Brave (released as Brave! in the US) is the third studio album by the British band The Human League synthpop. The album was recorded between March and September 1981 and was first released in the UK on October 16, 1981, then in the US in mid-1982.
This album style was the result of a drastic change from an experimental avant-garde electronic group to a commercial pop group under the creative direction of Philip Oakey after the departure of fellow founding members Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh. Dare became critically acclaimed and has proven to be a decisive album of genres, whose influence can be felt in many areas of pop music. His album and four singles were very commercially successful, with the album reaching # 1 in the UK and becoming a Triple Platinum by BPI.
A remix album based on Dare , Love and Dancing , was released in 1982.
Video Dare (album)
History
Dare is the third studio album of the Human League but very different from the previous two,
In January 1981, the Human League only consisted of Oakey and Philip Adrian Wright with teenage dancers/new supporter vocalists Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley newly recruited. After a fierce split from the original band in October 1980 and subsequent Sulley and Catherall recruitment, the new band just survived the European tour by presenting at keyboardist Ian Burden's session to temporarily help. The band is heavily indebted and barely commercially available. Under pressure to produce results from Virgin Records, original members Oakey and Wright return to Monumental Studios in Sheffield to begin recording demo tracks. They recorded the song "Boys and Girls" from the 1980 tour, which was then quickly released as a single. The "Boys and Girls" style belongs to the original Human League and is now not working. Sulley and Catherall are busy with school, not used in addition to publicity. The work of synthesizers is fundamental because Oakey and Wright admit they do not have the skills of Marsh and Ware. When "Boys and Girls" reached the 47th position in England, Oakey realized that he needed to bring professional help to bring the band in the direction of the more popular and interesting he wanted.
Oakey's first step was to invite guitarist and keyboardist Ian Burden from the return tour to join the band on a full-time basis. As a trained musician, Burden's keyboard capabilities are far superior to Oakey and Wright, but he's also proven to be an excellent songwriter and composer. Virgin has suggested that Oakey need professional production and pair it with veteran producer Martin Rushent, a music technology expert who appeared at the time. Due to the "unhealthy" atmosphere at Monumental Studios in Sheffield caused by the Human League sharing it with the new band Heaven 17 (which contained former members of the Human League Ware and Marsh), Rushent moved the band to his Genetic Sound Studios in Reading. In addition, Rushent studios are better equipped for the type of band-made music. The disadvantage is that distance will cause problems for Sulley and Catherall who take their last school exam and have to be bullied from Sheffield regularly.
The first results of their recording sessions were released in April 1981 entitled "The Sound of the Crowd"; it will be a defining moment for the band. With Burden's advanced synthesizer work assisted by Wright, vocal vocals in deep Oakey and for the first time female backing vocals from teen dancers (now full vocalist) Sulley and Catherall it will prove to be the sound of the keystone band. The final addition to the band will be an experienced guitarist and songwriter Jo Callis was once the punk rock band The Rezillos, who quickly had to learn the synthesizer.
Oakey accepts that Martin Rushent sequencing and programming skills bring professional excellence to the band's sound, and adds many new elements and techniques. Oakey, Burden, Wright and Callis started writing new material, bringing Sulley and Catherall from Sheffield as often as they were available. The goal is another album for the Human League within a year. Virgin at this point was lukewarm but interested that the band released another single as soon as possible.
The first release of the new team now came in August 1981, "Love Action (I Believe in Love)" was the band's major and major commercial success and peaked at number three in the UK. It brings the band to the forefront of public attention and will also see Virgin giving the go-ahead for an album release with a time scale of 6-12 months. The band now has a lot of new material to work on and organize it into a decent album. In September 1981, the prototype album was ready for launch and temporarily titled Dare , after the cover of Vogue magazine (English, April 1979, Gia Carangi). Oakey explains the story behind the album's name at the time:
To set the scene for an album release, Virgin released one of the song's albums immediately before the album. "Open Your Heart" went to number six on the UK singles chart, justifying the band's popularity. Virgin began to vigorously advertise the release of a new album, which was set for late October 1981. "Open Your Heart" was accompanied by a futuristic-looking promotional video, a rare thing at the time. While it is still on the charts, the inaugural Dare gets critical acclaim. It was also condemned by the Union of Musicians, who believed the new technology used by the Human League to make excessive traditional musicians and threats to their monopoly. Soon they will start a "Keep It Live" campaign that believes that bands like the Human League will be able to perform concerts at the touch of a button.
