Recorded 1983 Human's Lib
(1984) The 12" Album
(1984) Release date 17 March 1984 | Length 42:58 Artist Howard Jones Label Warner Music Group | |
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Released 5 March 1984 (UK)
12 June 1984 (USA) Genres Pop music, Synth-pop, New wave, Rock music Producers Rupert Hine, Colin Thurston ("New Song") Similar Howard Jones albums, New wave albums | ||
Human's Lib is the debut album by the British pop musician Howard Jones. It was released in March 1984 and entered the UK Album Charts at the no. 1 spot, spending a total of 57 weeks in the charts. The album has been certified 2 × Platinum by the BPI for sales in excess of 600,000 copies. The album went Gold in many European countries and the US.
Contents
Four songs from this album were released as singles in the UK, all of which reached the top 20: "New Song" peaked at #3, "What Is Love?" at #2, "Hide and Seek" at #12, and "Pearl in the Shell" at #7. "New Song" and "What Is Love?" also made it into the Billboard charts in the US, both reaching the top 40.
"Equality" was released as a single only in South Africa, as a commentary about the policy of apartheid there at the time.
Howard jones conditioning 1984
Reception
Writing in Smash Hits magazine at the time of the album's release, Neil Tennant commented that Jones had "a neat talent for writing melodic pop songs with clever hooks and real 1970s singer-songwriter lyrics. A must for all Supertramp fans." In a review for the website All Music, Mike DeGagne enthusiastically stated that Human's Lib "..is fueled by the nonstop synth-pop hooks and brightly textured melodies that went on to be a trademark of Howard Jones".
In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau panned Human's Lib as a "revolving self-help manual" marred by Howard's "ressentiment" and unadorned synthpop. NME said, "It's as hard to distinguish his music as it is to distinguish it from your carpet; conveniently, though, the lyrics are printed on the inner sleeve so that we may fully appreciate the complete lack of any novel observation in the songs... What's so amusing about Jones' songwriting is the glib manner in which he brandishes threadbare platitudes as unique insights." Mike DeGagne of Allmusic was more favorable in a retrospective review and wrote, "the tracks on Human's Lib are energetic and colorful" and that "the album still holds well".
Track listing
All tracks composed by Howard Jones unless indicated otherwise. Track timings are taken from the original UK LP edition.
Some CD editions substitute the 6:32 extended mix of "What Is Love?" for the 3:45 album version and add "China Dance", an instrumental B-side from the "Hide and Seek" single, as a bonus track (track 11).
Personnel
Songs
1Conditioning4:34
2What Is Love6:33
3Pearl in the Shell4:00