Human League - Greatest Hits (1988)

GREATEST HITS WEEK (JANUARY 17-23, 2011)

To me, the League is a hit-or-miss band. Their good stuff is really good techno-pop dance music, but their bad stuff sounds like a junior high kid playing a Casio keyboard bought for 50 cents at a garage sale. But since I like the good stuff, this is a welcome listen for me. I had 3 or 4 of the group's albums in the '80s, but didn't think any of them except Dare! were worth replacing with a CD, so this compilation gives me some of my favorite HL tracks, including...

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: To be honest, (Keep Feeling) Fascination is one of my favorite songs not only of this CD, but of the entire decade. I also like the tracks Louise, Love Action, Open Your Heart, and The Lebanon. I understand the band's need to become relevant again in the later '80s and I can understand why they would choose to work with the hot production songwriting team at the time in Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, but their 1986 single Human doesn't even sound like them (add Love Is All that Matters to that list, too). If I wanted to hear that music, I'd buy something from Janet Jackson. It's not necessarily bad music, it's just not the Human League to me.

Song	Year	US	UK
Mirror Man	1982	30	2
(Keep Feeling) Fascination	1983	8	2
The Sound Of The Crowd	1981	-	12
The Lebanon	1984	64	11
Human	1986	1	8
Don't You Want Me	1981	1	1
Being Boiled	1978	-	6
Love Action (I Believe In Love)	1981	-	3
Louise	1984	-	13
Open Your Heart	1981	-	6
Love Is All That Matters	1988	-	41
Life On Your Own	1984	-	16

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: When the group's hit Don't You Want Me became a huge hit, there was nothing else like it playing on the radio. Looking back, I can't believe there was a radio station in Houston that would play it. In any case, that one song turned my interest from groups like Journey, Styx, and Foreigner to techno-pop/New Wave/New Romantic bands.