A fairly good New Wave album (with a stupid title)

"Human's Lib"? What the heck is that about? I suppose it was meant as an at-one-time clever take on the phrase "women's lib" (which has also since vanished from the lexicon). Whatever, Howard.



As a fan of New Wave, I am confounded by Howard Jones. I regard him as primarily a singles artist, as most of the tracks on this (and his other) CDs seem like filler, techno-noodling, and unscripted keyboard jam sessions. "New Song" is a masterpiece, however, one of the best songs of the 80s. "What Is Love" is fairly good (if overlong).



From his later albums, I enjoy "Things Can Only Get Better", and "No One Is To Blame" (the album version, not the horrid radio mix), but most of his later material is post-New Wave adult contemporary. Blah.



Overall, I've given "Human's Lib" three stars out of five, mostly for "New Song". It's worth owning, just don't expect to find more songs like "New Song" and "What Is Love", because there aren't any.

A Integrated Pop-Synth Masterpiece

Human's Lib has my vote as one of the top pop-synth albums to come out of the English new-wave explosion of the early 80s. The whole album rings with insight and its beautifully crafted songs span from the instrospective to near rock-out instrumentals. Sure; you could buy his greatest hits, but then you'd miss out on equally terrific songs such as Equality, Don't Always Look at the Rain, and Conditioning (which won't appear on any hits albums). As others have mentioned, this album hangs together with the theme of Human Liberation and the concept works here, the sum greater than its parts.

The other albums at the top of my pop-synth list:
o Thomas Dolby's Golden Age of Wireless
o Human League's Dare
o Scritti Politti's Cupid and Psyche '85

Nice Debut From One Of My Favorite '80s Artists

Back in the fall of 1983, when I first started listening to pop radio (Z-100 here in NYC...it's amazing that it was this radio station that actually served as my first music horizon expansion medium...well, maybe that and MTV...), "New Song" from this album was in fairly heavy rotation. The synthesizer and pretty melody and catchy hook of this song got to me, and it quickly became one of those songs which I would scan the dials for. It wasn't until a couple of years later, when I had become totally hooked on Howard Jones' music with his "Dream Into Action" album, that I disregarded my "3-song rule" and bought "Human's Lib" for "New Song" alone, and figured that since "Dream Into Action" was so good, his first album would also probably be pretty good as well.

Well, I certainly wasn't wrong. This is a very strong debut album, albeit not quite as melodic as the "Dream Into Action" album, or, really, as any of his subsequent work.

The highlights of this album include the two major hits found thereon. These are the aforementioned "New Song" and the lyrically and melodically beautiful "What Is Love?". This is a poignant, plaintive song in mid-tempo. It exudes a sense of melancholy and longing while at the same time keeping an extremely catchy hook. It's one of my favorite songs from the 1980s. Another great song is the melancholy, "Don't Always Look At The Rain," which really does convey a sense of being inside looking out at the rain on a dreary day. It's a very pretty, slow song, and as usual on these types of songs, Howard Jones' voice brings forth a sense of sadness in a very pretty way. "Pearl In The Shell" is another highlight for its serious, driving beat - it's a synthesizer based song which has a really nice groove to it.

There are some other interesting songs here such as the techno, almost completely synth-driven "Conditioning" which opens the album..."Hunt The Self" is another brooding, melancholy song with pretty melody. I guess the rest of the album fits this mold - either very techno sounding, or either very melancholy sounding. It is not bad music, but it paints a somewhat bleak landscape at times and it gets just a wee bit tedious.

In sum, however, I would have to say that this is actually a pretty good album with two really excellent songs "New Song" and "What Is Love?", and two very good songs - "Pearl In The Shell" and "Don't Always Look At The Rain", and all the rest being for the most part interesting early '80s techno music, all of which brings to this listener a sense of bleak melancholy. I would say that this is a better than average album (just under the 3.5 stars which would round up to 4) rating 3.4 stars and I would round down to 3. RECOMMENDED.