TRAINWRECKORDS: "Crash" by The Human League

Where they before or after Mark Mothersbaugh started to become primarily a composer for hire?

forestaysaIL

Hey since you've mentioned DEVO, what would you think would be their Trainwreckord, "Oh No! It's Devo!" or "Shout"? Both were steps in making band more and more pop and stupid "Oh No"! has their failed 3D concert, cheapest greenscreen videos but I like that The Cars-esque synth pop, plus it's super-catchy "Shout" has very ugly synths, and only one failed emberacing single, cover of Hendrix's "Are You Experienced", in which they tried to bring hippies back (devo and hippies wtf), plus it was pulled by Hedrix estate for featuring dead Jimmy playing guitar Also "Shout" made the label drop them, and a hiatus until 1988

Ah yes, the ultimate expression of humanity: A mutually unhappy heterosexual romantic relationship

Isabel DePaul

I kinda dig that song, but yeah it would've fit right in Secret of My Success, which had one of Night Ranger's more forgotten hit songs as the title track.

RedBedroomRecords

Well humans have made mistakes all throughout history, so I can see what they were going for with that lyric.

RedBedroomRecords

I actually quite like that song, I think it's incredibly catchy and danceable.

RedBedroomRecords

This is beautiful. I've watched it at least five time already, although the background on the making of the album and the Melody Maker interview both seem like humongous "OOF" moments

Cameron Kirkpatrick

Maybe the loud stabby music is a bit loud next to your quieter vocals in a lot of parts? Might just be me, I keep reaching for my volume

David Powell

"Total Devo" from '88 could be a contender.

"The Lebanon," which I also find overlooked, sounds like prime Flock of Seagulls and the "lovers in a dangerous time" lyrics scan a lot better than "Human." And I'll stump for Oakey's Giorgio Moroder collab that was the theme to videos director Steve Barron's feature debut from around the same time in '84: "We'll always be together/Together in electric dreams."

"The era of art school weirdos being big hitmakers" did continue in 1986, but Peter Gabriel (who was more boarding school weirdo, granted) was more natural and erm...animated in his approach. "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time" may not have had Jam/Lewis, but they sure hold up better than the League's Minneapolis R&B crossover.

I heard it on the radio as a teen (I remember "Heart Like a Wheel" was an obscure American Top 40 hit, too, kinda like Adam Ant's "Room at the Top"). I feel like it's like ignoring the fact that Erasure had "Always" keeping them immortal in the 1990s.

Technically "Pop Musik" (which I'm still hoping gets a One Hit Wonderland episode) was a 1979 song. It also, despite being synth-heavy, has a bit of a disco groove. I don't know that I stand by Todd's statement about "Don't You Want Me?" being the first 80s hit that couldn't have been a hit in the 70s, but I don't think "Pop Musik" is the right counter-example.

Pooga

It sounds like there was almost as much drama behind the creation of this album as there was behind the creation of Fleetwood Mac's "Rumors".

Thomas Carmody

"I Need Your Lovin'" sounds like soundtrack filler for one of those Michael J. Fox movies that even he wants to forget that he was ever in.

Kristopher Bluth

One of my husband’s favorite documentaries is “Made in Sheffield,” which covers the music scene that The Human League grew from. Their origin story is really fascinating - I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such a drastic evolution as Philip Oakey’s career was from the late 70s to the late 80s! Pretty amazing how The Human League was destined to fail once the other 2 main members left to form Heaven 17...and yet against all odds, they hit it big with “Don’t You Want Me,” their fourth single from that album that Oakey saw as too polished filler. Anyway, I can’t wait to show my husband this episode - he plays their early song “Being Boiled” a lot - can’t wait to hear his commentary!

I actually like that synth sound and this album sounds pretty good.

RedBedroomRecords

I want to hear a synth pop band named Saving Throw.

apocalypsethen

I always figured that "born to make mistakes" was my ha-ha mishearing of the lyric, and that it was really "prone to make mistakes", which makes more sense. I can see being born to raise hell, but being born to make mistakes?

Russet Burbank

"Don't You Want Me?" is an iconic song and definitely a landmark, but claiming it was the first Eighties Number One that never could have topped the charts in the Seventies sort of gives "Pop Muzik" by M the shaft.

