ROMANTIC? REVIEWS

 

Q Magazine September 1990

Lloyd Bradley

The first new Human League album in four years finds the group struggling somewhat as the events hurtle past them. Left to their own devices, it appears they’re woefully short on ideas and fall back on a stab at reliving the old Rushent/Callis glory days-electronic disco, like a denser version of early hip hop, celebrating its own ordinariness with pop girl voices and Oakey’s disaffected drone. The trouble is that this isn’t too interesting any more - danceable UK pop has progressed light years in the last half-decade and sophistication is the current by word. Thus as the band fail to incorporate anything modern with much conviction (the couple of attempts at house are pedestrian in the xtreme) and this too-basic format is held back by a lack of good songs to start off with, the overall effect sounds flat and half-finsiehd. The only track on the album with any depth, the current single Heart Like A Wheel, is the only one written by Jo Callis, and in spite of standing out still has an unnervingly anachronistic feel to it.

**

 

Smash Hits September 1990

Peter Stanton

If I was to compare the Human League to a football team, Burnley would spring to mind. Both the Human League and Burnley were once big, bristling with talent and battling it out with the greats. But at the end of the day, their current performances can only be described as utter kak.

The League seem to have ignored the fact that the naughty Nineties are here to stay and have stuck with that pure synth Eighties sound which would have scared the pants off Ultravox and Soft Cell had this been 1982. “Heart Like A Wheel”, with its catchy little beat is the only highspot in this dire collection.

“Mister Moon And Mister Sun” attempts to register with the present day, stealing, as many others do, from James Brown’s slinky “Funky Drummer” beat. Akin to giving Chris De Burgh small eyebrows and a good haircut, it just doesn’t suit them. The same trio of Phil Oakey, Joanne Catherall and Suzanne Sulley drone and harmonise through some complete stinkers like “Men Are Dreamers”, “Rebound” and a blundering Glitter band cover, “Let’s Get Together Again”.

To be quite honest, this album’s just a load of old romantics!

 

Q Magazine September 1995

Damp squid, saleswise, this game return to the fray saw inevitable tinkering from dance semi-luminaries (William Orbit, Sheffield’s Fon Force) but welcomed back Dare-vintage knobsmith Martin Rushent, notably on soaring 45 Heart Like A Wheel. Band clearly at creative and financial crossroads.

**

 

www.allmediaguide.com

William Ruhlmann

...The group's pop-synthesizer sound seemed dated. Although some songs showed a little spirit, especially when Catherall and Sulley were used more prominently, all of this had been done before, and better...


www.allmusic.com new
The Human League reorganized in the four years it took to follow
Crash, stripping down to a trio of singers — Philip Oakey, Joanne Catherall, and Susan Ann Sulley — then adding guitarist Russell Dennett and keyboard player Neil Sutton. They also shed producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, returning to old friend Martin Rushent on a couple of tracks, among them the Top 40 hit "Heart Like a Wheel." But eight years after "Don't You Want Me," the group's pop-synthesizer sound seemed dated. Although some songs showed a little spirit, especially when Catherall and Sulley were used more prominently, all of this had been done before, and better. Romantic? spent only two weeks in the British charts and didn't chart at all in America.

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