Love and Dancing: Difference between revisions
Citation bot (talk | contribs) Alter: title, url, isbn. Add: isbn. | You can use this bot yourself. Report bugs here. | Suggested by AManWithNoPlan | All pages linked from cached copy of User:AManWithNoPlan/sandbox2 | via #UCB_webform_linked |
m Dating maintenance tags: {{CN}} |
||
(18 intermediate revisions by 14 users not shown) | |||
Line 2: | Line 2: | ||
{{Use British English|date=January 2014}} |
{{Use British English|date=January 2014}} |
||
{{Infobox album |
{{Infobox album |
||
| name = Love and Dancing |
| name = Love and Dancing |
||
| type = remix |
| type = remix |
||
| artist = [[The Human League]] |
| artist = [[The Human League]] |
||
| cover = Human League Love and Dancing.jpg |
| cover = Human League Love and Dancing.jpg |
||
| alt = |
| alt = |
||
| released = July 1982 |
| released = 2 July 1982 |
||
| recorded = 1981 |
| recorded = 1981 |
||
| studio = |
| studio = |
||
| genre = |
| genre = * [[Dance-pop]] |
||
* [[Dance-pop]] |
|||
* [[synth-pop]] |
* [[synth-pop]] |
||
* [[dub music|dub]]<ref name="Fact"/> |
* [[dub music|dub]]<ref name="Fact"/> |
||
* [[disco]]<ref name="Fact" /> |
* [[disco]]<ref name="Fact" /> |
||
| length = 35:40 |
| length = 35:40 |
||
| label = [[Virgin Records|Virgin]] |
| label = [[Virgin Records|Virgin]] |
||
| producer = |
| producer = * [[Martin Rushent]] |
||
* [[Martin Rushent]] |
|||
* The Human League |
* The Human League |
||
| prev_title = [[Dare (album)|Dare]] |
| prev_title = [[Dare (album)|Dare]] |
||
| prev_year = 1981 |
| prev_year = 1981 |
||
| next_title = [[Fascination!]] |
| next_title = [[Fascination!]] |
||
| next_year = 1983 |
| next_year = 1983 |
||
}} |
}} |
||
Line 31: | Line 29: | ||
==Background== |
==Background== |
||
[[Synth-pop]] band The Human League's third album ''[[Dare (album)|Dare]]'' (1981), produced by [[Martin Rushent]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mason |first1=Neil |title=The Making of Dare |url=https://electronicsound.co.uk/blog/the-making-of-dare/ |website=Electronic Sound |accessdate=29 November 2019}}</ref> reached number one on the [[UK Albums Chart]],<ref name=autogenerated4>British Hit Singles and Albums (Guinness 19th Edition) Guinness World Records Limited; 20Rev Ed edition {{ISBN|978-1-904994-10-7}} (2 June 2007)</ref> and has retrospectively been considered one of the era's defining albums,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Erlewine|first1=Stephen Thomas|title=AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/dare!-mw0000194181|website=AllMusic|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref> ranking in critics' lists of the greatest albums of the 1980s and sometimes of all time. |
[[Synth-pop]] band The Human League's third album ''[[Dare (album)|Dare]]'' (1981), produced by [[Martin Rushent]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mason |first1=Neil |title=The Making of Dare |url=https://electronicsound.co.uk/blog/the-making-of-dare/ |website=Electronic Sound |accessdate=29 November 2019}}</ref> reached number one on the [[UK Albums Chart]],<ref name=autogenerated4>British Hit Singles and Albums (Guinness 19th Edition) Guinness World Records Limited; 20Rev Ed edition {{ISBN|978-1-904994-10-7}} (2 June 2007)</ref> and has retrospectively been considered one of the era's defining albums,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Erlewine|first1=Stephen Thomas|title=AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/dare!-mw0000194181|website=AllMusic|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref> ranking in critics' lists of the greatest albums of the 1980s and sometimes of all time.{{CN|date=December 2023}} ''Dare'' also found success in the United States, partly because of New York-based black radio stations airing music from the album. The record's [[synth bass]] and [[Linn Electronics]] drum machine beats paralleled the [[electro funk]] music that had gained popularity on New York stations like [[KISS-FM (brand)|Kiss]], where according to writer [[Simon Reynolds]], "tracks were undergoing radical remixing and be montaged into seamless segues that lasted half an hour or more."<ref name="Reynolds">[[Simon Reynolds|Reynolds, Simon]]. ''Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984''. London: [[Faber & Faber]], 2005. {{ISBN|0571215696}}</ref> Rushent was already aware of the potential of remixing, having embedded a "[[dub music|dub]]-like spaciousness" to Human League tracks in parts where the instrumentation drops out.<ref name="Reynolds" /> |
||
[[File:Dj Grandmaster Flash-01-mika.jpg|thumb|left|The tape scrubbing production of ''Love and Dancing'' was inspired by the [[scratching (hip hop)|scratching]] of [[Grandmaster Flash]].]] |
[[File:Dj Grandmaster Flash-01-mika.jpg|thumb|left|The tape scrubbing production of ''Love and Dancing'' was inspired by the [[scratching (hip hop)|scratching]] of [[Grandmaster Flash]].]] |
||
The producer had been listening to [[hip hop music|hip hop]] DJ [[Grandmaster Flash]] and played his music to front man [[Phil Oakey]], who also enjoyed it.<ref name="Rushent" /> After seeing the DJ in New York, Rushent |
The producer had been listening to [[hip hop music|hip hop]] DJ [[Grandmaster Flash]] and played his music to front man [[Phil Oakey]], who also enjoyed it.<ref name="Rushent" /> After seeing the DJ in New York, Rushent felt he could recreate his [[scratching (hip hop)|scratching]] style with tape scrubbing.<ref name="Allen" /> With this in mind, he suggested creating a dub remix of the second single from ''Dare'', "[[Love Action (I Believe in Love)]]", by chopping the song up and adding effects. This would allow [[Virgin Records]] to release it on the B-side of the single, as the label was eager to rush-release singles from ''Dare'', leaving the Human League and Rushent without time to record new B-sides.<ref name="Rushent">[http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb07/articles/martinrushent.htm Rushent, Martin (2007)]</ref> Besides the "Love Action" remix, the producer ultimately created three or four other similar dub remixes to other songs from ''Dare''.<ref name="Rushent" /> Further inspired by the music he would hear in clubs across New York,<ref name="Torem">{{cite web|last1=Torem|first1=Lisa|title=Interview|url=http://www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk/Magsitepages/Article/7518/Human-League-Interview|website=Penny Black Music|accessdate=10 November 2017|date=9 July 2014}}</ref> he ultimately proposed to the Human League that he create an instrumental [[remix album]] of ''Dare'', hoping that it would exemplify his production skills and "establish a new benchmark for electronic [[dance pop]]."<ref name="Reynolds" /> |
||
Nonetheless, both the band and Virgin Records originally relented against the idea of the remix album, not wanting to pay for or release it. Rushent had to fight their opposition in order to create the album.<ref name="Reynolds" /> Oakey remained unsure about the project and left Rushent to make the release on his own.<ref name="Rushent" /> Neil Mason of ''[[Louder Than War]]'' wrote that "Cruel", an instrumental version of "[[I Don't Depend on You]]" (a 1979 single released by The Human League under the alternative name The Men) that was released as that single's B-side, laid the formula that would ultimately lead to ''Love and Dancing''.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Mason|first1=Neil|title=Human League and the making of the 'Dare' album|url=http://louderthanwar.com/human-league-and-the-making-of-the-dare-album/|website=Louder Than War|accessdate=10 November 2017|date=18 March 2012}}</ref> |
Nonetheless, both the band and Virgin Records originally relented against the idea of the remix album, not wanting to pay for or release it. Rushent had to fight their opposition in order to create the album.<ref name="Reynolds" /> Oakey remained unsure about the project and left Rushent to make the release on his own.<ref name="Rushent" /> Neil Mason of ''[[Louder Than War]]'' wrote that "Cruel", an instrumental version of "[[I Don't Depend on You]]" (a 1979 single released by The Human League under the alternative name The Men) that was released as that single's B-side, laid the formula that would ultimately lead to ''Love and Dancing''.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Mason|first1=Neil|title=Human League and the making of the 'Dare' album|url=http://louderthanwar.com/human-league-and-the-making-of-the-dare-album/|website=Louder Than War|accessdate=10 November 2017|date=18 March 2012}}</ref> |
