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UK Release date: 06.07.01
Label: Papillon Records
BTFLYCD0019
Click
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Track
Listing
01:
ALL I EVER WANTED
02: NERVOUS
03: LOVE ME MADLY
04: SHAMELESS
05: 123 BPM
06: NEVER GIVE YOUR HEART
07: RAN
08: THE SNAKE
09: RINGINGLOW
10: LIAR
11: LAMENT
12: REFLECTIONS
13: BRUTE
14: SIN CITY
15: RELEASE
16: YOU'LL BE SORRY
PRODUCED
BY TOY (ADDITIONAL MIXING BY THE HUMAN LEAGUE, DAVID BEEVERS &
DAVE BASCOMBE)
UK Chart position:
42
Singles
released:
All I Ever Wanted (30 June 2001)
UK Chart position: 47
Notes:
 In
a career spanning more than 24 years, The Human League are finally
being acknowledged by fellow artist and critics alike as the UK's
most important and influential electronic band, and no one has really
mastered the art of sound synthesis more than this elusive, self-
doubting but closely knit group from Sheffield. Secrets opens with
the glorious forthcoming single All I Ever Wanted. Deliciously catchy,
easily matching the brilliance of past triumphs such as Tell Me
When, Love Action & Fascination. Other than the classic melody
with its pounding bass line, it's the vocal interaction between
Phil and the girls that really makes the song work and all three
are in great vocal shape. It's a single that will sound perfect
on the radio if it gets the airplay it deserves, and stands up to
repeated listens something that is typical of the entire album.
Next up is the first of several instrumentals that act as musical
interludes though some have been fully expanded.
Track 2 is the first of such interludes called
Nervous and it's a warm analogue melody that hints at some of the
sounds you will hear later on the album. At just 2 minutes long,
it leaves you wanting more but before you know it you are grabbed
instantly by the third track Love Me Madly.
This is a manic yet humorous look at obsessive and dangerous relationships.
'Your like the woman outta Species, I
think I'm gonna go to pieces!' sings Phil to a relentless
techno base line. At one point, the object of Phil's dismay is likened
to a gorilla before admitting he's 'getting jealous of the doormat'.
A third of the way through this track there is an irresistible instrumental
break and the single should be served well by remixes when released
in the autumn.
Track 4 Shameless for me is the album's highlight..
A slow tempo track that could be compared to Romantic's stand out
track The Stars Are Going Out full of atmosphere but more contemporary.
Containing a superb instrumental break in this track where the girls
voices have been sampled to create another haunting melody. Crystal
clear production and high quality bleeps make this track very hypnotic
and once again the vocals are excellent.
122.3 BPM is the second instrumental that
stands up on its own with a Kraftwerk-like tecno beat, but once
again it is way too short lasting just over a minute.
Never Give Your Heart could be described
as Secrets answer to One Man in My Heart except that it is much
better. It's the closest Secrets comes to a ballad and like some
tracks on the album, it grabs you after a few listens. Susan takes
the lead on this track, but the real highlight is the melody and
effect overdubs giving the track a lot of depth
Ran is a blissful instrumental containing
a brief sample from the previous track. Susan & Joanne ask 'join
us' as soon as Ran ends for the intro of the next vocal track The
Snake. This is another Mode sounding track with a dark and harsh
Bass line but the girls echoing vocals lighten things up. 'From
the town to the country from the country to the town - come and
join us' sings Phil and the girls and after being seduced by this
album, you probably will. Ringinglow is one of the instrumental
highlights that matches past classics such as Hard Times and contains
a sample of Phil's vocal from the previous track.
Track 10 could be likened to the demented
sister of Love Me Madly. Liar is another slice of furious techno
on the subject of torturous relationships. High tempo and manic
with angry synth sounds similar to the effects Madonna's producer
Mirwais achieves.
Lament is an all-too brief interlude lasting
just for one minute that fades into another of the album's real
gems Reflections. This track is typical of the musical evolution
the League have undertaken. Something of an epic lasting 6 minutes,
Toy's production skills have really gone into overdrive on this
one. A moody track that occasionally displays a hard edge with Phil's
heavily treated vocals with just the right amount of electro distortion.
What is so typical of the album and this track in particular is
how well the girl's vocals have been used to their full potential.
Susan & Jo repeat the line 'Demons of the mind' over another
haunting and atmospheric melody with multiple layers of analogue
bleeps and memorable synth sounds
Brute is an instrumental straight from Reproduction
& Travelogue era (possibly using the same instruments!) and
its so typically Human League and reminds me in places of the Dignity
of Labour EP.
Sin City is yet another album highlight (there
are no throwaway filler tracks on Secrets). It has an almost sparse
electro feel to the intro and verses but things become intense with
a great vocal chorus from the girls and it's better than any of
the album tracks on Octopus. The final instrumental Release is the
best of the non-vocal tracks with a catchy synth lead and lovely
sounds. They should have held this one back to add vocals to it
at a latter stage and with a running time of just 2 minutes, its
irritatingly short.
