Human's Lib is the debut album by British pop musician Howard Jones. It was released in March 1984 and entered the UK Albums Chart at the No. 1 spot, spending a total of 57 weeks on the charts.[3] The album has been certified double platinum by the BPI for sales in excess of 600,000 copies.[4]
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.[3] "New Song" and "What Is Love?" also made it into the Billboard charts in the US, both reaching the top 40.[5]
"Equality" was released as a single only in South Africa, as a commentary about the policy of apartheid there at the time.[6]
Contemporary reviews of Human's Lib were generally negative, with many criticising the songs' music and lyrics as being lightweight. In Melody Maker, Colin Irwin called Jones "the aural equivalent of painting by numbers" and that although the sentiments expressed in the lyrics were worthy ones, "his sermons are embarrassingly glib". Irwin stated that only "Hide and Seek" and the title track were passable songs, and that overall "this is very shallow pop music dressed as something much more important and profound".[14] Don Watson of NME wrote, "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."[15] In Sounds, Tibet called Human's Lib "an LP of simple/simplistic electronic-pop tunes, irretrievably lightweight, that offer nothing new except more music to tap your feet and grin inanely to". He stated that it was "not an offensive record at all", but that "people should ask for something more demanding than aural air conditioning".[12]
In the US, Christopher Connelly of Rolling Stone stated that Jones "simply doesn't demonstrate the imagination or songwriting skill to produce anything truly memorable", and that "too often, his compositions are poor pastiches of already overworked synth exercises".[10]Robert Christgau of The Village Voice panned Human's Lib as a "revolving self-help manual" marred by Jones' "ressentiment" and unadorned synth-pop.[13]
More positive reviews came from Betty Page in Record Mirror, who said the album provided "lashings of beaty, intensely danceable chunks of electropop alternated with sincere and heartfelt one-man-and-his-piano ballads. And to a point, he does it very well ... for an occupier of the Middle Earth of chart pop, he's quite a grower, if not a wrencher of guts",[9] and from Neil Tennant in Smash Hits, who 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."[11]
Mike DeGagne of AllMusic was more favourable in a retrospective review and 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".[7]
Track listing
All tracks composed by Howard Jones unless indicated otherwise. Track timings are taken from the original UK LP edition.
Many CD editions substitute a 6:32 mix of "What Is Love?" (identical to the extended mix from the 12-inch single except that the vocal echo at 2:52 is missing) 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).
In May 2024, Cherry Red Records released new special edition versions of both Human's Lib and the follow-up album, Dream into Action as CD + Blu-ray packages. The releases feature new mixes of the albums by Stephen W. Tayler. The Blu-ray contains both 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio and 96/24 LPCM stereo versions by Tayler, plus Dolby Atmos versions of "What Is Love?", "Hide and Seek" and "New Song" (Farmyard version) mixed by Bob Clearmountain.
Personnel
Howard Jones – synthesizers, keyboards, vocals, drum machines