||
''Love and Dancing'' is sometimes viewed as a stopgap in the Human League's discography, released to keep the band in the public profile while the band recorded new material.<ref>''Smash Hits'', 24 June 1982</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Buckley|first1=Peter|title=The Rough Guide to Rock|date=30 October 2003|publisher=Rough Guides|location=London|isbn=1843531054|page=511|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ctjc6UWCm4C& |
''Love and Dancing'' is sometimes viewed as a stopgap in the Human League's discography, released to keep the band in the public profile while the band recorded new material.<ref>''Smash Hits'', 24 June 1982</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Buckley|first1=Peter|title=The Rough Guide to Rock|date=30 October 2003|publisher=Rough Guides|location=London|isbn=1843531054|page=511|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ctjc6UWCm4C&q=rough+guides+human+league+stopgap&pg=PT518|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref> Band member [[Jo Callis]] has disputed this, saying: "I think that was going to happen anyway. [[Soft Cell]] had done something similar around that time releasing a remixed album. Martin Rushent had this concept about remixing, taking a track apart and putting it back together. It was a new idea and concept and it seemed a good idea to everybody to try it out. So the concept of the ''Love and Dancing'' would have happened regardless."<ref>{{cite web|title=Jo Callis|url=https://www.aylesburyfriars.co.uk/interviewsjocallis.html|website=Aylesbury Friars|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref> |
||
==Production and composition== |
==Production and composition== |
||
[[File:Martin Rushent.jpg|thumb|[[Martin Rushent]] (pictured 2011) produced ''Love and Dancing'' on a [[mixing board]] over ten days.]] |
[[File:Martin Rushent.jpg|thumb|[[Martin Rushent]] (pictured 2011) produced ''Love and Dancing'' on a [[mixing board]] over ten days.]] |
||
Reynolds writes that it "took thousands of man-hours of intensive sonic surgery" for Rushent to create ''Love and Dancing''.<ref name="Reynolds" /> The producer spent about ten days making the album,<ref name="Reynolds2">{{cite book|last1=Reynolds|first1=Simon|title=Totally Wired: Postpunk Interviews and Overviews|date=5 February 2009|publisher=Faber & Faber|location=London|isbn=978-0571235490|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IPIviTga8tgC& |
Reynolds writes that it "took thousands of man-hours of intensive sonic surgery" for Rushent to create ''Love and Dancing''.<ref name="Reynolds" /> The producer spent about ten days making the album,<ref name="Reynolds2">{{cite book|last1=Reynolds|first1=Simon|title=Totally Wired: Postpunk Interviews and Overviews|date=5 February 2009|publisher=Faber & Faber|location=London|isbn=978-0571235490|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IPIviTga8tgC&q=%22human+league%22+%22love+and+dancing%22&pg=PA300|accessdate=10 November 2017}}</ref> remixing the material on a [[mixing board]] with the [[multitrack recording]] of ''Dare'' being fed into the device.<ref name="Rushent" /> He also operated a [[Harmonizer]] on the first [[aux-send|send]] and placed numerous [[Phaser (effect)|phaser]]s and [[Delay (audio effect)|delay line]]s that he would proceed to "flick about" into his set up. Rushent recalled: "I'd do a section and if I liked it I'd make a tape cut and splice it in."<ref name="Rushent" /> He created complex vocal effects by hand, cutting up small portions of tape and gluing them together until he had achieved "the stuttering 't-t-t-t' effect."<ref name="Reynolds" /> When asked by Reynolds if he used samplers, he elaborated: |
||
{{ |
{{blockquote|"No, no. There wasn't samplers then. I actually did it by cutting up tiny bits of tape. I made myself a special ruler which read out in milliseconds how long a piece of tape was. So I'd say, 'OK, this thing's at 120 beats per minute, so one beat is that long, a quarter of a beat is that long, and so I want to cut that little piece of tape by this length.' That would be the first bit of Phil going 't'. And then I got another copy of 't' and I glued them all together and got the stutter effect: 't-t-t-t'."<ref name="Reynolds2" />}} |
||
Dave Allen acted as Rushent's sound engineer during the sessions. His role was generally of a technical nature, and he later quipped: "Martin was/is a genius though, I was merely [[Sancho Panza]]."<ref name="Allen">{{cite web|title=The Dave Allen Interview|url=http://www.the-black-hit-of-space.dk/excl_interviews_allen.htm|accessdate=10 November 2017}}</ref> By |
Dave Allen acted as Rushent's sound engineer during the sessions. His role was generally of a technical nature, and he later quipped: "Martin was/is a genius though, I was merely [[Sancho Panza]]."<ref name="Allen">{{cite web|title=The Dave Allen Interview|url=http://www.the-black-hit-of-space.dk/excl_interviews_allen.htm|accessdate=10 November 2017}}</ref> By the end of the remixing process, the master tape of ''Love and Dancing'' had 2,200 main edits and some 400 further, smaller edits for the stuttering repetition effects. This amount of splicing was so excessive – with an edit every half a second<ref name="Reynolds2" /> – that the master tape came very close to disintegrating. Rushent recalled: "You couldn't fast-forward it or fast-rewind it, so the first thing I did was copy the album on to another tape, before the original master fell apart."<ref name="Reynolds" /> |
||
Overall, ''Love and Dancing'' consists of Rushent's special dub remixes of eight tracks, seven of these from ''Dare'' and the other, "Hard Times", originally appearing as the B-side to the "Love Action" single.<ref name="Brainwashed">{{cite web|title=The Human League remastered issues|url=http://www.brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2199%3Athe-human-league-remastered-reissues&catid=13%3Aalbums-and-singles&Itemid=1|website=Brainwashed|accessdate=10 November 2017}}</ref> ''[[Brainwashed (website)|Brainwashed]]'' wrote that the album's "liberal use of [[echo]] and a complement of wacky sound effects and instrumental fills [are] immediately reminiscent of the early dub approach to remixing."<ref name="Brainwashed" /> Many of the tracks are at 120 [[beats per minute]].<ref name="Allen" /> [[Paul Morley]] of ''[[NME]]'' said that Rushent's production contains "plenty of moving parts, noises falling upwards, a way forward and backwards that is full of abrupt encounters – sudden interfaces, then emptiness."<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Morley|first1=Paul|title=Love and Dancing|magazine=NME|date=3 July 1982}}</ref> Music critics Daryl Easlea and Joel McIver of ''[[Record Collector]]'' described the album as being "full of stop-start beats, unpalatable noises and clunky, chunky deconstructions of [the Human League's] finest pop moments."<ref name="Easlea" /> [[Colin Irwin (journalist)|Colin Irwin]] of ''[[Melody Maker]]'' described the album as "an instrumental soundscape."<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Irwin |first1=Colin |title=Pet Shop Boys: Disco (EMI) |magazine=Melody Maker |date=22 November 1986 |url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/pet-shop-boys-idiscoi-emi |accessdate=29 November 2019}}</ref> |
Overall, ''Love and Dancing'' consists of Rushent's special dub remixes of eight tracks, seven of these from ''Dare'' and the other, "Hard Times", originally appearing as the B-side to the "Love Action" single.<ref name="Brainwashed">{{cite web|title=The Human League remastered issues|url=http://www.brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2199%3Athe-human-league-remastered-reissues&catid=13%3Aalbums-and-singles&Itemid=1|website=Brainwashed|accessdate=10 November 2017}}</ref> ''[[Brainwashed (website)|Brainwashed]]'' wrote that the album's "liberal use of [[echo]] and a complement of wacky sound effects and instrumental fills [are] immediately reminiscent of the early dub approach to remixing."<ref name="Brainwashed" /> Many of the tracks are at 120 [[beats per minute]].<ref name="Allen" /> [[Paul Morley]] of ''[[NME]]'' said that Rushent's production contains "plenty of moving parts, noises falling upwards, a way forward and backwards that is full of abrupt encounters – sudden interfaces, then emptiness."<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Morley|first1=Paul|title=Love and Dancing|magazine=NME|date=3 July 1982}}</ref> Music critics Daryl Easlea and Joel McIver of ''[[Record Collector]]'' described the album as being "full of stop-start beats, unpalatable noises and clunky, chunky deconstructions of [the Human League's] finest pop moments."<ref name="Easlea" /> [[Colin Irwin (journalist)|Colin Irwin]] of ''[[Melody Maker]]'' described the album as "an instrumental soundscape."<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Irwin |first1=Colin |title=Pet Shop Boys: Disco (EMI) |magazine=Melody Maker |date=22 November 1986 |url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/pet-shop-boys-idiscoi-emi |accessdate=29 November 2019}}</ref> |