The concluding track You'll be Sorry initially
struck me as the albums weakest song, but after repeated listens
it has lodged itself in my brain particularly the line 'You'll
be sorry in the morning if you leave me in the evening today'
- a typical display of the Oakey logic we all know and love. You'll
be Sorry is an upbeat track that has an almost 60's feel to it in
terms of melody. Doesn't feel right as the final track, perhaps
Reflections would have made a better finale to a brilliant album?
orac - July 01
Media Reviews
August
2001
Synthpop doyens return winningly after 6 years. Daft who?
Currently
busy camping it up on the wedding/office party/bar mitzvah circuit,
Human League continue to occupy a special slot in the hearts of
those of a certain age. Increasingly name-checked by the likes of
Moby and Armand Van Helden, who knows, they might still enjoy a
second - or is it third? - wind yet. While pointless to pretend
there's anything matching the gauche perfection of Don't You Want
Me?, Secrets is shinier and spunkier than it has any right to be.
All I Ever Wanted makes it instantly clear they still know their
way blindfolded to a thumping pop chorus and there's lots more where
that came from. With some clubby instrumentals bulking things out,
it could even be their best since Dare.
(4 out of 5)
Reviewed by Peter Kane
4 August 2001
Every five years
or so the Human League reappear, still grappling with the principles
of "disposable" synthpop. Secrets is a pleasing mixture of old style
Human League and state-of-the-art techno pop.
Songs
such as All I Ever Wanted and Liar are splendidly melodramatic,
with Phil Oakey's voice the perfect antidote to the sub-Mariah vocal
aerobics peddled by today's pop groups. Interspersed with these
are ambient instrumental passages that are supposed to represent
the history of the League. A fine comeback - see you in 2006, chaps.
(4 out of 5)
Review by David Stubbs
August
2001
 Just
a few seconds of the first track of the new Human League album is
evidence enough that the Sheffield synth-pop legends are working
on the principle of "if it ain't broke don't fix it".
It's an astonishing 20 years since the soundtrack to a generation
that was Dare! was released - and how well songs like Don't You
Want Me? and Love Action gave a rosy glow to all that sixth form
angst.
Now The Human League have resurfaced in a new century with Secrets
and it's like a bunch of old friends turning up out of the blue
after tracking you down on a "find your school chums" website. After
some disappointing albums in the late 80s and early 90s, the Human
League have achieved that rarest of feats: a record with more hooks
than a fisherman's kit bag.
The opening track All I Ever Wanted is like the last two decades
never happened.
Phil Oakey half-sings monosyllabically over a robotic bassline,
while Susan Anne Gayle and Joanne Catherall still sound like they've
just been plucked out of a Sheffield nightclub. What's even more
obvious by the third track Love Me Madly? is that The Human League
lyrics still have the power to make you squirm.
"You're like the woman out of 'Species'/ I think I'm going to go
to pieces" sings Oakey without a trace of irony, adding: "I'm tethered
to a trainee hellcat/ I'm feeling jealous of the doormat".
That said, Love Me Madly? is catchier than a summer cold.
There's refuge from those lyrics in the album's liberal sprinkling
of instrumental interludes. But despite the clubby beats and synth
gymnastics none really last long enough to make much impact.
What this album has going for it is that almost every non-instrumental
track has single potential, in particular Sin City and Never Give
Your Heart - with Susan and Joanne taking the lead vocal duties.
Oakey's weird Eighties haircut may be long gone, but he's kept The
Human League together in their electric dreams.
Review by Tim Masters
3 August 2001
If history was
at all fair, this October would see a street party or two in honour
of the 20th anniversary of the Human League's 'Dare'. An album that,
in 1981, turned a tall bloke from Sheffield with a thing for stilettos,
and his two shape throwing chums, into global stars, whilst slightly
altering the path of pop into the bargain. Now in 2001, with the
likes of Moby and Daft Punk singing their praises, Phil, Joanne
and Susan return with their first album in six years and perhaps
their best album since that era.
Produced by the mysterious Toy, the band sound at their best on
the pumping acid of 'Liar', the insanely catchy comeback single
'All I Ever Wanted' and the burbling future-pop of 'Never Give Your
Heart..', 'Secrets' is also layered out with alternate instrumentals
such as 'Nervous', 'Ran', 'Release' and '122.3BPM' which nod to
Sheffield's other electronic legacy of Warp records.
Phil Oakey's knack for memorable couplets (remember 'And where there
used to be some shops'?) is in good form too, with the semi-gabba
'Love Me Madly?''s quite special 'You're like a cocktail set Atilla,
a kind of Holland Park guerilla'. The overall effect takes the League
far, far away from the selective memory syndrome of eighties revivalism
and images of pissed secretaries belting out 'Don't You Want Me'
on karaoke.
'Secrets' is the sound of one of electronic music's pioneers taking
in all the best bits of the genre and sounding as vital as ever.