The next choice of executive Simon Draper is the song "Do not You Want Me", a conflicting male/female duet about the jealous and romantic obsession that Oakey recorded with teen backing singer Susanne Sulley. Oakey was unhappy with the decision and initially toyed with it, believing it to be the weakest link in Dare ; for that reason it has been relegated to the last track on the B-side of the vinyl album. Oakey was eventually rejected by Virgin. It will continue to be the band's biggest hit, selling millions of copies worldwide and becoming the 25th best-selling single in the UK (in 2007). It was also the Christmas number for 1981.
Maps Dare (album)
Songs
In 1981, the Human League considered themselves a "song-based group"; this is a deliberate distinction that distinguishes bands from other electronic artists who specialize in instrumental works. The writing style of the lyrics is not clear; Oakey says this because he wants the band's lyrics to provoke thoughts and get people to talk about their songs. Often the meaning behind the songs is only expressed by Oakey in the various interviews given since the album's release. The important point is that this album basically evolved during 1981 and was not written from a single conceptual starting point.
Original album consists of ten songs (the other added on re-release):
Side 1
"Things Dreams Made Of"
Often abbreviated as TTDAMO, this song is a tribute to the simple pleasures of life that are later juxtaposed with greater ambition. Oakey namechecks some of his favorite things (and Wright), an eclectic list of ice cream to the Ramones to Norman Wisdom. The song contains the lyrics of the album title "... Ã, doing all the things you never dared!" (even though the album is actually named after the cover of the Vogue magazine). Philip Adrian Wright called the song a metaphor for the band's ambitions in 1981. The song was remixed and released as a single in 2008 on the label Hooj Choons; reached number 2 on the UK Dance Charts.
"Open Your Heart"
"Open Your Heart" is the only one of the pre-releases specifically written for the album. The song is about the pain caused by infidelity and subsequent relationship disruption. Technically it is Rushent's most complex song from an album with multiple synthesizers and a drum machine layer, tied up by a complex sequence. Vocals are also complex. Oakey sings a higher key than usual, but still leads with the support of Sulley and Catherall which is now mixed as a separate layer. Susan Sulley said (in 1989) "this is one of the most difficult to sing, so we do not do it often." It is the only song that is classed as 'Blue' on Red labeling system or 'Blue' Human League ('Red' is for dance track and 'Blue' for pop songs). It was released as one October 1981 (accidentally two weeks before Dare ).
"The Sound of the Crowd"
Originally this was the first "Human League-style" song created under the production of Rushent. This is an electropop song, pre-Jo Callis, featuring a single Burden sound keyboard with an incidental bass keyboard by Philip Adrian Wright. The vocal style is the band's key voice from Oeaty baritone leader and for the first time, the flirty female interactions of Sulley and Catherall (in their first vocal role). The album was released as a single in April 1981. The album version is a re-recording and not a released version as the original single. Darkness "'>" Darkness "
True to the title, the song is about the subconscious fears of the inner soul that manifests itself when the singer is alone at night. Written primarily by Philip Adrian Wright, it is based on his experience in trying to sleep after reading a horror novel. Low synthesizer tones designed to haunt, slow at the beginning, deliberately dark and melancholy. Instrumental increases the tempo to the frenzy of pitch blending as the song reaches its peak. It is a track that still contains real influence from the original Human League of Oakey, Ware, Marsh, and Wright.
"Do or Die"
"Do or Die" is a choir song about a troublesome girlfriend. Opening a deeply synthesized African drum from LM-1, Oakey who deliberately mocked his introduction will be overshadowed by the deliberate multi-voice synthersi of Callis, Burden and Wright and the increasing drum beat, giving the reggae/South Touch America a little track. Chorus was repeated several times in a row with Oakey now joining the singing of Sulley and Catherall. Oakey (speaking in 1981) described it as "a song about falling in love with a girl who has been taken over by a poltergeist." Like the movie "Carrie ." whether this is a serious comment or a typical Oakey "tongue in the cheek" is unclear. Joanne Catherall in the same interview said, "has a latent nuance (sic)."
Side 2
"Get Carter"
Included as a short interlude, the track is a minimalist instrumental cover version of the Roy Budd theme for the Get Carter movie. It is played on one voice on Casio VL-1, using a 'Fantasy' preset with a digital 'reverb' effect. In the second repetition, the addition to the 'stereo' chorus reverb added further to make the sound 'bigger', on the heavier third repetition of 'Ensemble Chorus' added a single VL-1 sound like a dozen. Set by Oakey, Callis and Rushent.