||
Line 51: | Line 49: | ||
{{Album ratings |
{{Album ratings |
||
| rev1 = [[AllMusic]] |
| rev1 = [[AllMusic]] |
||
| rev1score = {{rating|2|5}}<ref>[{{ |
| rev1score = {{rating|2|5}}<ref>[{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r9612|pure_url=yes}} Allmusic review]</ref> |
||
| rev2 = ''[[ |
| rev2 = ''[[The Baltimore Sun]]'' |
||
| rev2score = {{ |
| rev2score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}<ref>{{cite news |last=Considine |first=J.D. |title=League Unlimited Orchestra: Love and Dancing (A&M) |newspaper=[[The Baltimore Sun]] |date=5 September 1982 |author-link=J.D. Considine}}</ref> |
||
| rev3 = ''[[ |
| rev3 = ''[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]'' |
||
| |
| rev3score = {{rating|3|5}}<ref>{{cite book |title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |last=Larkin |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Larkin (writer) |publisher=[[Omnibus Press]] |edition=5th concise |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-85712-595-8|title-link=Encyclopedia of Popular Music }}</ref> |
||
| rev4 = ''[[ |
| rev4 = ''[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide]]'' |
||
| rev4Score = {{Rating|2.5|5}}<ref>{{cite book |chapter=The Human League |last=Considine |first=J. D. |author-link=J. D. Considine |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |editor1-last=Brackett |editor1-first=Nathan |editor2-last=Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |edition=4th |year=2004 |isbn=0-7432-0169-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/397 397–98]|title-link=The Rolling Stone Album Guide }}</ref> |
|||
⚫ | |||
| rev5 = ''[[Smash Hits]]'' |
|||
⚫ | |||
}}<!-- Automatically generated by DASHBot--> |
}}<!-- Automatically generated by DASHBot--> |
||
Upon the completion of ''Love and Dancing'', the band decided to sell it at a relatively cheap price, believing the release to be "unfair to the fans."<ref name="Reynolds" /> Band member [[Joanne Catherall]] nonetheless reflected that the group loved the album.<ref name="Torem" /> The record was released in the United Kingdom by [[Virgin Records]] in July 1982, using the group name "The League Unlimited Orchestra" in tribute to [[Barry White]]'s instrumental, [[disco]]-era backing band [[Love Unlimited Orchestra]].<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Vital Reissues|magazine=Billboard|date=1 February 2003|volume=115|issue=5|page=43|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Q8EAAAAMBAJ& |
Upon the completion of ''Love and Dancing'', the band decided to sell it at a relatively cheap price, believing the release to be "unfair to the fans."<ref name="Reynolds" /> Band member [[Joanne Catherall]] nonetheless reflected that the group loved the album.<ref name="Torem" /> The record was released in the United Kingdom by [[Virgin Records]] in July 1982, using the group name "The League Unlimited Orchestra" in tribute to [[Barry White]]'s instrumental, [[disco]]-era backing band [[Love Unlimited Orchestra]].<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Vital Reissues|magazine=Billboard|date=1 February 2003|volume=115|issue=5|page=43|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Q8EAAAAMBAJ&q=%22love+and+dancing%22+league+%22love+unlimited%22&pg=PA43|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref> The back cover of the album features individual photographs of the Human League, Rushent, his sound engineer Dave Allen, as well as sleeve designer Ken Ansell. Rushent recalled: "They ''had'' to have a picture of me. I did the whole thing on my own!"<ref name="Reynolds" /> Rushent received no writing royalties on the album and in retrospect believed this to be unfair.<ref name="Reynolds2" /> The album title was the former name for the song "Do or Die".<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Birch |first1=Ian |title=The Human League: The Big League |magazine=Smash Hits |date=14 October 1981 |url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-human-league-the-big-league |accessdate=29 November 2019}}</ref> |
||
The appearance of the album in July 1982 was a month after the release of [[Soft Cell]]'s similarly styled remix album ''[[Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing]]'',<ref name="Chin">{{cite magazine|last1=Chin|first1=Brian|title=Dance Trax|magazine=Billboard|date=24 July 1982|volume=94|issue=29|page=44|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gCQEAAAAMBAJ& |
The appearance of the album in July 1982 was a month after the release of [[Soft Cell]]'s similarly styled remix album ''[[Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing]]'',<ref name="Chin">{{cite magazine|last1=Chin|first1=Brian|title=Dance Trax|magazine=Billboard|date=24 July 1982|volume=94|issue=29|page=44|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gCQEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22love+and+dancing%22+%22non-stop+ecstatic+dancing%22&pg=PT43|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref> and these releases, alongside [[The B-52's]]' ''[[Party Mix!]]'', were later described by Easle and McIver as "the trilogy of early '80s [[dance-pop|pop-dance]] mix albums".<ref name="Easlea">{{cite magazine |last1=Easlea |first1=Daryl |last2=McIver |first2=Joel |title=The Human League: Dare/Love And Dancing 21st Anniversary Edition |magazine=Record Collector |date=November 2002 |url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-human-league-idarelove-and-dancingi-21st-anniversary-edition |accessdate=29 November 2019}}</ref> By this point, ''Dare'' had created commercial momentum for ''Love and Dancing'',<ref name="Easlea" /> which reached number three on the [[UK Albums Chart]],<ref name="ukchart"/> and was certified Platinum by the [[British Phonographic Industry]] (BPI) on 1 November 1986 for sales of over 300,000 copies.<ref name="BPI"/> The album was released in mid-price format by [[A&M Records]] in the United States several weeks later.<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Chin|first1=Brian|title=Dance Trax (2)|magazine=Billboard|date=31 July 1982|volume=94|issue=30|page=33|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lSQEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22love+and+dancing%22+%22non-stop+ecstatic+dancing%22&pg=PT32|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref> Upon its American release, a couple of the tracks, including the "[[Don't You Want Me]]" remix, had already circulated on twelve-inch singles, whereas the other tracks were previously unreleased there and thus were embraced as "welcome bonuses", according to Brian Chin of ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]''.<ref name="Chin" /> |
||