Your respect is due.
4.0 out of 5
Review by Ian Wade
UNCUT
Magazine September 2001 issue
OAKEY COMPUTER
 They
couldn't have picked a better time for a comeback. After several
false starts, the eighties revival is finally on. And it's
not just smirky weren't-we-ludicrous retro-TV: young, smart bands
from Ladytron to Adult are paying tribute the best way, by finding
fresh twists to synth-pop's legacy. Something's definitely in the
air: before I even knew there was a new League album coming. I recently
picked up Travelogue, Reproduction & Dare second-hand, while
suddenly friends seemed to be waxing nostalgic about "Being Boiled".
Entering
that barely populated catergory of the non-disgraceful comeback,
Secrets sounds just great: the confidence, conviction and
sense of renewed delight in their own existence is palpable. Opener
"All I Ever Wanted" has almost the same creaky robot-fart bassline
as "Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass" (the 1998 cult hit by neo-electro
outfit i/F that kickstarted techno's interest in the Eighties).
"Love Me Madly" is a blast of controlled hysteria, with great rhymes
"You're really making me anxious/You
know that everybody blanks us")
and OTT metophores like "I'm tethered to a trainee hellcat".
On " Shameless, the squeaky-clean synths, crisp beats and chittering
16th note basslines make you flash on Computer World, and the Moroder
produced Sparks of "Beat The Clock" and "Number One Song In Heaven".
Secrets
is retro-nuevo,
the League staging their own revival ('cos who could do it better?).
State-of-the-art FX co-exist with pure 1981 one-finger synth tunes
and rudimentary arpeggiated refrains. Oakey & co have found
a way to modernise their classic "Love Action"/ "Fascination"/
"Dare!" - era sound without losing it's distictive League-ness.
And that distinctiveness resides in a certain unsupple, boxy quality
Today, electronica producers just press a button to make their tracks
"swing"; computers can give the music "feel" by adding tiny rhythmic
irregularities. Paradoxically, its their stiffness and squareness
that make the League human. But - and here's the weird thing
- the one place this isn't happening
any more is the vocals. Something's been lost, a certain shaky fallibility.
Joanne Catherall and Susanne Sulley sound characterless, the girl-dancing-round-her-handbag-at-the-disco
charm ironed out.
Most
likely the culprit is Autotuner, a studio device that corrects errors
in pitch. Maybe such perfectionism is necessary to compete in a
pop marketplace of fembots like Aguilera and Spears, but it brings
a Bucks Fizz-like plasticity (bad-plastic-ness, as opposed to good
plastic pop) to the backing vocals, and Joanne's lead vocal on "Never
Give Your Heart".
As
a result, Secrets is incredibly strong-there could be six or seven
hit singles here-but it's imned with hollowness. The Human League
have never exactly torn their songs from their hearts.
The
group was one of the inventors of pop-about-pop, the missing link
between M and Saint Etienne. Massive popular success was an essential
component of The Human League's music: it would have been embarrassing,
humilated, without it. Despite this Abba-if-they'd-read-Nik Cohn
self-consciousness, the League's classic-era songs managed to connect
with people, be "moving". But it's hard to imagine punters today
using Secrets' songs to soundtrack their lives. The love/hate
tunes like " All I Ever Wanted" and " Liar" are standard-issue romantic
scenarios. And when Oakey tries to "say" something, the results
are either opague or clumsy. "The Snake" seems to be some rallying
call to a new consciousness ("come and join us" on a "journey of
the mind"), and "Reflections" gestures confusingly at the kind of
E-piphany that's granted to people of the night but dissipates as
the chemicals leave the system next day; "fragments of meaning",
indeed.
State of the Nation address "Sin City"
is a diatribe about Blair's Britain ("confidence at a standstill",
"tension you could handle" , "our principles blurrred") and attempts
a reckoning with the lost Utopian rage of punk and/or socialism.
But it reminds me of Weller's "Town Called Malice" (there's even
a line about "a town without pity") and is ultimately the sort of
statesmanlike speaking-out that doesn't really suit Oakey (remember
"The Lebanon"?).
Ironically, some of
the best things on "Secrets" are the seven all-too-brief
instrumentals: the Kraftwerk-circa- "Neon Lights" intracacy/delicacy
of "Nervous"; the pulsatronic drive and filtered bass boom of "Ringinglow",
which could mash up the venue at Gatecrasher, Sheffield's temple
of trance: the butterfly wing-flutter of "Lament". On these tracks,
the League situate themselves on the continuum that runs from Moroder
to Paul Van Dyk: the quest for an authentically European soul, clean,
serene, non-earthly, unearthly. A qualified triumph, "Secrets"
reminds you of the League's pioneer status as electronic musicians,
as much as their brief reign as a meta-pop dream come true.
(4
out of 5)
Review
by Simon Reynolds
Mighty
Sheffield trio images © Paul
Cox
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