Human League
Travelogue

THE REVIEW

After the masterpiece “Reproduction”, much more was expected from the Human League. However, less than a year later, they pull out of the hat an album that stands right in the middle between its illustrious predecessor and the honest pop of “Dare!” without really knowing which side to lean on. It is, in fact, a work that is neither fish nor fowl, neither experimental nor pop, but a confused middle ground.

The symbol of such regression is the track “Being boiled”, so splendidly essential and austere in the single version, yet burdened and unnecessarily overproduced in the album version, infested with sound effects and gratuitous arrangements.
However, the bad surprises do not end here, but continue with mediocre melodies and the aforementioned questionable production of “Only after dark”, “Crow and a baby”, “The touchables”, “Gordon’s gin”, and “W.X.J.L. tonight”, “Marianne”, “Boys and girls”, “Cruel”, and the dismal, aimless experimentation of “Dreams of leaving”.
The only points of interest on the album are “The black hit of space”, a small sci-fi masterpiece worthy of the tracks from “Reproduction”, the instrumentals “Dancevision” and “Tom Baker”, and the curious double cover medley “Rock’n’roll/Night clubbing”, in which the first part offers an amusing reinterpretation of Gary Glitter's song, and the second an interpretation of a piece by Iggy Pop that Depeche Mode would cherish in the nineties.
However, a few valid episodes are not enough to save such an unconvincing album.