In a contemporary review, [[Paul Morley]] of the ''[[NME]]'' hailed ''Love and Dancing'' as an "exclamation mark" to the success of ''Dare'', which he felt was "one of the ''great'' popular music LPs," and described its artful style as "the sound of 'love in fairyland' being launched into wonderland."<ref name="Morley">{{cite web|last1=Morley|first1=Paul|title=Love's Theme|url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-league-unlimited-orchestra-ilove-and-dance-ivirgin|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref> Ian Birch in ''[[Smash Hits]]'' called the album an "odd item" and wrote: "Is it a stopgap measure or a fearlessly new way of presenting old tracks? It's neither really. Instead, the new window dressing produces some jaunty and occasionally jolting electronic effects. Ideal for watching [[Ceefax]] to."<ref>"{{cite magazine |last1= Birch|first1= Ian|title= Albums|magazine= Smash Hits|volume= 4|issue= 13|page=17|publisher= EMAP Metro|date=24 June 1982|issn=0815-1121|url=http://www.shanemarais.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/17-smash-hits-24-june-7-july-1982.jpg}}</ref> Among retrospective reviews, William Ruhlmann of [[AllMusic]] wrote that "if you always thought 'Don't You Want Me' was a great track with obnoxious vocals, this is the album for you."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Ruhlmann|first1=William|title=AllMusic Review by William Ruhlmann|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/love-and-dancing-mw0000198977|website=AllMusic|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref> Ira Robbins of ''[[Trouser Press]]'' said that "[s]ome of the record bears listening to; other parts, however, are either repetitively dull or noisily annoying."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Robbins|first1=Ira|title=Human League|url=http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=human_league|website=Trouser Press|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref> In ''[[The New Rolling Stone Album Guide]]'', the album is referred to as "an amusing trifle" and "a prelude of sorts" to the band's subsequent EP ''[[Fascination!]]'' (1983).<ref name="Albumguide">{{cite book |
In a contemporary review, [[Paul Morley]] of the ''[[NME]]'' hailed ''Love and Dancing'' as an "exclamation mark" to the success of ''Dare'', which he felt was "one of the ''great'' popular music LPs," and described its artful style as "the sound of 'love in fairyland' being launched into wonderland."<ref name="Morley">{{cite web|last1=Morley|first1=Paul|title=Love's Theme|url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-league-unlimited-orchestra-ilove-and-dance-ivirgin|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref> Ian Birch in ''[[Smash Hits]]'' called the album an "odd item" and wrote: "Is it a stopgap measure or a fearlessly new way of presenting old tracks? It's neither really. Instead, the new window dressing produces some jaunty and occasionally jolting electronic effects. Ideal for watching [[Ceefax]] to."<ref>"{{cite magazine |last1= Birch|first1= Ian|title= Albums|magazine= Smash Hits|volume= 4|issue= 13|page=17|publisher= EMAP Metro|date=24 June 1982|issn=0815-1121|url=http://www.shanemarais.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/17-smash-hits-24-june-7-july-1982.jpg}}</ref> Among retrospective reviews, William Ruhlmann of [[AllMusic]] wrote that "if you always thought 'Don't You Want Me' was a great track with obnoxious vocals, this is the album for you."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Ruhlmann|first1=William|title=AllMusic Review by William Ruhlmann|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/love-and-dancing-mw0000198977|website=AllMusic|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref> Ira Robbins of ''[[Trouser Press]]'' said that "[s]ome of the record bears listening to; other parts, however, are either repetitively dull or noisily annoying."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Robbins|first1=Ira|title=Human League|url=http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=human_league|website=Trouser Press|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref> In ''[[The New Rolling Stone Album Guide]]'', the album is referred to as "an amusing trifle" and "a prelude of sorts" to the band's subsequent EP ''[[Fascination!]]'' (1983).<ref name="Albumguide">{{cite book|title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide'' (4th edn)'' |publisher=Fireside |location=USA |year=2004| page=398|isbn=9780743201698 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t9eocwUfoSoC&q=%22love+and+dancing%22+league&pg=PA398}}</ref> Reviewing the 2002 re-release for ''[[Record Collector]]'', Daryl Easlea and Joel McIver wrote that "''Love and Dancing'' sounds pretty much as you'd expect, and only dated in the way that [[Giorgio Moroder]]'s productions with [[Donna Summer]] sound. Thankfully recorded before the [[Fairlight CMI|Fairlight]] sampler had fully taken hold, it sounds like the last post in the '80s for real, organic synthesiser music, if there could ever be such a thing. It's great fun."<ref name="Easlea" /> |
||
==Legacy== |
==Legacy== |
||
''Love and Dancing'' was one of the first [[remix album]]s ever released,<ref name="Rushent" /><ref>{{cite web|last1=Lester|first1=Paul|title=No 216: Spektrum|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/oct/31/popandrock2|website=The Guardian|accessdate=12 November 2017|date=31 October 2007}}</ref> and established the Human League as pioneers of the format,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Hocknell|first1=Tom|title=The Human League Credo Review|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/2g28/|website=BBC|accessdate=10 November 2017|date=2011}}</ref> with Jon Falcone of [[Music OMH]] calling the album "revolutionary" for its production.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Falcone|first1=Jon|title=The Human League – Credo|url=https://www.musicomh.com/reviews/albums/the-human-league-credo|website=Music OMH|accessdate=10 November 2017|date=28 March 2011}}</ref> Tom Flint of ''[[Sound on Sound]]'' felt the album was "arguably even more influential than ''Dare'' itself,"<ref name="Rushent" /> while ''[[NME]]'' wrote that both ''Dare'' and ''Love and Dancing'' "redefined modern synthetic pop."<ref>{{cite web|title=Human League : London W1 Astoria|url=https://www.nme.com/reviews/live/reviews-nme-5919|website=NME|accessdate=10 November 2017}}</ref> In his book ''[[Rip It Up and Start Again]]'', Simon Reynolds hailed ''Love and Dancing'' "[a] masterpiece of editing and mixing-board wizardry."<ref name="Reynolds" /> Tim Thornton of ''[[The Huffington Post]]'' cites the album as "one of the few examples of a whole album [...] being remixed by one person and then released as another album."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Thornton|first1=Tim|title=Horizontalism - A Love Story|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/tim-thornton/horizontalism-a-love-story_b_7296450.html|website=The Huffington Post|accessdate=12 November 2017|date=18 May 2015}}</ref> In 2012, ''[[Fact (UK magazine)|Fact]]'' included the record in a list of 20 landmark remix albums, describing it as "[t]he daddy of pop remix albums."<ref name="Fact">{{cite web |title=Dub be good to me: the strange and challenging art of the remix album |url=https://www.factmag.com/2012/08/16/dub-be-good-to-me-the-curious-art-of-the-remix-album/2/ |website=Fact |accessdate=17 December 2018 |page=2 |date=16 August 2012}}</ref> In an interview, Sean Dickison of [[The Soup Dragons]] spoke of his infatuation for "the deconstruction concept of remix albums," including that of ''Love and Dancing'',<ref>{{cite web|last1=Grace|first1=Paul|title=Hifi Sean: Ft. Excursions – album review|url=http://louderthanwar.com/hifi-sean-ft-excursions-album-review/|website=Louder Than War|accessdate=10 November 2017|date=18 April 2017}}</ref> while [[Pet Shop Boys]] cited ''Love and Dancing'' as the inspiration for the ''etc.'' bonus CD in the double-disc edition of their album ''[[Yes (Pet Shop Boys album)|Yes]]'' (2009).<ref>{{cite web|title=Yes, Pet Shop Boys etc.|url=http://petshopboys.co.uk/news/2009-02-16/yes-pet-shop-boys-etc|website=Pet Shop Boys|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref> [[Holly Johnson]], formerly of [[Frankie Goes to Hollywood]], recalled ''Love and Dancing'' being "incredible to dance to in seedy gay nightclubs."<ref name="Wade">{{cite web |last1=Wade |first1=Ian |title=Strange Refuge: Holly Johnson Discusses His Favourite Albums |url=https://thequietus.com/articles/16956-holly-johnson-frankie-goes-to-hollywood-favourite-albums-interview?page=11 |website=The Quietus |accessdate=28 November 2019 |page=11 |date=23 December 2014}}</ref> |
