Cheap Travelogue (Music) (Human League) Price

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Customer Reviews of Travelogue

Not as chilling as Reproduction
I've never been a Human League fan but I bought Reproduction and was amazed at it's icy, chilly and perhaps wintry approach. This however is a bit like the thawing process between Reproduction and Dare and as a result it seems a bit patchy. The Black Hit Of Space is a good song and so is their cover of Only After Dark, but Dreams of Leaving really show up Phil Oakey's limitations as a singer. I suppose the same can be said for TBHOS were Oakey sounds a little wooden. Tracks like Marianne and a few others are pretty good but they just don't have the same heart as the songs on Reproduction. Having said that there are moments within some of those songs that are not so great where the song briefly comes alive and then dies off.....which was never the case with Reproduction.....it's a shame though that Ware and Marsh left the band because with that Human League's creative was stolen and soon they became a complete mess ( well OK after Don't You Want Me, Baby? - the classic karaoke hit of the 80s ). Their songs became bland and not much else.

I've made this point out that if Reproduction was like Cronenberg's Shivers, then Travelogue was like Rabid, a poor patchy product that has it's moments but not as satisfying. I could be wrong of course. It's just my opinion that's all

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Spooky Masterpiece.....
There is something about this album that is strange and unique. It is truly a work of art-- themes of industrialization, automation, and isolation are echoed by machine-like synthesizer sounds of the late 70's. It is haunting yet charming at the same time. Poignant, but with a sense of humor too. This is rare and under appreciated album and probably always will be. The bonus tracks are equally as good, most notably "I don't depend on you" with its surprising disco-era sound. Not for everybody, but definitely can be appreciated by fans of Gary Numan's early work such as "Telekon" and "Dance"

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post-punk synth classic
For all the press that synth pop got in the early 80s, not a lot of it has held up particularly well, except at the more experimental end of what could still sort of be called pop. Suicide's first album still sounds fab, Cabaret Voltaire's early Rough Trade material makes increasingly wonderful aesthetic sense, but it's the Human League who finally seem to be undergoing a long overdue critical reevaluation. This began with the release of a CD of "pre-Human League" recordings made largely under the name "The Future". It continues with the reissue and remastering of the first three Human League albums.

"Travelogue" is the band's true masterpiece. Much more cohesive than its predecessor "Reproduction", it maintains a unique experimental edge that's largely (though not entirely) lost on their next album, "Dare" - but it's loaded with songs that are full of great ideas, catchy tunes and stark beauty. It's hard to resist "The Black Hit Of Space" - wherein a song so bland becomes a black hole, sucking up everything in its orbit and climbing so high in the charts that it reaches negative numbers - in this day and age. They turn a commercial jingle for gin into a lovely tune, cover Iggy, Mick Ronson and Gary Glitter, and convincingly too.

What's new about this remaster? Well, it sounds great - better than the original vinyl and miles beyond the earlier CD issue. Other than that, it looks the same from the outside, but inside the booklet are expanded lyrics and credits. That's the good stuff... Oh well. It's nearly the length of two LPs (there are 7 bonus tracks) and worth every penny anyway.

For the record, "Reproduction" and "Dare" are similarly remastered and worth it too. Each has 8 bonus tracks.