Customer Reviews

Dare / Love & Dancing

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Caroline Records has released several classic Human League albums on one cd, completely remastered for improved sound quality. "Dare", in my opinion is the "classic" Human League album, full of excellent synthesized pop songs. The song "Don't You want Me" needs no introduction as this was the major hit off the album. MTV also played the video on regular rotation as well. While there were several other hits from the album, such as "Open Your Heart" and "The Sound Of The Crowd", nothing matched the melodic "Don't You Want Me" in terms of mass appeal. Combine Philip Oakey's deep male vocals with Joanne Catherall and Susanne Sulley's female vocals and you have one of the "new romantic era's" best bands. The album "Love And Dancing" are the full 12" instrumental or dub versions of the songs on "Dare". This album was a must for disc jockeys who wanted to be creative and mixed the vocal versions with the instrumentals. Caroline Records wisely has re-issued and remastered a good portion of the Human League catalog for those who enjoyed their unique sound. Highly recommended!

Who says time travel hasn't been invented?

Pop this CD in your player, fix yourself a gin and tonic (or a Midori Sour), lie back in your recliner, and LISTEN!

Within seconds of the start of "Don't You Want Me?" you'll be immediately transported back to that dance floor in 1981, your hair fully spiked and highlighted, wearing your parachute pants, capezios, a short short skirt, a wife beater and an open deco shirt singing to your dance partner, "You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar, when I met you...."

According to Billboard Magazine:

"Dare! captures a moment in time perfectly -- the moment post-punk's robotic fascination with synthesizers met a clinical Bowiesque infatuation with fashion and modern art, including pop culture, plus a healthy love of songcraft."

For those of us in the U.S. for whom the sounds of the era (the late 1970's) no longer held the fascination they once had. Also, disco seemed to have become repetitive, in large part. Then.....then...out of England began to come a noise....a sound...not disco, not rock, not punk, but something much more different!

Long before there was a name for it (New Wave, as it would be called), there was The Human League.

The slick, smoothe sounds that groups such as The Human League were putting out struck just the right chord. The Human League really got started in 1977, but we, on this side of the pond, didn't know it. It wasn't really until 1981's Dare! that the U.S. got a good dose of what the latest British invasion had in store for us. Certainly, The Human League took a strong nod from Kraftwerk, but whereas that group's sound was far more "synthesized," The Human League did as their name tells us and added a much more human factor to the element. It softened out the technology and allowed the vocals to be front and center supported fully by dynamic synthesized sounds.

Is this all too much lavish praise to heap on The Human League? Not really. While there were many groups in England at about the same time creating a similar sound, it was The Human League that really were the first out the gate with the most fully realized, fully formed elaborate orchestrations of synthesizers and slick vocals.

Dare! is not their first album but it is quite possibly their most important album, because it cemented their amazing talent in the collective mind of the U.S. with the tremendously popular and danceable "Don't You Want Me?"

While each song on this album is a hit in its own right (if not charted as such), remember that it was widely received by the music industry as a benchmark album.

You will want this album so that you, too, can travel back to 1981 with no trouble at all!

Dare! is worth the trip.

If for some reason you have been putting off getting "Dare" then this is the reissue you should get. It contains the wonderful "dub" or instrumental remix EP "Love and Dancing." Together these two releases make up an essential starting point for the 80s Synthpop revolution.
Earlier albums, such as the League's own "Travelouge" and "Reproduction" (also remastered and reissued recently in the US with great lost singles and b sides), and albums by Kraftwerk, Caberat Voltiare and others explored what you could do with synths. But "Dare" was really the first album to the art/rock sensibility of the earlier work and marry it to disco/pop. The results are damn near perfect and certainly perfectly encapsulate what 1982 was all about. The sound is cold and sleek yet oddly human and accessible. Phil and the gals sing about love, and (ahem) dancing, plus friends, parties, etc. In fact the only odd step here, "Seconds," stray from that formula, with interesting sonic result but fairly unimaginative lyrics.
People familiar with "Don't You Want Me," (and who isn't, even today's tightly limited pop stations have it in recurrent on their play lists) might be put off that the rest of the album is not quiet as top 40. But give it a spin or two and open you mind.
Dare is the perfect marriage of Art and Pop.