''Love and Dancing'' was one of the first [[remix album]]s ever released,<ref name="Rushent" /><ref>{{cite web|last1=Lester|first1=Paul|title=No 216: Spektrum|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/oct/31/popandrock2|website=The Guardian|accessdate=12 November 2017|date=31 October 2007}}</ref> and established the Human League as pioneers of the format,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Hocknell|first1=Tom|title=The Human League Credo Review|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/2g28/|website=BBC|accessdate=10 November 2017|date=2011}}</ref> with Jon Falcone of [[Music OMH]] calling the album "revolutionary" for its production.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Falcone|first1=Jon|title=The Human League – Credo|url=https://www.musicomh.com/reviews/albums/the-human-league-credo|website=Music OMH|accessdate=10 November 2017|date=28 March 2011}}</ref> Tom Flint of ''[[Sound on Sound]]'' felt the album was "arguably even more influential than ''Dare'' itself,"<ref name="Rushent" /> while ''[[NME]]'' wrote that both ''Dare'' and ''Love and Dancing'' "redefined modern synthetic pop."<ref>{{cite web|title=Human League : London W1 Astoria|url=https://www.nme.com/reviews/live/reviews-nme-5919|website=NME|date=12 September 2005 |accessdate=10 November 2017}}</ref> In his book ''[[Rip It Up and Start Again]]'', Simon Reynolds hailed ''Love and Dancing'' "[a] masterpiece of editing and mixing-board wizardry."<ref name="Reynolds" /> Tim Thornton of ''[[The Huffington Post]]'' cites the album as "one of the few examples of a whole album [...] being remixed by one person and then released as another album."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Thornton|first1=Tim|title=Horizontalism - A Love Story|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/tim-thornton/horizontalism-a-love-story_b_7296450.html|website=The Huffington Post|accessdate=12 November 2017|date=18 May 2015}}</ref> In 2012, ''[[Fact (UK magazine)|Fact]]'' included the record in a list of 20 landmark remix albums, describing it as "[t]he daddy of pop remix albums."<ref name="Fact">{{cite web |title=Dub be good to me: the strange and challenging art of the remix album |url=https://www.factmag.com/2012/08/16/dub-be-good-to-me-the-curious-art-of-the-remix-album/2/ |website=Fact |accessdate=17 December 2018 |page=2 |date=16 August 2012}}</ref> In an interview, Sean Dickison of [[The Soup Dragons]] spoke of his infatuation for "the deconstruction concept of remix albums," including that of ''Love and Dancing'',<ref>{{cite web|last1=Grace|first1=Paul|title=Hifi Sean: Ft. Excursions – album review|url=http://louderthanwar.com/hifi-sean-ft-excursions-album-review/|website=Louder Than War|accessdate=10 November 2017|date=18 April 2017}}</ref> while [[Pet Shop Boys]] cited ''Love and Dancing'' as the inspiration for the ''etc.'' bonus CD in the double-disc edition of their album ''[[Yes (Pet Shop Boys album)|Yes]]'' (2009).<ref>{{cite web|title=Yes, Pet Shop Boys etc.|url=http://petshopboys.co.uk/news/2009-02-16/yes-pet-shop-boys-etc|website=Pet Shop Boys|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref> [[Holly Johnson]], formerly of [[Frankie Goes to Hollywood]], recalled ''Love and Dancing'' being "incredible to dance to in seedy gay nightclubs."<ref name="Wade">{{cite web |last1=Wade |first1=Ian |title=Strange Refuge: Holly Johnson Discusses His Favourite Albums |url=https://thequietus.com/articles/16956-holly-johnson-frankie-goes-to-hollywood-favourite-albums-interview?page=11 |website=The Quietus |accessdate=28 November 2019 |page=11 |date=23 December 2014}}</ref> |
||
{{Quote box|width=25%|align=right|style=padding:8px;|border=2px|quote="Making ''Love and Dancing'' was the most creative experience I've ever had in my life. Something that has been difficult to top. I haven't gone anywhere near it since. That's probably why I gave up record production for so long. It's like why astronauts go a bit loopy after they've got back from the moon. You've walked on the fucking moon, what are you gonna do now?" |
{{Quote box|width=25%|align=right|style=padding:8px;|border=2px|quote="Making ''Love and Dancing'' was the most creative experience I've ever had in my life. Something that has been difficult to top. I haven't gone anywhere near it since. That's probably why I gave up record production for so long. It's like why astronauts go a bit loopy after they've got back from the moon. You've walked on the fucking moon, what are you gonna do now?" |
||
Line 72: | Line 72: | ||
Phil Oakey said in a 1983 ''NME'' interview with Morley that, as long as the Human League can release albums as good as ''Love and Dancing'', "then we deserve to be heard in five years' time and we don't deserve to be dropped like, say, [[Adam Ant]]'s been dropped."<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Morley |first1=Paul |title=The Human League: Phil Oakey's Five Minute Plan |magazine=NME |date=8 January 1983 |url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-human-league-phil-oakeys-five-minute-plan |accessdate=29 November 2019}}</ref> He later hailed the album as "so innovative" in an interview with ''[[The Quietus]]'', saying: "Martin was splicing in empty tape so the music would jerk, and no one had done stuff like this before. The guys mastering the album were saying, ‘You can't do this.’ It was that original."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Doran|first1=Jack|title=This Is Phil (And Jo And Sue) Talking: The Human League Being Grilled|url=http://thequietus.com/articles/05685-this-is-phil-and-joanne-and-susan-talking-the-human-league-interview|website=The Quietus|accessdate=10 November 2017|date=14 February 2011}}</ref> Oakey and Rushent both considered ''Love and Dancing'' to be better than ''Dare'',<ref name="Reynolds2" /><ref name="Easlea" /> the latter believing it to break the mould and ignite "the whole of the modern dance scene," commenting: "There isn't one effect or trick that you hear in any gene of modern dance music that you won't find on ''Love and Dancing''. Like the stuttering vocals. That's the first record you'll find it on."<ref name="Reynolds2" /> He cited creating ''Love and Dancing'' as the most creative experience he had ever had, but also found it hard to follow up from, and took a lengthy hiatus from music production.<ref name="Reynolds2" /> |
Phil Oakey said in a 1983 ''NME'' interview with Morley that, as long as the Human League can release albums as good as ''Love and Dancing'', "then we deserve to be heard in five years' time and we don't deserve to be dropped like, say, [[Adam Ant]]'s been dropped."<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Morley |first1=Paul |title=The Human League: Phil Oakey's Five Minute Plan |magazine=NME |date=8 January 1983 |url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-human-league-phil-oakeys-five-minute-plan |accessdate=29 November 2019}}</ref> He later hailed the album as "so innovative" in an interview with ''[[The Quietus]]'', saying: "Martin was splicing in empty tape so the music would jerk, and no one had done stuff like this before. The guys mastering the album were saying, ‘You can't do this.’ It was that original."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Doran|first1=Jack|title=This Is Phil (And Jo And Sue) Talking: The Human League Being Grilled|url=http://thequietus.com/articles/05685-this-is-phil-and-joanne-and-susan-talking-the-human-league-interview|website=The Quietus|accessdate=10 November 2017|date=14 February 2011}}</ref> Oakey and Rushent both considered ''Love and Dancing'' to be better than ''Dare'',<ref name="Reynolds2" /><ref name="Easlea" /> the latter believing it to break the mould and ignite "the whole of the modern dance scene," commenting: "There isn't one effect or trick that you hear in any gene of modern dance music that you won't find on ''Love and Dancing''. Like the stuttering vocals. That's the first record you'll find it on."<ref name="Reynolds2" /> He cited creating ''Love and Dancing'' as the most creative experience he had ever had, but also found it hard to follow up from, and took a lengthy hiatus from music production.<ref name="Reynolds2" /> |
||
Virgin Records released ''Love and Dancing'' on CD in 1984<ref name="booklet1">{{cite AV media notes| title = Love and Dancing| others= The League Unlimited Orchestra| year = 1984| type = liner| publisher = Virgin Records}}</ref> and a remastered CD edition on 6 January 2003.<ref name="booklet2">{{cite AV media notes| title = Love and Dancing| others= The League Unlimited Orchestra| year = 2003| type = liner| publisher = Virgin Records}}</ref> ''Dare/Love and Dancing'', containing remastered versions of the two albums in the same package, was released by Virgin Records in the UK on 21 October 2002<ref>{{cite web|last1=Thompson|first1=Dave|title=AllMusic Review by Dave Thompson|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/dare%21-love-and-dancing-mw0000166901|website=AllMusic|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref> and by [[Caroline Records]] in the US on 28 January 2003.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Upcoming at Retail|magazine=CMJ New Music Monthly|date=27 January 2003|volume=74|issue=798|page=37|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RgmrZJj49KcC& |
