LOVE AND DANCING REVIEWS

 

Rolling Stone 1982

David Fricke

FLUSHED WITH THE recent Top Ten success of Dare, British synth-pop champs the Human League have come up with this microchip off that hit LP’s block, a collection of dub-style remixes orchestrated by League producer Martin Rushent.

Reggae dub masters like Lee Perry and Augustus Pablo have shown that a creative remix can take on a life on its own on a packed dance floor – the crucial beat bolstered by mutant strains of echo and reverb, with altered guitars and keyboards creeping in and out of the mix. But Rushent’s dissection of Dare for dancers cuts the heart out of the original album – the seductive, ABBA-esque grace of the songs – and replaces it with clever but wearisome studio hot-knobbing. The extended version of “Don’t You Want Me” demonstrates how Rushent and the League devised their winning sound: core computerized riffs and pumping synth-bass lines are isolated and deftly reshuffled in a series of lively electrodisco combinations that climax with a taste of that pleading vocal hook. For the most part, though, Rushent strips the songs bare and then teases with good ideas – like the canyon-echo vocals in “Hard Times” – that are employed to saturation. The end result is that Love and Dancing becomes simply too much of a clever thing

**½

 

Billboard 1982

An intriguing semi-follow up to the Human League’s (for it is them) bestselling “Dare”. Producer Martin Rushent has manipulated the backing tracks and erased 90% of the vocals to obtain a dance mix that sounds surprisingly familiar but also new. One new song.

 

NME July 1990

Stuart Maconie

…“LAD” is a ground-breaking record and remains Phil Oakey’s favourite. Put simply, it’s the first remix album and everyone deom Madonna to The Pet Shop Bys owes it an unstated debt. Seven tracks from “Dare” re-cast in disco gold by Rushent,it’s funny, loveable and brimming with life. If time has made the technological trickery commonplace, the conceit remains fresh as paint…

 

www.remembertheeighties.com June 2004 new

The simple fact is that there just isn't very many records like 'Dare' - records that can sum up an entire era, and records that absolutely influenced and inspired an entire generation and every one to come along after it.
Released to celebrate it's 21st anniversary, one of the most successful and celebrated records from the eighties has been remastered, repackaged, and reissued.
Remastering has always been something that I've approached with soem caution - possibly my ears just aren't sensitive enough to pick up on the cleaner enhanced sound that the process is supposed to give... but not this time! This time it sounds fantastic, from the opening notes of 'The Things That Dreams Are Made Of' to the closing moments of possibly the eighties' ultimate song 'Don't You Want Me' this is exactly how 'dare' should always have sounded, and how I dreamed of it sounding when I first bought 'Dare' on popping, hissing, scratchy vinyl twenty years ago. I'm not even going to review the album as such... you'll already know it and have your own opinions, and if you don't then quite why you're here on this site I don't know!
I will however tell you more about the package - in an inspired move 'Dare' is presented with the Human League's alternative version of 'Dare' - the 100% instrumental remix album 'Love & Dancing'... when pushed to name my favourite albums 'Love & Dancing' is easily one of my top five, and for me even eclipses "Dare'. What I wasn't expecting was to have both albums on one CD... I just assumed it would be a double CD pack, and although it's not a problem as such it just kind of makes the package feel just a little bit like it's corners have been cut, particularly seeing as the CD is packaged inside a hardback CD sized book (the original 'Dare' artwork on the cover).
The book is something of a disappointment - as a package it looks fantastic, but the contents are flimsy and disappointing... the lyrics to all the songs - fair enough...pictures of the band - ditto, but the disappointment lies not with what is in the book, but with what could have been. Phil Oakey writes some of the sleevenotes which is great, but he doesn't really have anything to say and a spase 25 lines is spread over three pages - in the same way as you used to write big at school in order to make your work look longer... Boy George contributes a paragraph, and Simon Heyworth (who remastered the album) gets two pages to talk about some techy stuff...
basically nothing here to justify a hardback book style cover - the old phrase 'don't judge a book by it's cover' springs to mind, and in this case proves all too right - don't judge any of this by the packaging because that way disappointment lies, but judge it by the music and it's impossible to think of a more impressive release.

 

www.allmusic.com
William Ruhlmann
Credited to "The League Unlimited Orchestra" in homage to Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra, Love and Dancing carried a sleeve note that read, "This album contains instrumental versions of previously released songs by the Human League specially remixed and produced by Martin Rushent." (Actually, one song was new, and there are a few vocal choruses.) The songs had been released previously on Dare, so if you always thought "Don't You Want Me" was a great track with obnoxious vocals, this is the album for you.

2/5