Kristopher Bluth

empire state human is what got me into early human league

swang is such a fascinatingly bad track. some of those synth voices, phil just desperately trying to sound fun, it's so bad but so much more entertaining than the rest of the album (i will defend love is all that matters tho).

Am I the only one that hears the lead singer pronounce "human" as a Ferengi from Star Trek or am I just a giant nerd? Both you say? Sounds accurate.

KBucky

The Human League wouldn't be the only major music act to use a clip show as an official music video. Alanis Morissette went the same route with "Eight Easy Steps", the third single from her 2004 record So-Called Chaos. The video is basically just all of her previous songs (even those from her early teen pop era) shown in reverse-chronological order. But somehow her take feels more purposeful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBymTNop_bM

Jacqueline Sailer

How much would it cost to request an album for Trainwreckords?

FWIW - The Lebanon, before Jo Callis left, is a really good political song. But in any case, +100 for the Young Ones clip.

Beau Dure

I'm legit so stoked for another Trainwreckords!

It's always blown my mind how Human League evolved from avantgarde synth music to a genre defining pop band. They're also a pretty solid gateway into the 80s Sheffield scene. I still love their weirder early stuff btw but it's definitely not for everyone ( https://youtu.be/-6d3uRMCRcg )

Elad Liebman

Todd: Human League were a bunch of tabletop RPG nerds Human League: [clip from 14:09 to 14:37] ...uhh I'm not so sure about that...

Pietro Gagliardi

Good as always! There's some pretty well known clip-show music videos... The Show Must Go On by Queen, the last music video released whilst Freddie was alive, was a clip show for pretty obvious reasons. If you're doing future synthpop acts, Machine + Soul by Gary Numan?

James Donovan

I thought for a second that Todd was doing a OHW on Crash by The Primitives, but then I saw that it was a Trainwreckords episode on The Human League and was disappointed.

JasSpy

I've also been reading the Number Ones on Stereogum, they've been a pretty fun read.

Gemini Man

he probably banned you for a reason my guy

Always a good day when a Todd video drops. I even have the context for this one.

Greg Walters

I Need Your Loving sounds like a poor man's Girlfriend is Better

Not sure it's fair to say The Human League did nothing in the US in the 90s, when Tell Me When was a Top 10 radio hit in 95

gaia

That interview with the backup singers reminds me of the Pigeon sisters from THE ODD COUPLE.

SPBurke

TBH Devo is one of those bands that technically counts but they have a cult fandom so large that calling them a one hit wonder is completely inaccurate in the colloquial way. I think Todd has mentioned it before. Beck and the Grateful Dead are other good examples of this type of artist

Foxx Navarro

I was wondering if Tom Breihan's column had anything to do with this one. I'm really happy to see its influence on a bunch of music critics I like, it's a great column.

Shiny Skunk

20:31 has a weird audio error in your end. Other than that, this was great and it put me in a synth-pop mood. I feel like you've been teasing a Devo One Hit Wonderland for ages, but that would be one lengthy episode.

Wyatt

Weird audio error around 20:31, but other than that a great video! SUprised at no reference to Talking Heads tho, another band that embraced the more unpolished aspects of new wave with a very robotic sounding singer that incorporated funk elements into their music to amazing results, kind of the opposite of "Crash". I guess they were never that synth heavy tho.

Foxx Navarro

At 20:30ish the audio seems to skip. Otherwise, great video! Always excited to see your work!!

Salem Blake

I'm not a perfect... human. I never meant to do those things to you.

Alina

At 20:31 there's a weird glitch in the audio.

Cassandra Gelvin

Audio issue around 20:31

MJS

It's like if Eurythmics didn't have creative control.

Juan Nunez

This is one of your best. I was obsessed with synth pop in the 80s, so when I got the notification for this, I sat right down to watch. I had always wondered what happened to Human League. Well done!

Jennifer Layton

"Human" is the original source of "We were on a break!" from Friends.

Gregory Fanoe

Liked the video, Todd! Heads up, there's some skip just at 20:32 where once sentence cuts into the second half of another.

Bosstoaster

Very excited about this one!

Steph

AWWW YEAH

waywardlaser

return of the king

Stefan Ristic