Virgin Records released ''Love and Dancing'' on CD in 1984<ref name="booklet1">{{cite AV media notes| title = Love and Dancing| others= The League Unlimited Orchestra| year = 1984| type = liner| publisher = Virgin Records}}</ref> and a remastered CD edition on 6 January 2003.<ref name="booklet2">{{cite AV media notes| title = Love and Dancing| others= The League Unlimited Orchestra| year = 2003| type = liner| publisher = Virgin Records}}</ref> ''Dare/Love and Dancing'', containing remastered versions of the two albums in the same package, was released by Virgin Records in the UK on 21 October 2002<ref>{{cite web|last1=Thompson|first1=Dave|title=AllMusic Review by Dave Thompson|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/dare%21-love-and-dancing-mw0000166901|website=AllMusic|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref> and by [[Caroline Records]] in the US on 28 January 2003.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Upcoming at Retail|magazine=CMJ New Music Monthly|date=27 January 2003|volume=74|issue=798|page=37|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RgmrZJj49KcC&q=%22love+and+dancing%22+2003&pg=PA37|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref><ref name="Vital">{{cite magazine|title=Vital Reissues|magazine=Billboard|date=1 February 2003|volume=115|issue=5|page=43|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Q8EAAAAMBAJ&q=%22love+and+dancing%22+billboard&pg=PA43|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref> ''Billboard'' magazine described ''Dare/Love and Dancing'' as a "Vital Reissue".<ref name="Vital" /> In the early 2010s, Rushent began creating an updated version of ''Love and Dancing'' using live instrumentation, but the project went unfinished due to his death in 2011.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Winter|first1=Tina|title=The Human League|url=http://thequietus.com/articles/08958-the-human-league-dare-reissue-review|website=The Quietus|accessdate=12 November 2017|date=5 June 2012}}</ref> His son, producer Tim Rushent, said of the incomplete project: "He hated to repeat himself and was always looking to move productions forwards and challenge himself. There are some recordings, but they're not what he settled on. The plan is for the first, last and only time, one take, ''Love And Dancing Live''. It's all mapped out, it's all dad's work. And dad being dad, it's not as straightforward as it sounds. All we have to do is see that his final production happens."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Mason|first1=Neil|title=The Making of Dare|url=https://electronicsound.co.uk/blog/the-making-of-dare/|website=Electronic Sound|accessdate=12 November 2017}}</ref> |
||
== Track listing == |
== Track listing == |
||
=== Side one === |
=== Side one === |
||
# "Hard Times" (Callis, Oakey, Wright) |
# "Hard Times" (Callis, Oakey, Wright) – 5:40 |
||
# "[[Love Action (I Believe in Love)]]" (Burden, Oakey) |
# "[[Love Action (I Believe in Love)]]" (Burden, Oakey) – 5:12 |
||
# "[[Don't You Want Me]]" (Callis, Oakey, Wright) |
# "[[Don't You Want Me]]" (Callis, Oakey, Wright) – 7:18 |
||
=== Side two === |
=== Side two === |
||
#<li value="4"> "[[Things That Dreams Are Made Of]]" (Oakey, Wright) |
#<li value="4"> "[[Things That Dreams Are Made Of]]" (Oakey, Wright) – 5:10 |
||
# "Do or Die" (Burden, Oakey) |
# "Do or Die" (Burden, Oakey) – 4:36 |
||
# "Seconds" (Callis, Oakey, Wright) |
# "Seconds" (Callis, Oakey, Wright) – 2:25 |
||
# "[[Open Your Heart (Human League song)|Open Your Heart]]" (Callis, Oakey) |
# "[[Open Your Heart (Human League song)|Open Your Heart]]" (Callis, Oakey) – 2:35 |
||
# "[[The Sound of the Crowd]]" (Burden, Oakey) |
# "[[The Sound of the Crowd]]" (Burden, Oakey) – 2:55 |
||
== Personnel == |
== Personnel == |
||
Line 96: | Line 97: | ||
===Weekly charts=== |
===Weekly charts=== |
||
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center" |
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center" |
||
|+ Weekly chart performance for ''Love and Dancing'' |
|||
⚫ | |||
! scope="col"| Chart (1982) |
! scope="col"| Chart (1982) |
||
! scope="col"| Peak<br>position |
! scope="col"| Peak<br>position |
||
|- |
|- |
||
! scope="row"| |
! scope="row"| Australian Albums ([[Kent Music Report]])<ref name=aus>{{cite book|last=Kent|first=David|author-link=David Kent (historian)|title=Australian Chart Book 1970–1992|edition=illustrated|publisher=Australian Chart Book|location=St Ives, N.S.W.|year=1993|isbn=0-646-11917-6|page=175}}</ref> |
||
| style="text-align:center;"|42 |
|||
⚫ | |||
! scope="row"| Finnish Albums ([[The Official Finnish Charts|Suomen virallinen lista]])<ref>{{cite book |last=Pennanen |first=Timo |title=Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 |language=fi |edition=1st |location=Helsinki |publisher=[[Otava (publisher)|Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-951-1-21053-5}}</ref> |
|||
| 22 |
| 22 |
||
|- |
|- |
||
Line 115: | Line 119: | ||
===Year-end charts=== |
===Year-end charts=== |
||
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center" |
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center" |
||
|+ Year-end chart performance for ''Love and Dancing'' |
|||
|- |
|||
! scope="col"| Chart (1982) |
! scope="col"| Chart (1982) |
||
! scope="col"| Position |
! scope="col"| Position |
||
Line 125: | Line 129: | ||
==Certifications== |
==Certifications== |
||
{{Certification Table Top}} |
{{Certification Table Top|caption=Certifications for ''Love and Dancing''}} |
||
{{Certification Table Entry|region=United Kingdom|artist=Human League|title=Love and Dancing (League Unlimited Orchestra)|award=Platinum|type=album|relyear=1982|certyear=1986|date=1 November 1986|accessdate=17 April 2020|refname="BPI"}} |
{{Certification Table Entry|region=United Kingdom|artist=Human League|title=Love and Dancing (League Unlimited Orchestra)|award=Platinum|type=album|relyear=1982|certyear=1986|date=1 November 1986|accessdate=17 April 2020|refname="BPI"|id=4004-1056-2}} |
||
{{Certification Table Bottom|nosales=yes}} |
{{Certification Table Bottom|nosales=yes}} |
||
Line 132: | Line 136: | ||
{{Reflist}} |
{{Reflist}} |
||
{{Human League}} |
{{Human League}} |
||
{{Authority control}} |
|||
[[Category:1982 remix albums]] |
[[Category:1982 remix albums]] |
Latest revision as of 20:47, 10 December 2023
Love and Dancing | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Remix album by | ||||
Released | 2 July 1982 | |||
Recorded | 1981 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 35:40 | |||
Label | Virgin | |||
Producer |
| |||
The Human League chronology | ||||
|
Love and Dancing is a remix album by English synth-pop band The Human League, released in July 1982 by Virgin Records. Issued under the band name "The League Unlimited Orchestra" as a nod to Barry White's disco-era Love Unlimited Orchestra, the album was principally the idea and work of producer Martin Rushent and contains dub-style, largely instrumental remixes of songs from the band's multi-platinum selling album Dare (1981), along with a version of the track "Hard Times", which had originally been the B-side of the single "Love Action (I Believe in Love)". Rushent was inspired by hip hop turntablist Grandmaster Flash and created Love and Dancing on a mixing board. He created vocal effects by cutting up portions of the Dare tape and manually gluing them together. In total, over 2,600 edits feature on the album.
Upon release, Love and Dancing was able to take advantage of the huge success of Dare and also work as a stopgap while the Human League worked on new material. The album received both mixed and positive reviews from music critics and was a commercial success, reached number three in the UK Albums Chart and later being certified Platinum by the BPI. Today, the album is regarded as among the earliest remix albums ever released and has proven influential. In 2002, both Dare and Love and Dancing were remastered and re-issued together in a single package, while a single CD release of the Love and Dancing remaster was released the following year.
