The human league: dareFormed in Sheffield in 1977, electronic new wave band The Human League became a phenomenon in the early 80s when founding members Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh left the band, and backing singers Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall – school girls at the time – joined.With new members and a stronger influence from lead singer Philip Oakey, The Human League evolved from experimental avant-garde electronic group into a more commercial pop band. Dare, released in the UK in October 1981 and in the US the following year, was the third studio album by the band, but its first under the new line up.Immediately acclaimed by the public and critics alike, it reached No. 1 in the UK in November ’81 and went platinum by Christmas, remaining in the charts for an incredible 71 weeks!It’s been since referred to as a genre-defining album, whose influence can be felt in many areas of pop music today.
track list
1. The Things That Dreams Are Made Of
2. Open Your Heart
3. The Sound of the Crowd
4. Darkness
5. Do or Die
6. Get Carter
7. I Am the Law
8. Seconds
9. Love Action (I Believe in Love)
10. Don’t You Want Me
Dare is a pop album so perfect that its makers could’ve easily left it there and their legacy would’ve been complete. That this music still sounds so incredible after 30-odd years is what makes it a classic. – Ian Wade, BBC
Aside from delivering an alluring synthesizer-soaked brand of rock on Dare, Oakey and the rest of the Human League further validated their best songs with lyrics that went beyond pop pap. “Seconds,” a deceptively haunting song about the JFK assassination, “Darkness,” a tune about paranoia, and “The Sound of the Crowd,” a satirical stab at conformity, are nearly as memorable as “Don’t You Want Me.” – Rolling Stone
Undoubtedly The Human League’s best known and most successful title, “Don’t You Want Me” made it to Christmas number one in the UK in 1981, and has since sold over 1,540,000 copies, becoming one of the best-selling singles in history of the UK Singles Chart.
Often conceived as a love song about romance gone wrong and jealousy, lead singer Oakey described the song as “a nasty song about sexual power politics”.
Despite the huge success of the song and the video, the original version was censored as band members were shown firing guns at one another. These scenes haven been edited out subsequently.
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