"I Am the Law"
A song with instrumental synthesials, titles and lyrics inspired by Judge Dredd's character from the British comic book 2000 AD . The subject of the song includes sympathy and authority, and inspiration also comes from experiences where Oakey works as a hospital porter and meets an injured bouncer. Wright stated that it was the band's first song after the split of 1980, and was played live on a tour of October 1980. He went on to say, "This is specifically written from a policeman's perspective It's easy to run a cop until you need it. there is a change of heart when your car is stolen. "
"Seconds"
"Seconds" is a serious and grim mood of John F. Kennedy's killing in 1963, and its impact on the wider world. Where Oakey memates (the unnamed) Lee Harvey Oswald, characterized by the lyrics "takes seconds of your time to take his life" and "a shot that sounds all over the world". When played live, the song is often accompanied by a Kennedy background slide. The song features a voice assignment mode in the Roland Jupiter-4 synthesizer, alternating between two ring notes ringing, with 2 VCO per notes, and thinner three notches with 1 VCO per sound.
"Love Action (I Believe in Love)"
"Love Action" is a semi-autobiographical song by Oakey about good and bad relationships. This includes references to their own relationships, their problems and their successes; with Oakey often referring to himself. Complete with famous lyrics "This is Phil talking!" (a line inspired by a similar reference by Iggy Pop), it also contains two cryptic references to one of the effects of Oakey, Lou Reed. It was released as a single in August 1981.
"Do not Want Me"
"Do not You Want Me" is a conflicting male/female duet about a jealous and romantic obsession. The male protagonist of the song (Oakey) is a svengali figure who transforms a female waiter (sung by Susan Ann Sulley) into a 'star', who then leaves him once he has gained fame. This is underlined by two backing synthesizer lines programmed by Rushent on the Roland MC-8 sequencer arcane along with the Linn LM-1 drum program and the Burden keyboard job. This is the only song on Dare's album to show Callis on Guitar (but the guitar is not heard because it triggers Roland System 700 synthesizer). Rushent and Callis will be responsible for the last mix that other bands do not like because it's not the dark and thoughtful track they imagine. The song is different from the others Dare , not only for its pop sound but also because it has a main vocal with women. Against Oakey's wishes, it was released as a single in November 1981; the song then became the band's biggest hit and one of the best-selling singles of all time in the UK.
Release
The album was a massive commercial success, sold in large quantities, taking it quickly to number one on the UK Albums Chart in early November 1981. It was expected to be the end of a very successful year for the band, but due to the incredible commercial success Virgin's Draper decided he wanted another from the album before the end of 1981. By Christmas 1981, Dare had won platinum in the UK, and the Human League had an album of numbers and numbers-one at a time on the UK charts. Brave will eventually stay on UK Albums Charts for a last 71 weeks. A remix album based on Dare , titled Love and Dancing , was released a year later in 1982.
International releases
The single "Do not You Want Me" has been released with a very expensive and complicated promotional video created by filmmaker Steve Barron. The music video is a very recent phenomenon and the cable TV station MTV has just started to utilize this new medium but has little material to work on. Virgin Records syndicated the video to MTV playing all the time. Due to the video interest generated in "Do not You Want Me", Virgin gave the release license in the US of singles and albums. Licensee for US is A & amp; M Records that renames the album Dare! The addition of an exclamation point is because A & amp; M wants to distinguish their (US) release from the original Virgin release in the UK. Release Dare! immediately reflects the success of England; and in mid-1982 reached number three on US Billboards 200 and the single "Do not You Want Me" was number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Although critics do not universally clap hands like in the UK, commercial success Dare! will set the scene for the band's return to the US charts several times in the coming years.
Dare get enough revenue for record labels Virgin and A & amp; M; in the case of Virgin, it labeled the first chart-topping album since Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells in 1973. "Do not You Want Me" is the first chart-topping single label. The success of Brave is responsible for saving the label of future bankruptcy. Richard Branson is very grateful to send Philip Oakey a motorcycle as a thank you, but Oakey must return it because he can not ride it.
As well as commercial success in the US under A & amp; M, in 1982 Dare is also very successful in Australia, Japan, France and Germany. Dare has been re-released several times since its original creation. Later releases of the album included additional tracks "Hard Times" and "Non Stop".