Background
[edit]Synth-pop band The Human League's third album Dare (1981), produced by Martin Rushent,[2] reached number one on the UK Albums Chart,[3] and has retrospectively been considered one of the era's defining albums,[4] ranking in critics' lists of the greatest albums of the 1980s and sometimes of all time.[citation needed] Dare also found success in the United States, partly because of New York-based black radio stations airing music from the album. The record's synth bass and Linn Electronics drum machine beats paralleled the electro funk music that had gained popularity on New York stations like Kiss, where according to writer Simon Reynolds, "tracks were undergoing radical remixing and be montaged into seamless segues that lasted half an hour or more."[5] Rushent was already aware of the potential of remixing, having embedded a "dub-like spaciousness" to Human League tracks in parts where the instrumentation drops out.[5]
The producer had been listening to hip hop DJ Grandmaster Flash and played his music to front man Phil Oakey, who also enjoyed it.[6] After seeing the DJ in New York, Rushent felt he could recreate his scratching style with tape scrubbing.[7] With this in mind, he suggested creating a dub remix of the second single from Dare, "Love Action (I Believe in Love)", by chopping the song up and adding effects. This would allow Virgin Records to release it on the B-side of the single, as the label was eager to rush-release singles from Dare, leaving the Human League and Rushent without time to record new B-sides.[6] Besides the "Love Action" remix, the producer ultimately created three or four other similar dub remixes to other songs from Dare.[6] Further inspired by the music he would hear in clubs across New York,[8] he ultimately proposed to the Human League that he create an instrumental remix album of Dare, hoping that it would exemplify his production skills and "establish a new benchmark for electronic dance pop."[5]
Nonetheless, both the band and Virgin Records originally relented against the idea of the remix album, not wanting to pay for or release it. Rushent had to fight their opposition in order to create the album.[5] Oakey remained unsure about the project and left Rushent to make the release on his own.[6] Neil Mason of Louder Than War wrote that "Cruel", an instrumental version of "I Don't Depend on You" (a 1979 single released by The Human League under the alternative name The Men) that was released as that single's B-side, laid the formula that would ultimately lead to Love and Dancing.[9]
Love and Dancing is sometimes viewed as a stopgap in the Human League's discography, released to keep the band in the public profile while the band recorded new material.[10][11] Band member Jo Callis has disputed this, saying: "I think that was going to happen anyway. Soft Cell had done something similar around that time releasing a remixed album. Martin Rushent had this concept about remixing, taking a track apart and putting it back together. It was a new idea and concept and it seemed a good idea to everybody to try it out. So the concept of the Love and Dancing would have happened regardless."[12]
Production and composition
[edit]Reynolds writes that it "took thousands of man-hours of intensive sonic surgery" for Rushent to create Love and Dancing.[5] The producer spent about ten days making the album,[13] remixing the material on a mixing board with the multitrack recording of Dare being fed into the device.[6] He also operated a Harmonizer on the first send and placed numerous phasers and delay lines that he would proceed to "flick about" into his set up. Rushent recalled: "I'd do a section and if I liked it I'd make a tape cut and splice it in."[6] He created complex vocal effects by hand, cutting up small portions of tape and gluing them together until he had achieved "the stuttering 't-t-t-t' effect."[5] When asked by Reynolds if he used samplers, he elaborated:
"No, no. There wasn't samplers then. I actually did it by cutting up tiny bits of tape. I made myself a special ruler which read out in milliseconds how long a piece of tape was. So I'd say, 'OK, this thing's at 120 beats per minute, so one beat is that long, a quarter of a beat is that long, and so I want to cut that little piece of tape by this length.' That would be the first bit of Phil going 't'. And then I got another copy of 't' and I glued them all together and got the stutter effect: 't-t-t-t'."[13]
Dave Allen acted as Rushent's sound engineer during the sessions. His role was generally of a technical nature, and he later quipped: "Martin was/is a genius though, I was merely Sancho Panza."[7] By the end of the remixing process, the master tape of Love and Dancing had 2,200 main edits and some 400 further, smaller edits for the stuttering repetition effects. This amount of splicing was so excessive – with an edit every half a second[13] – that the master tape came very close to disintegrating. Rushent recalled: "You couldn't fast-forward it or fast-rewind it, so the first thing I did was copy the album on to another tape, before the original master fell apart."[5]
Overall, Love and Dancing consists of Rushent's special dub remixes of eight tracks, seven of these from Dare and the other, "Hard Times", originally appearing as the B-side to the "Love Action" single.[14] Brainwashed wrote that the album's "liberal use of echo and a complement of wacky sound effects and instrumental fills [are] immediately reminiscent of the early dub approach to remixing."[14] Many of the tracks are at 120 beats per minute.[7] Paul Morley of NME said that Rushent's production contains "plenty of moving parts, noises falling upwards, a way forward and backwards that is full of abrupt encounters – sudden interfaces, then emptiness."[15] Music critics Daryl Easlea and Joel McIver of Record Collector described the album as being "full of stop-start beats, unpalatable noises and clunky, chunky deconstructions of [the Human League's] finest pop moments."[16] Colin Irwin of Melody Maker described the album as "an instrumental soundscape."[17]
Release and reception
[edit]Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [18] |
The Baltimore Sun | [19] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [20] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [21] |
Smash Hits | 6/10[22] |
Upon the completion of Love and Dancing, the band decided to sell it at a relatively cheap price, believing the release to be "unfair to the fans."[5] Band member Joanne Catherall nonetheless reflected that the group loved the album.[8] The record was released in the United Kingdom by Virgin Records in July 1982, using the group name "The League Unlimited Orchestra" in tribute to Barry White's instrumental, disco-era backing band Love Unlimited Orchestra.[23] The back cover of the album features individual photographs of the Human League, Rushent, his sound engineer Dave Allen, as well as sleeve designer Ken Ansell. Rushent recalled: "They had to have a picture of me. I did the whole thing on my own!"[5] Rushent received no writing royalties on the album and in retrospect believed this to be unfair.[13] The album title was the former name for the song "Do or Die".[24]
The appearance of the album in July 1982 was a month after the release of Soft Cell's similarly styled remix album Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing,[25] and these releases, alongside The B-52's' Party Mix!, were later described by Easle and McIver as "the trilogy of early '80s pop-dance mix albums".[16] By this point, Dare had created commercial momentum for Love and Dancing,[16] which reached number three on the UK Albums Chart,[26] and was certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 1 November 1986 for sales of over 300,000 copies.[27] The album was released in mid-price format by A&M Records in the United States several weeks later.[28] Upon its American release, a couple of the tracks, including the "Don't You Want Me" remix, had already circulated on twelve-inch singles, whereas the other tracks were previously unreleased there and thus were embraced as "welcome bonuses", according to Brian Chin of Billboard.[25]
In a contemporary review, Paul Morley of the NME hailed Love and Dancing as an "exclamation mark" to the success of Dare, which he felt was "one of the great popular music LPs," and described its artful style as "the sound of 'love in fairyland' being launched into wonderland."[29] Ian Birch in Smash Hits called the album an "odd item" and wrote: "Is it a stopgap measure or a fearlessly new way of presenting old tracks? It's neither really. Instead, the new window dressing produces some jaunty and occasionally jolting electronic effects. Ideal for watching Ceefax to."[30] Among retrospective reviews, William Ruhlmann of AllMusic wrote that "if you always thought 'Don't You Want Me' was a great track with obnoxious vocals, this is the album for you."[31] Ira Robbins of Trouser Press said that "[s]ome of the record bears listening to; other parts, however, are either repetitively dull or noisily annoying."[32] In The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, the album is referred to as "an amusing trifle" and "a prelude of sorts" to the band's subsequent EP Fascination! (1983).[33] Reviewing the 2002 re-release for Record Collector, Daryl Easlea and Joel McIver wrote that "Love and Dancing sounds pretty much as you'd expect, and only dated in the way that Giorgio Moroder's productions with Donna Summer sound. Thankfully recorded before the Fairlight sampler had fully taken hold, it sounds like the last post in the '80s for real, organic synthesiser music, if there could ever be such a thing. It's great fun."[16]
Legacy
[edit]Love and Dancing was one of the first remix albums ever released,[6][34] and established the Human League as pioneers of the format,[35] with Jon Falcone of Music OMH calling the album "revolutionary" for its production.[36] Tom Flint of Sound on Sound felt the album was "arguably even more influential than Dare itself,"[6] while NME wrote that both Dare and Love and Dancing "redefined modern synthetic pop."[37] In his book Rip It Up and Start Again, Simon Reynolds hailed Love and Dancing "[a] masterpiece of editing and mixing-board wizardry."[5] Tim Thornton of The Huffington Post cites the album as "one of the few examples of a whole album [...] being remixed by one person and then released as another album."[38] In 2012, Fact included the record in a list of 20 landmark remix albums, describing it as "[t]he daddy of pop remix albums."[1] In an interview, Sean Dickison of The Soup Dragons spoke of his infatuation for "the deconstruction concept of remix albums," including that of Love and Dancing,[39] while Pet Shop Boys cited Love and Dancing as the inspiration for the etc. bonus CD in the double-disc edition of their album Yes (2009).[40] Holly Johnson, formerly of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, recalled Love and Dancing being "incredible to dance to in seedy gay nightclubs."[41]
"Making Love and Dancing was the most creative experience I've ever had in my life. Something that has been difficult to top. I haven't gone anywhere near it since. That's probably why I gave up record production for so long. It's like why astronauts go a bit loopy after they've got back from the moon. You've walked on the fucking moon, what are you gonna do now?"
