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 | | | | | Human's Lib |  | Artist: Howard Jones
Label: Elektra / Wea
Category: Music
List Price: $7.98
Buy New: $0.09
You Save: $7.89 (99%)
Buy New/Used from $0.09
Avg. Customer Rating:  (18 reviews)
Sales Rank: 997150
Media: Audio Cassette
UPC: 075596034647
EAN: 0075596034647
ASIN: B00000EKBI
Release Date: October 17, 1990
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Conditioning | | • | What Is Love? - Howard Jones, Jones, Howard [1] | | • | Pearl in the Shell | | • | Hide and Seek | | • | Hunt the Self - Howard Jones, Bryant, William | | • | New Song | | • | Don't Always Look at the Rain | | • | Equality | | • | Natural | | • | Human's Lib | | • | China Dance |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Nothing can match the greatness of Howard Jones' haircut, which displayed a peculiar early-'80s combo of mop-top and spikes that was so simply wrong it could hardly have been mistaken for anything else. His first (and best) album doesn't have the monolithic sterility of his biggest hits ("Things Can Only Get Better"--the woah-woah-woah song--and "No One Is to Blame," which featured Phil Collins). It's also got some of Jones' catchiest numbers, including the charmingly simple "New Song" and "What s Love." It's all of an era, of course, but let it herein be noted that Jones was singing "I don't want to be hip and cool/I don't want to play by the rules" (from "New Song") well before Nirvana and Beck turned such sentiments into a "revolution." --Keven McAlester
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
One Man Show! June 10, 2008
This album is a great collection of catchy synth-pop songs. The music and words are equally attractive. If the music doesn't win you over, the clever lyrics will. Howard Jones was one of the first artists to take his work as a solo musician on the road...solo. He was alone on stage performing his songs through an entire tour. We're not talking about an intimate acoustic set, but a full fledged dance fest.
 What is Love? January 27, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This CD is one of the best from the 80s, period. The quality of the lyrics and melodies is far above others often categorized with Human's Lib, but this CD it truly peerless.
Prime example of New Wave/Synth Pop June 16, 2005
Howard Jones rode the wave of the second British invasion and this was the album that put him on the map. He was a part of a new breed of artist that was taking full advantage of the advances in synthesizer technology and taking it to levels that might seem common now, but back then were ground breaking.
First off just about all of the music on this album is from him alone. He wrote every note and lyric. He performed just about every note (with exception to stuff like sax solos and such). As a matter of fact he was the kind of musician that would perform his songs live all by himself. Imagine one dude with a mess of keyboards, a drum machine and a mime (you read that right... an actual don't-talk-just-prance-around-doing-silly-things mime). That's a Howard Jones concert from the Human's Lib tour. And he's not relying on sequencers to play everything either. You would see one hand on a keyboard playing the bass lines and another on a different keyboard playing chords or melodies (along with all the frantic button pushing and knob turning to get the rest of it working). Fun stuff.
Okay back to this CD. You're getting a studio version of these songs he performed live, which means he was able to tweak the music a little better and add a few more instruments to fill out the composition. While it's going to feel dated by today's standards if you're into electronic music in any way this album is a rather important milestone in EDM's history.
It's light and catchy most of the time with lyrics that lean towards giving a positive message to the listener. It's like Howard knew his music is going to be heard mostly by the younger generation and he wanted to give them something to carry with them. Not preachy lyrics, but it's enough to make you think if you let it.
The songs vary in style a little with catchy hit tracks like NEW SONG, WHAT IS LOVE? and PEARL IN THE SHELL, mellow jazzy tracks like DON'T LOOK AT THE RAIN, too brooding songs like HIDE AND SEEK. It's a pretty nice mix of music even if it all has a taint of synth on them. There is a bonus instrumental track called CHINA DANCE that was never released on any LP (but it was released on one of the vinyl singles) that is a nice addition too.
This album is a must for any 80's synth pop fan. If you are one and do not have this album then shame on you because this is pretty much required listening along with early Depeche Mode, Ultravox and Men Without Hats. Howard became a huge success with this album and deservedly so.
 A fairly good New Wave album (with a stupid title) March 27, 2005
0 out of 7 found this review helpful
"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.
Nice Debut From One Of My Favorite '80s Artists February 24, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
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