Human League* – Hysteria

Rock Me Again (Six Times) is the dud on this album. Leave it off, and to me the overall album listening experience improves a lot. The album is long enough without it.

This is an immense pressing. Ignoring 'Dare' this is pretty darn good...so pick it up

1984 was a great year for music and synth pop in general. An ambundance of quality album releases from both new and old solo artists and groups. This release perhaps fell a little short amongst some stiff competition and lacked the edge, perhaps they peaked too early with their previous material? That aside there’s still space for this album, some highs and fillers (not lows) and still perfectly listenable.

A good pressing with gatefold sleeve and glossy inner sleeve sits nicely alongside other ‘84 releases. Can be picked up for a good price, so why not!

Fantastic sound quality from start to finish including the bonus tracks. Best sounding versions of the extended mixes available on CD (including the "Original Remixes and Rarities" release). Don't let the shoddy artwork reproduction fool ya, this is the best CD of "Hysteria" out there.

Such a lazy lazy release from the label here. No artwork or lyrics from the album in this version, just a plain white inner fold that barely bothers to put the album credits in. Shameful

To say it was a forced affair, would be an understatement - two years in the making, with a couple of non-album singles along the way (much superior "Mirror Man" and to a lesser extent catchy but funny "Fascination"), a clash with the producers, the record label's interference and "Hysteria" sadly couldn't live up to its promise.

"Louise" and "Life On Your Own" are the only examples that got out of this mess with true electro-pop radiance, definitely matching the best of "Dare" and their choice as singles may seem obvious (at worst), keeping up with their 1981 mega-success. The remaining material shows only sparks of promise towards artistic maturity but in the end sadly chokes on arrangements that sound too dated even for 1984's standards. And it's not due to the group's decision to add guitars or funkier sounds to their synth music. Actually, it's the synths themselves. The rhythms may be more upbeat but don't live up the songs, and the synthetic horn arrangements are so horrible to start with they ruin every song they appear in - the opening "I'm Coming Back", the utterly clumsy replica of "Rock Me Again" and the poor closing number "Don't You Know I Want You", all desperately trying to sound like "songs" but there is too much audible wasted space to consider them truly finished (not to mention interesting).

Among the potentially better songs, "Betrayed" is definitely a winner (despite also being ruined by a synth-horn arrangement), sounding edgier, as an interesting, politically charged song, plus the groovier trio of songs - "The Sign", "I Love You Too Much" and "So Hurt" - the latter even slightly (but only slightly!) echoing some of the mk-I League's flare - if only that line-up survived the turmoil (think in terms of "Travelogue").

And of course there is "The Lebanon", the most electrified song on the album that stands out on its own as the most conceptual - even as a single, with its interesting instrumental b-side called "Thirteen" (which is at times pleasantly reminiscent of Simple Minds).

This is now OOP.