Dare!
| Dare! | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Human League's studio album | |||||||||
|
Publication |
20th October 1981 |
||||||||
| Label (s) | Virgin Records | ||||||||
|
Format (s) |
CD, LP |
||||||||
|
Title (number) |
10 |
||||||||
|
running time |
40:46 |
||||||||
| occupation |
|
||||||||
|
The Human League and Martin Rushent |
|||||||||
|
Studio (s) |
Genetic Sound Studio, Reading |
||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
Dare! (also Dare , German 'Wag es!') is the third studio album by the British synth-pop band The Human League and marks the band's commercial breakthrough and this genre in the United Kingdom and the United States .
The album was recorded between March and September 1981 at Genetic Sound Studios near Reading, Berkshire and released on October 20, 1981 in the UK. It peaked the album charts in the UK in both November 1981 and February 1982 and was awarded two platinum records. It was also released in the United States in 1982 and peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 . From the commercial success of Dare! In 1982 the result was a BRIT Award for “British Breakthrough Act” for The Human League and a BRIT Award for “Best British Producer” for Martin Rushent .
The band's most famous single, Don't You Want Me , comes from this album.
The album was re-released in a remastered version on January 30, 2003 on EMI.
The sound of Dare, which differs greatly from the avant-garde and electronic predecessor Travelogue ! goes back to changes within the band and a stylistic realignment. The founding members, songwriters and synthesizer players Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, who were responsible for the sound on Travelogue , left the band in October 1980 to form the British Electric Foundation and later Heaven 17 .
History of origin
Ware and Marsh gave Philip Oakey and Adrian Wright the band name and the obligation to tour. Oakey oriented himself towards pop and took on Ian Burden, a multi-instrumentalist, and two underage dancers / background singers, Susanne Sulley and Joanna Catherall, in the band to complete the tour. In Monumental Studios in Sheffield, Oakey and Wright began recording new songs, of which Boys and Girls was released as a single and reached number 47 in Great Britain, without the school-based backing singers and without the burden, initially only required for the tour . Oakey invited Burden as a permanent member of the band, because he realized that his and Wright's musical skills were not enough to set the desired reorientation towards pop music into action. Simon Draper of Virgin Records undertook Martin Rushent in March 1981 production of The Sound of the Crowd , the first single in this new line, which was published in April 1981st Under Rushent's direction, the band's sound changed a lot. The single reached number 12 in the UK's Top 40 . After the release of The Sound of the Crowd , guitarist Jo Callis joined the band, who had already proven his quality as a songwriter with the Rezillos and was now familiar with synthesizers for the new sound. With Love Action (I Believe in Love) the first single of the sextet was released in August 1981 and reached number 3 in the Top 40. Rushent was commissioned by Draper to produce an entire album with the working title Dare .
Philip Oakey explains the working title in an interview with the Record Mirror as follows:
“In fact it (album name) was ripped off from a cover of Vogue about two and a half years ago. They had a whole series of covers which featured just one word like 'Success', 'Red', and 'Dare'. "
“In fact, it [the album name] was taken from a cover of Vogue two and a half years ago. They had a whole series of one-word titles like 'Success', 'Red' and 'Challenge'. "
Track list
- The Things That Dreams Are Made Of (Oakey, Wright) - 4:14
- Open Your Heart (Callis, Oakey) - 3:53
- The Sound of the Crowd (Burden, Oakey) - 3:56
- Darkness (Callis, Wright) - 3:56
- Do or Die (Burden, Oakey) - 5:25
- Get Carter (Budd) - 1:02
- I Am the Law (Oakey, Wright)
- Seconds (Callis, Oakey, Wright)
- Love Action (I Believe in Love) (Burden, Oakey) - 4:58
- Don't You Want Me (Callis, Oakey, Wright) - 3:56
Publications and chart successes
The album reached the top of the charts twice in Great Britain in November 1981 and January 1982, number 19 in Germany and number 3 in the album charts in the USA. What is remarkable is the very long time spent in the UK Top 75, at 72 weeks. The album topped the charts in Sweden and New Zealand and number 6 in Norway. The album received double platinum status in Great Britain for more than 600,000 records sold.
