On this day in history (October 16, 1981), the British synthpop band Human League released their 3rd studio album called Dare. This was the first album by the band following the departure of founding band members Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh (who went on to form Heaven 17). Dare featured the singles The Sound Of The Crowd, Love Action, Open Your Heart, The Things That Dreams Are Made Of and of course Don’t You Want Me. One of the other standouts on the album is the track Seconds, written about the assassination of president JFK.
The now famous cover art for the album was a concept by frontman Philip Oakey, designed to look like an edition of Vogue magazine. The image on the album cover is of Oakey himself, with the rest of the band members featured on the inner sleeve and back cover. When asked why the album imagery features close ups of the faces (with the hair tied back), vocalist Susan Ann Sulley said
We wanted people to still be able to buy the album in five years, we thought that hair styles would be the first thing to date. We had no idea people would still be buying it 25 years later
Charts
- Peaked at #1 in the UK Albums chart
- Peaked at #3 in the US Billboard 200 chart
- Album ranked at #6 in NME’s top albums of the year in 1981
- Voted album of the year in Smash Hits 1981 Reader’s Poll.
Videos
Track Listing
- The Things That Dreams Are Made Of
- Open Your Heart
- The Sound Of The Crowd
- Darkness
- Do or Die
- Get Carter
- I Am The Law
- Seconds
- Love Action (I Believe In Love)
- Don’t You Want Me
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