FEATURE:
Second Spin
The Human League – Crash
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IT is strange how…
some bands produce an incredible and faultless record and then, on their next couple of releases, sort of slump. Not to say that is what happened to Sheffield’s The Human League after the release of 1981’s Dare. That album is such a classic and it contains some of their best tracks – The Sound of the Crowd and Don’t You Want Me among the gems. 1984’s Hysteria was the next studio album. It wasn’t really up there with Dare. Despite some strong material, critics did not react as positively. Following Hysteria, the band delivered Crash. That title might be ironic: considering some of the reviews, many felt it was a bit of a disaster. I don’t think it is the best album from The Human League, though it is one that has some great moments. This year will see many people revisit Dare on its fortieth anniversary. It seemed that Crash was a difficult album to record. During a period where things were quite tense in the band, one can understand why there is a slight lack of focus and quality. Released on 8th September, 1986, Crash does contain some pearls. It is hard to find many reviews of the album. I will bring (a mixed) one in soon. I do think that people should seek out Crash and give it another chance. Bringing in some background, and one gets a sense of how The Human League developed and adapted after the release of Hysteria:
“After spending two years recording their fourth album Hysteria, which met with only moderate commercial success, the band struggled to record further material. By 1985, musician/songwriter Jo Callis had left the group. Virgin Records, worried by the lack of progress in one of their leading acts, called the band principals to a meeting where a solution was sought. As the problem was perceived to be the lack of production, it was suggested that the band take up an offer to work with Minneapolis based production duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Jam and Lewis had written for and produced the S.O.S. Band, Cherrelle and Alexander O'Neal, and had just finished working on Janet Jackson's breakthrough album Control. They had developed an interest in The Human League after the success of their US releases; they were also seeking an opportunity to cross over into mainstream pop and saw The Human League as the perfect opportunity.
In February 1986, The Human League were flown out to Minneapolis to work at Flyte Time Studios with Jam and Lewis. After initial enthusiasm on both sides, the working relationship began to break down. Jam and Lewis had total control over the final album and insisted that their own tracks take precedence over the band's material. Jam and Lewis were also intolerant of the band's laid back working methods and their lack of musical technical ability.
After four months in Minneapolis, a sidelined Philip Oakey pulled the band out of further recording and they returned to Sheffield leaving Jam and Lewis to complete the album using session musicians. Oakey said later:
We like to be in control in the studio. We don't like giving that up to a producer. That's why we had a big, final argument, and we just decided to go home and leave them to finish it off. It just got to the point of who had the power, and in that instance...They were the men behind the mixing console, so they had ultimate control.
Keyboard players Philip Adrian Wright and Ian Burden also had been sidelined by Jam and Lewis. Wright would not recover from the humiliation and immediately left the band upon their return to the UK. Burden eventually quit the band in 1987.
The album name was taken from a moment in the studio during the recording. Oakey described it thus:
It's from a crash cymbal, because it's a disco album again with lots of cymbals. One day somebody said “what sorts of cymbals do you want, a ride or a crash?”, and we thought, “what a great title!”
Although at the time the band had all but washed their hands of the album post production, when released it quickly became an unexpected success. One of the Jam and Lewis compositions, "Human", was released as the album's first single and became the Human League's second number-one on the US Billboard Hot 100 and their first UK top-ten hit in over three years (no.8). Follow-up singles "I Need Your Loving" and the 1988 UK-only release "Love Is All That Matters" were less successful, failing to reach the UK Top 40. The album itself peaked at number 7 in UK (where it was certified Gold for sales in excess of 100,000 copies) and number 24 on the US Billboard 200 album chart. Oakey, with hindsight, states that it was this album that saved the band's career and one of the main reasons they are still recording today.[citation needed] However, he also stated in 1995 his disconcert with the record, saying: "The Jam and Lewis album [Crash] was just like being a puppet for four months. It was interesting to pick yourself out of the industrial north of England and dump yourself in Minneapolis. Great experience, but it just wasn't our album".
I have a lot of time for Crash. It is an album that has some weak spots, though it is not as bad as some people say. I opened by remarking how bands can produce a classic and then not live up to that standard very soon after. If Dare is the masterpiece from The Human League, I think that Crash is an album that is worth listening to. I want to source one review for Crash. This is what AllMusic wrote in their assessment:
“The Human League turned to American R&B producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis in the wake of their success with Janet Jackson's Control, and the combination brought the group its second number one hit with the Jam-Lewis composition "Human," which harked back to the earlier "Don't You Want Me," albeit with a gentler tone. The album's second single, the Control-soundalike "I Need Your Loving," was also a Jam-Lewis song (as was the U.K.-only third single, "Love Is All That Matters"), but the bulk of the album was made up of group-written songs with appealing backing tracks that maintained their dance appeal while eschewing the overtly synthesized sound of previous albums. That made Crash an improvement over the lackluster Hysteria, but still not on a par with Dare”.
Human is the big hit and success from Crash. I also feel that there are four or five other tracks that are really good. Overall, I would say Crash is an album that has its moments and should not be seen as a disaster. It wasn’t until the band’s eighth album, Secrets, of 2001 where they recovered some of their form and got back on track. That being said, I do think that 1986’s Crash is…
WORTHY of some more time.