The Human League. 1981. DARE!, one of the best synthpop albums to come from the best decade for music. Ah, where to begin? Anyone glancing at this review has certainly heard the smashing hit "Don't You Want Me," but this album has so much more to offer an electronic-minded listener. First, there is
1. "The Things That Dreams Are Made Of," a delightful, bouncy number featuring somewhat laughable lyrics, my favourite being "March, march, march across Red Square!" All in all, a fun, energetic track perfect for the urban dillettante. Next, we have
2. "Open Your Heart," a nice tune with rather decent lyrics and lovely synths--as usual. But the next track is possibly my favourite--or second favourite--on the disc. It is
3. "The Sound of the Crowd," which certainly deserved its number twelve spot in the British charts back in '81 soon after the original band split into Heaven 17 and what is now more or less The Human League. I adore this song! It features decadent, hedonistic dance lyrics and beats with Phil's signature delivery backed up by the girls. This song soon gives way into
4. "Darkness," a somewhat creepy, pessimistic song about madness and fear. Cool vibes throughout, though, and it segues nicely into
5. "Do or Die," which has extremely awesome synths all over the place--especially its synth solo in the middle part of the song--and it has a catchy, upbeat chorus. Then, we get
6. "Get Carter," an extremely short instrumental that acts as a prelude to
7. "I Am the Law," which would have fit perfectly on TRAVELOGUE, The Human League's 1980 effort. It's rather minimalistic and dour, with none of the bounce or flair that the other tracks possess, but it has interesting lyrics that actually make some sense. However, I usually skip this one and go on to
8. "Seconds," another creepy track, but this one concerns the Kennedy assassination--at least from what I can tell from the lyrics. Icy cold, this one song is perhaps another vestige of The Human League's creative and innovative period of their career. It certainly isn't like its more pop-oriented peers on this album. But! we're now at my all-time favourite The Human League track which is
9. "Love Action (I Believe in Love)," an all-around perfect pop tune--it reached no. 3 in the British charts--that encapsulates everything I love about the League: quirky synths (come on, check out the opening one! I never fail to smile when this pops on), cool vocals, and cheesy lyrics. Listen and love it as I have. Ah, but now we have
10. "Don't You Want Me," the League's most famous track, one still played on radios and Muzak all over the world, one performed at karaoke bars, one forever beloved by the masses...etc., etc. Everyone knows this song! And rightly so: it's pop perfection, and it helped cement that distinctive '80s sound, so infused with synths and Casio keyboards and British/continental elegance. But I'm digressing...The rest of this remastered edition is the 1982 remix album, LOVE AND DANCING, which features instrumental or dub-ish sounding versions of most of the songs found on DARE! This is a most worthy purchase. You will be happy for buying this epic synthpop/New Wave marvel, I can assure you.

There's probably little point writing anything at all about Dare as I expect if you're reading this you are fully aware of what a joy it is, you probably bought it in the early 80's beguiled by the fab pop tracks and the vogue minimalist fashion cover. Heck, you might have even had a Phil Oakey hair-do! :)

Where I do want to spend some time though is on the fab bonus material on this disc. A large part of the Dare-era Human League credit must be given to the producer Martin Rushent who helped shape their sound into that unique, crisp electronica that was, and still is, unlike anything else. The remix album "Love & Dancing" seemingly gave Rushent carte blanche to take the tracks into dub and remix heaven, and it's a trip worth taking.

The 12" single boomed in the 80's and The Human League were one of the bands that actually made 12" records that were worth listening to. I love the weird things he does with the vocals in "The Sound of the Crowd", "Open Your Heart" travels in and out of echo and dub in unexpected ways, "Love Action" sounds like it's been put through a salad spinner and "Hard Times" is just plain awesome.

This is the perfect teaming of a hit album and the crazy reworking of it. The things that dreams are made of.