| year | title | Chart positions | annotation | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE | AT | CH | UK | US | |||
| 1981 | Dare! |
19 (17) 02.15.1982 |
- | - |
1 (72) October 24, 1981 |
3 (?) Xx.xx.1982 |
Double platinum in UK, gold in US |
Four singles were released from the album with The Sound of the Crowd , Love Action (I Believe in Love) , Open Your Heart and Don't You Want Me . The last release was a worldwide hit and received a gold record from the RIAA and a platinum record from the BPI.
| year | title | Chart positions | annotation | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE | AT | CH | UK | US | |||
| 1981 | The Sound of the Crowd | - | - | - |
12 (10) May 02, 1981 |
- | |
| 1981 | Love Action (I Believe in Love) | - | - | - |
3 (13) 08.08.1981 |
- | Silver in UK |
| 1981 | Open your heart | - | - | - |
6 (9) 10.10.1981 |
- | Silver in UK |
| 1981 | Don't you want me |
5 (19) February 8, 1982 |
- |
4 (6) March 28, 1982 |
1 (13) December 5, 1981 |
1 (28) March 6, 1982 |
Platinum in UK, gold in USA |
Instrumentation, cast and cover design
The following instruments and synthesizers were used for the recordings in the Genetic Sound Studio:
- Casio M10
- Casio VL-1
- Korg 770
- Korg Delta
- Linn LM-1
- Roland Jupiter-4
- Roland MC-8 microcomposer
- Roland System 700
- Yamaha CS-15
In addition to the band members, the following were also involved in the recordings:
- Martin Rushent: programming
- Dave Allen: programming, assistant engineer
The cover design is by Philip Oakey, Adrian Wright and Ken Ansell.
reception
Dare! was disapproved of by the musicians' union because they feared the massive use of electronically generated sounds that traditional musicians would become superfluous for music recordings and live concerts. The unions started a campaign called “Keep It Live” because they believed that The Human League would hold concerts at the push of a button.
The album was almost exclusively rated positively in Great Britain and featured in the opinion polls of the music press in late 1981 in the best lists. Music critic Paul Morley wrote in the New Musical Express :
"... in many ways it challenges the very conventions of pop music and the essence of innovation. What is it all for? I think that 'Dare!' is one of the great popular music LPs. "
“... it challenges the conventions of pop music and the essence of inventiveness in a variety of ways. And what for? I believe that Dare! is one of the great pop music albums. "
The positive response from the music press also boosted sales. The success led Simon Draper of Virgin Records to want to release a fourth single Don't You Want Me in late 1981, although Oakey was against it because he thought it was the worst of the album. The single turned out to be a massive chart success in early 1982; Virgin sold millions of records and reached the top of the single charts in numerous countries. The album also received a new boost from the decoupling and was able to top the album charts in Great Britain again in February 1982 and stayed in the charts for a total of 71 weeks.
Awards
Martin Rushent was named 'Best British Producer' at the 1982 BRIT Awards for the production of Dare! . The band received the BRIT Award for the British Breakthrough Act that same year. The album received a BRIT nomination for 'Best British Album' which went to Adam & The Ants . Sheena Easton received the Grammy for 'Best New Artist' for which The Human League was also nominated.
Web links
- Dare! at Allmusic (English)
- Lyrics of Dare! in LyricWiki
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Certified Awards Search. British Phonographic Industry , accessed on September 14, 2014 (English, search criterion: Human League).
- ↑ Philip Oakey in an interview with Ian Birch, Record Mirror, October 1981
- ↑ a b RIAA Gold & Platinum. In: riaa.com. Retrieved on November 4, 2010 (search term 'Human League').
- ↑ a b The Human League in the German charts
- ↑ a b The Human League in the Austrian hit parade
- ↑ a b The Human League in the Swiss hit parade
- ↑ a b Human League in the Official UK Charts (English)
- ↑ a b The Human League in Billboard 200. In: billboard.com. Retrieved November 3, 2010 .
- ↑ Michael Davis: Contemporary Keyboard (magazine), December 1982. (No longer available online.) In: the-black-hit-of-space.dk. November 1, 2010, formerly in the original ; accessed on November 3, 2010 (English). ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ orac: The Human League Biography Part2. (No longer available online.) In: league-online.com. Archived from the original on August 9, 2007 ; accessed on November 3, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Rocklist.net. In: rocklist.net. Retrieved November 3, 2010 .
- ^ Dare Reviews. In: www.the-black-hit-of-space.dk. Retrieved November 3, 2010 .
