collapsed shortly after its release. Very unlucky for them; the songwriting is solid and the production is absolutely superb.

Amazingly Geir's summary is more or less spot on, though I think 'Romantic' is far poorer than he suggests, despite having one of their best post Dare singles.

In the absence of Love and Dancing (yeah, yeah, credited to The League Unlimited Orchestra but come on!) and the Fascination! EP (discogs calls it an LP and it sure felt like one after Dare), I'm going with Secrets too.

"Love And Dancing" is "Dare" in a new guise, which for me doesn't count as new music.

I'm not voting for an album, I'm voting for the song "Human".

Damn you single-issue voters! ;-)

Secrets fo sho

But yes, "Human" is probably their best post-Dare song.

I would say "Heart Like a Wheel" is. "Human" I don't consider a Human League song at all, but it's a good SOS Band song :)

Best post-Dare song = "Love is All that Matters," but that doesn't make Crash the best post-Dare album.

"Human" was sung by them, making it a Human League song...and yes, their best post-Dare song.

Of course the problem about "Crash" is the rest of it. "Human" and "Love Is All That Matters" are both great songs, although so atypical of their usual style that I refuse to consider them Human League songs proper. But their self-penned songs on "Crash" just didn't work out. Sure they did sound like Human League, unlike the Jam/Lewis ones, but they are simply just bad songs. And then, "I Need Your Loving" and "Swang" - the other two Flyte Tyme songs on the album - are just horrible and repetitive. That, and not those two singles that were actually good songs, is the main reason why I consider "Crash" their worst album.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

another vote for secrets...with hysteria a close second.

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

found Octopus today for half a coin ie. 49p.
it was a lot better than i expected.
just glad that the john cleese track did not actually include any john cleese.