Travelogue (1980) / Vinyl record [Vinyl-LP] [Import]

Recorded at their own cut-price Monumental Pictures facility in Sheffield, the sound of "Travelogue" is much clearer and more epic than on their debut LP "Reproduction", but again with a Kraftwerk influence present throughout. The pulse beat and white noise of "The Black Hit Of Space", with Phil's narrative of a number 1 record that consumes the universe, gives way to the brilliant cover of Mick Ronson's "Only After Dark" (featuring a tremendous vocal performance by Phil Oakey and Martyn Ware).

The album progresses through the epitome of wage slavery in "Life Kills" and the desperation of fleeing from oppression "Dreams Of Leaving" before the League return to their roots with an edited mono mix of "Toyota City", from their Fast Product days.

The second side (the LP was originally only 10 tracks long) kicks off with the rumbling stage favourite "Crow And A Baby" (still can't see what this one was about) and "The Touchables" before an impressive version of the Gordon's Gin TV ad theme. A mighty re-working of the "Being Boiled" debut single comes next, with a vicious electronic handclapping beat and the addition of the "Boys Of Buddha" horn synthesiser. Then the best track (and probably my favourite Human League song of all): "WXJL Tonight", about the plight of a fully-automated radio station threatened with closure due to falling ratings as its soul (i.e. the staff) has been lost. The intro to this song still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up; a salutary tale of the perils of allowing technology to take over.

The CD also includes both sides of their disco non-hit as The Men, "I Don't Depend On You" from a year before (complete with female backing vocals - a sign of things to come?) The rest of the "Holiday '80" double single is also here; the "Rock 'N' Roll"/"Nightclubbing" medley which gave them a minor hit, "Marianne" (whose rhythm track resurfaced on the "We're Going To Live For A Very Long Time" on Heaven 17's debut album) and "Dancevision", an instrumental from Ian & Martyn's pre-League days in The Future. There's also the first post-split League single "Boys And Girls" and its b-side "Tom Baker", neither of which are historically relevant to this LP but (despite the first appearances of Joanne & Susanne) sound more like "Travelogue" than "Dare", particularly the latter with its similarity to "The Black Hit Of Space". Not bad, considering the League by this time consisted of Oakey, a synthesiser and the two girls (Adrian Wright hadn't started to play and compose until "Dare").

The electronic bands that followed and had success a year later would definitely have taken this as their template and you really cannot blame them. Great tunes, mostly thoughtful lyrics and a good base to build on; such a shame it all went so wrong for them later in the year when personal differences caused the break-up, but at least it all turned out well in the end...eventually.

Travelogue runs the gamut of emotional lyricism; steeped in comedy (Black Hit of Space), love (The Touchables) & paranoia (Life Kills, Dreams Of Leaving, WXJL Tonight) - more so than what you'd expect from other electronic outfits of the time. And if that's not enough the music is still fresh now; The Black Hit of Space and the re-vamped Being Boiled are laden with rhythms that today would be classed as Hip-Hop and Electro/Techno respectively.

Dreams of Leaving is Oakey as a businessman/politician living in fear at his place of work - trying to escape to a new life to the sound of possibly 4-5 early instrumentals sequenced together. What you get is the most breathtaking track on the album.

The album finishes (on the vinyl version) with WXJL Tonight -where Oakey is the last human DJ in a future society of automatic radio stations. Towards the end as Oakey starts shouting, pleading with the audience not to leave him, you'll feel a chill run down your spine. Listen to the voice of Buddha...