—Martin Rushent, 2005[13]
Phil Oakey said in a 1983 NME interview with Morley that, as long as the Human League can release albums as good as Love and Dancing, "then we deserve to be heard in five years' time and we don't deserve to be dropped like, say, Adam Ant's been dropped."[42] He later hailed the album as "so innovative" in an interview with The Quietus, saying: "Martin was splicing in empty tape so the music would jerk, and no one had done stuff like this before. The guys mastering the album were saying, ‘You can't do this.’ It was that original."[43] Oakey and Rushent both considered Love and Dancing to be better than Dare,[13][16] the latter believing it to break the mould and ignite "the whole of the modern dance scene," commenting: "There isn't one effect or trick that you hear in any gene of modern dance music that you won't find on Love and Dancing. Like the stuttering vocals. That's the first record you'll find it on."[13] He cited creating Love and Dancing as the most creative experience he had ever had, but also found it hard to follow up from, and took a lengthy hiatus from music production.[13]
Virgin Records released Love and Dancing on CD in 1984[44] and a remastered CD edition on 6 January 2003.[45] Dare/Love and Dancing, containing remastered versions of the two albums in the same package, was released by Virgin Records in the UK on 21 October 2002[46] and by Caroline Records in the US on 28 January 2003.[47][48] Billboard magazine described Dare/Love and Dancing as a "Vital Reissue".[48] In the early 2010s, Rushent began creating an updated version of Love and Dancing using live instrumentation, but the project went unfinished due to his death in 2011.[49] His son, producer Tim Rushent, said of the incomplete project: "He hated to repeat himself and was always looking to move productions forwards and challenge himself. There are some recordings, but they're not what he settled on. The plan is for the first, last and only time, one take, Love And Dancing Live. It's all mapped out, it's all dad's work. And dad being dad, it's not as straightforward as it sounds. All we have to do is see that his final production happens."[50]
Track listing
[edit]Side one
[edit]- "Hard Times" (Callis, Oakey, Wright) – 5:40
- "Love Action (I Believe in Love)" (Burden, Oakey) – 5:12
- "Don't You Want Me" (Callis, Oakey, Wright) – 7:18
Side two
[edit]- "Things That Dreams Are Made Of" (Oakey, Wright) – 5:10
- "Do or Die" (Burden, Oakey) – 4:36
- "Seconds" (Callis, Oakey, Wright) – 2:25
- "Open Your Heart" (Callis, Oakey) – 2:35
- "The Sound of the Crowd" (Burden, Oakey) – 2:55
Personnel
[edit]- Martin Rushent – producer, mixer
- Simon Fowler – photography
Charts
[edit]
Weekly charts[edit]
|
Year-end charts[edit]
|
Certifications
[edit]Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom (BPI)[27] | Platinum | 300,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Dub be good to me: the strange and challenging art of the remix album". Fact. 16 August 2012. p. 2. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
- ^ Mason, Neil. "The Making of Dare". Electronic Sound. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
- ^ British Hit Singles and Albums (Guinness 19th Edition) Guinness World Records Limited; 20Rev Ed edition ISBN 978-1-904994-10-7 (2 June 2007)
- ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine". AllMusic. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Reynolds, Simon. Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984. London: Faber & Faber, 2005. ISBN 0571215696
- ^ a b c d e f g h Rushent, Martin (2007)
- ^ a b c "The Dave Allen Interview". Retrieved 10 November 2017.
- ^ a b Torem, Lisa (9 July 2014). "Interview". Penny Black Music. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
- ^ Mason, Neil (18 March 2012). "Human League and the making of the 'Dare' album". Louder Than War. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
- ^ Smash Hits, 24 June 1982
- ^ Buckley, Peter (30 October 2003). The Rough Guide to Rock. London: Rough Guides. p. 511. ISBN 1843531054. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- ^ "Jo Callis". Aylesbury Friars. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Reynolds, Simon (5 February 2009). Totally Wired: Postpunk Interviews and Overviews. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0571235490. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
- ^ a b "The Human League remastered issues". Brainwashed. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
- ^ Morley, Paul (3 July 1982). "Love and Dancing". NME.
- ^ a b c d e Easlea, Daryl; McIver, Joel (November 2002). "The Human League: Dare/Love And Dancing 21st Anniversary Edition". Record Collector. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
- ^ Irwin, Colin (22 November 1986). "Pet Shop Boys: Disco (EMI)". Melody Maker. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
- ^ Allmusic review
- ^ Considine, J.D. (5 September 1982). "League Unlimited Orchestra: Love and Dancing (A&M)". The Baltimore Sun.
- ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
- ^ Considine, J. D. (2004). "The Human League". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 397–98. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
- ^ "Birch, Ian (24 June 1982). "Album Reviews". Smash Hits. Vol. 4, no. 13. EMAP Metro. p. 17. ISSN 0815-1121.
- ^ "Vital Reissues". Billboard. Vol. 115, no. 5. 1 February 2003. p. 43. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- ^ Birch, Ian (14 October 1981). "The Human League: The Big League". Smash Hits. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
- ^ a b Chin, Brian (24 July 1982). "Dance Trax". Billboard. Vol. 94, no. 29. p. 44. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- ^ a b "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
- ^ a b "British album certifications – Human League – Love and Dancing (League Unlimited Orchestra)". British Phonographic Industry. 1 November 1986. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
- ^ Chin, Brian (31 July 1982). "Dance Trax (2)". Billboard. Vol. 94, no. 30. p. 33. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- ^ Morley, Paul. "Love's Theme". Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- ^ "Birch, Ian (24 June 1982). "Albums". Smash Hits. Vol. 4, no. 13. EMAP Metro. p. 17. ISSN 0815-1121.
- ^ Ruhlmann, William. "AllMusic Review by William Ruhlmann". AllMusic. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- ^ Robbins, Ira. "Human League". Trouser Press. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- ^ The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th edn). USA: Fireside. 2004. p. 398. ISBN 9780743201698.
- ^ Lester, Paul (31 October 2007). "No 216: Spektrum". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- ^ Hocknell, Tom (2011). "The Human League Credo Review". BBC. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
- ^ Falcone, Jon (28 March 2011). "The Human League – Credo". Music OMH. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
- ^ "Human League : London W1 Astoria". NME. 12 September 2005. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
- ^ Thornton, Tim (18 May 2015). "Horizontalism - A Love Story". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- ^ Grace, Paul (18 April 2017). "Hifi Sean: Ft. Excursions – album review". Louder Than War. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
- ^ "Yes, Pet Shop Boys etc". Pet Shop Boys. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- ^ Wade, Ian (23 December 2014). "Strange Refuge: Holly Johnson Discusses His Favourite Albums". The Quietus. p. 11. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
- ^ Morley, Paul (8 January 1983). "The Human League: Phil Oakey's Five Minute Plan". NME. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
- ^ Doran, Jack (14 February 2011). "This Is Phil (And Jo And Sue) Talking: The Human League Being Grilled". The Quietus. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
- ^ Love and Dancing (liner). The League Unlimited Orchestra. Virgin Records. 1984.
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - ^ Love and Dancing (liner). The League Unlimited Orchestra. Virgin Records. 2003.
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - ^ Thompson, Dave. "AllMusic Review by Dave Thompson". AllMusic. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- ^ "Upcoming at Retail". CMJ New Music Monthly. Vol. 74, no. 798. 27 January 2003. p. 37. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- ^ a b "Vital Reissues". Billboard. Vol. 115, no. 5. 1 February 2003. p. 43. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- ^ Winter, Tina (5 June 2012). "The Human League". The Quietus. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- ^ Mason, Neil. "The Making of Dare". Electronic Sound. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 175. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
- ^ Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. ISBN 978-951-1-21053-5.
- ^ "Charts.nz – The League Unlimited Orchestra – Love and Dancing". Hung Medien. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
- ^ "Swedishcharts.com – The League Unlimited Orchestra – Love and Dancing". Hung Medien. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
- ^ "The Human League Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
- ^ Rees, Dafydd; Lazell, Barry; Jones, Alan (1983). "The Top 100 UK Albums". Chart File Volume 2. London: Virgin Books. pp. 82–83. ISBN 0-907080-73-1.