Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
post-punk synth classic, January 29, 2003
For all the press that synth pop got in the early 80s, not a lot of it has held up particularly well, except at the more experimental end of what could still sort of be called pop. Suicide's first album still sounds fab, Cabaret Voltaire's early Rough Trade material makes increasingly wonderful aesthetic sense, but it's the Human League who finally seem to be undergoing a long overdue critical reevaluation. This began with the release of a CD of "pre-Human League" recordings made largely under the name "The Future". It continues with the reissue and remastering of the first three Human League albums."Travelogue" is the band's true masterpiece. Much more cohesive than its predecessor "Reproduction", it maintains a unique experimental edge that's largely (though not entirely) lost on their next album, "Dare" - but it's loaded with songs that are full of great ideas, catchy tunes and stark beauty. It's hard to resist "The Black Hit Of Space" - wherein a song so bland becomes a black hole, sucking up everything in its orbit and climbing so high in the charts that it reaches negative numbers - in this day and age. They turn a commercial jingle for gin into a lovely tune, cover Iggy, Mick Ronson and Gary Glitter, and convincingly too. What's new about this remaster? Well, it sounds great - better than the original vinyl and miles beyond the earlier CD issue. Other than that, it looks the same from the outside, but inside the booklet are expanded lyrics and credits. That's the good stuff... Oh well. It's nearly the length of two LPs (there are 7 bonus tracks) and worth every penny anyway. For the record, "Reproduction" and "Dare" are similarly remastered and worth it too. Each has 8 bonus tracks.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spooky Masterpiece....., March 10, 2003
By A Customer
There is something about this album that is strange and unique. It is truly a work of art-- themes of industrialization, automation, and isolation are echoed by machine-like synthesizer sounds of the late 70's. It is haunting yet charming at the same time. Poignant, but with a sense of humor too. This is rare and under appreciated album and probably always will be. The bonus tracks are equally as good, most notably "I don't depend on you" with its surprising disco-era sound. Not for everybody, but definitely can be appreciated by fans of Gary Numan's early work such as "Telekon" and "Dance"
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Probably their creative peak, July 18, 2007
I'm very torn on the Human League. I love the idea of the band as well as a lot of their old work, but I think they hit a rut sadly early in their career (and rock bottom with "Human").
Travelogue makes more sense to me as an album than the rest of their offerings. It's not the conceptual hodgepodge of Reproduction, and it's not the sleek-but-compromised pop of Dare. It's just foreboding enough to still seem interesting, and pop enough to be enjoyable.
The bonus tracks are an asset to the release and I enjoyed the liners as well.
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by The Human League 