Although this was The League's third album proper, it was the first as far as America knew. It was also a great perchase for me personaly due to the fact that this album was released five years before I was alive. The edition of "Love and Dancing" gave me a different perspective of "Dare" because of the original album's lack of instrumental versions that are present here. When "Dare" first came out, it only had the ten standard tacks recorded on it. So being born in the late 80's gave me a slight advantage over the people who were arond for the original thing. Needless to say, this album absolutely deserved all of the attention it recieved. It's a true triumph in terms of its music, lyrics, vocal arrangements, and total inovation in music history. For those who may not be completely familure with the true talent and creativity of The Human League, or are completely judging this band based on the two #1 singles that were released at the hieght of their popularity, you're missing out on a fantastic record from an extremely successful band during the early years of thier career. This is an essential record from one of England's earliest power-house synthesizer driven musical acts. An album that should be in everyone's collection.

I love the Human League from the very first time I heard their song "Keep Feeling (Fascination)", I bought their greatest hit albums, to their regular albums, and when I saw they had the Human League's album Dare Remastered with a bonus CD, League Unlimited Orchestra, I had to get it, and I wasn't disappointed. (The truth is I'm listening to the CD right now, Open Your Heart)

The songs are as clear as gold and is the quality is better than I can ever want in the Human League! As a part of the remastered CD is some extended added sounds, like in Sound of the Crowd is a echo, and in Love Action is a extended version which really completes the song unlike the regular version.

For people not very fond of remixes, at least give the Human League a go. I like remixes and of course I loved League Unlimited Orchestra, a compilation of the instrumental versions of some of their greatest hits! The greatest mix on there is Don't You Want Me, a whole seven minutes but kept me addicted with the instruments used in the original version making you want to dance!

The greatest part of the whole CD is the overall effort put into it. Two CDs in one! No 50 out of 80 minute CD, Human League performing all the way with the extra CD! This CD can be considered their Ultimate Greatest Hit CD!!! Whether a fan of the Human League or not, you can't miss the chance of getting this specially off of Amazon at a price worth it!!!

El album Love and Dancing es el mejor de esta grupo

It's difficult to think of just one album that has stood the test of time as much as Dare! It represents practically all aspects of what was going on in England throughout the early stages of Synthesizer driven music. The fact that Dare! brought so much success to The Human League only magnifies the importance of this album. When it first appeared in 1982, the Americans probably thought it sounded like extra terestrial tunings rather than something that was recorded in a studio. Here in England however, it was one of the first signs that the machines were indeed taking over. While more popular acts such as Depeche Mode and OMD had released material in the past year, The Human League brought electronic music to a more world-wide audience. Although the wouldn't go on for more than four years before the material became idiodic, Dare! is an absolute must for anyone's album collection in order for it to be respectable.

Most of the band members claim that they stumbled on to this new musical technology and just used it to their anvantege. I think that this is probaly correct. While The Human League were not pioneers of the the genre, they played a very important role in making it loved and honored both in the 80's and the current day. Synthesizers were no longer somwhting of the future, or instruments that only master musicians such as Kraftwerk or Depeche Mode used. It was now accesible to the world. Although it was pretty much the countries of Europe that used it properly. That's an entirely different subject! The Human League were also one of the first acts to make up-beat music mix well with dark and gothic lyrics. Just Listen to SECONDS or DARKNESS and you'll understand what I mean.

The original album isn't the only buch of material to lavish over. It also comes with 8 extra tracks that contain purely instrumental versions of all the well-known songs, with one original instrumental peice of work. This just proves what a brilliant mainstreem debut this truely is.

Dare - everyone who was anyone in the 80's has a copy of this on vinyl or cassette. But the League Unlimited Orchestra's Love and Dancing is a whole nother story. Club DJ's mixed the hell out of this with "Don't You Want Me", but the rest of the album is a must have as well. Human League fans will all agree; this one you just gotta have. Casual fans may want to just get Dare, or better yet, just get their Greatest Hits. I'm a huge Human League fan, so I'm biased and think everyone should love these dub versions, but not everyone loves every song by the League (hell, even I don't like every song - what WAS "Crash" all about?) so this may be more of one album then you'll want.