The Human League

I was reminded today by blogger Ben Varkentine of A Dragon Dancing With The Buddha (http://varkentine.blogspot.com/) how much I loved the album DARE by the HUMAN LEAGUE back in the eighties. I wore that tape out on my walkman and it singularly saved my summer back in 1982. I was working at cadet camp in Penhold Alberta and any time we could get away from all the marching and yelling with some good music it was the best part of the day. My roomate wore out AC/DC Back in Black and DARE was my way of wiping those three cord songs from my mind. Not that I didn't enjoy AC/DC far but sometimes you need synthesizers and drum machines to even out the madness. If you look at the picture I use of me for this blog it is DARE on the Walkman I am listening to.

"When flipping through the annals of new-wave history, one can easily enough overlook the entry marked "Human League". But the truth of the matter is, this Phil Oakey-helmed synth-pop outfit was crucial to the movement, and Dare!, its third release, is an absolute linchpin. Thanks to its breakthrough single "Don't You Want Me", the record almost single-handedly made it safe to like new wave, and an MTV video gave it a fashionable face that was impossible to ignore. The sound was theatrical and awash with kitschy keyboards, but felt new and refreshing back in 1982The League would never climb to such hooky aesthetic heights again; Dare! ranks as its greatest achievement--and it still sounds new and refreshing today. --Tom Lanham"