Packaging
The front cover and other album artwork are based on the desired concept of Oakey, that the album should look like a magazine edition of Vogue . The final design is a joint effort between Philip Adrian Wright (also the director of visual bands) and graphic designer Ken Ansell. Oakey is a solo on the front cover with Sulley and Catherall at the internal gate, and the rest of the band vice versa. This artwork has been reproduced in various forms for various re-releases and sold as posters.
Explaining why the portraits of the band were trimmed close and the girls tied their hair back for their pictures, Susan Ann Sulley explains, "we want people to still be able to buy the album in five years, we think that the hairstyle will be the first to date.We do not know people will still buy it 25 years later. "
Critical reception
Brave is almost universally critically acclaimed in the UK, and is very strong in the year-end polls for 1981. In Melody Maker Steve Sutherland celebrates the fact that the album will irritate guitar- rock traditionalists, said, "All pretend-it is consistently strong, cultured, rude, elegant, cheap... whatever you want I think it's a masterpiece Of course to upset, sell to millions more and so that should be the way it traces the entire rock tradition: a stale voice, stunted glam image and artificial tribute.All the attractions of the world... must show the sad jokes of pop mythology once and for all. "
Awards
Martin Rushent received the 'Best Producer Award' at the 1982 Brit Awards for production on Dare and the success of Dare resulted in the band winning the award for 'Best British Newcomer'. The album was ranked # 6 among the top ten "Album of the Year" for 1981 by NME and was selected as the Album of the Year in the Smash Hits Reader Poll of 1981.
Legacy
In 2006, British Hits & amp; The album and NME set up a poll where 40,000 people around the world picked the 100 best albums ever; brave is placed at # 77 in the list. In the same year, the magazine Q placed the album at # 19 in the "40 Best Albums of the 80s" list. In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at # 86 on the "Best Album of the 1980s" list.
According to Let It Blurt's book: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, famous music critic Lester Bangs died of an accidental drug overdose while listening to Dare .
25th anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of Dare (and the 30th anniversary of the band's creation), the modern Human League (Oakey, Sulley and Catherall from the original 1981 band line) performed a special tour Dare 2007 from the UK and Europe played the original album in full during November and December 2007.
The latest version of the original artwork, now with the latest photographs of Sulley, Oakey, and Catherall in the original artwork style, accompanied the advertisement for the 2007 band 'Dare' tour.
The UK Daily Mail provided a free CD version of an album with the September 11, 2008 edition of the newspaper as part of a campaign celebrating a 1980s classic album.
Martin Rushent, interviewed in the July 2010 issue of Sound on Sound, confirmed that he is working on a 30th anniversary edition of the re-album that will include a new mix of songs that will involve the use of real instruments rather than syntheses. However, Rushent died in June 2011 with the rest of the project unreleased.
Virgin40
Dare is one of the selected Virgin albums for the release of a special image disc to mark the 40th anniversary of the group's old record label.
![Dare - Blood From Stone 1991 [Full Album] - YouTube](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_v6Y3M7rzd6VUtGvl45SxPOWAXPI7s7c_kUG5sZRjMOX60WsRiAp1FZg4vZF3pR7Iry2rWcJq6qGU7W4vIdW3Z3Cm74r1tpBHM0kqmCh-arG9a0_Gse-Uw0jdwB9WLzCCVAFXy_PL9wjg=s0-d "Dare - Blood From Stone 1991 [Full Album] - YouTube")
Track list
Personnel
Human League
- Ian Burden - synthesizer
- Jo Callis - synthesizer
- Joanne Catherall - vocals
- Philip Oakey - vowels and synthesizers
- Susan Ann Sulley - vowels
- Philip Adrian Wright - synthesizer and slide
Additional personnel
- Martin Rushent - programming
- Dave Allen - programming, assistant engineer
- Recorded at - Genetic Sound Studio, Reading, Berkshire, England
- Cover design - by Philip Oakey, Philip Adrian Wright, Ken Ansell
Studio tools used
The following studio equipment is used in recording albums:
- Casio M10
- Casio VL-1
- Korg 770
- Korg Delta
- Linn LM-1
- Roland Jupiter-4
- Roland MC-8
- Roland System 700
- Yamaha CS-15
Performance chart
Sales and certifications
References
External links
- Windle, Robert (2010) [2001]. "Biography of the Human League Part 1: The Way to Be in the 70s". electronically . Visual Opium. Archived from original on August 8, 2007. Ã,
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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