The Human League ‎- Octopus (Remastered Deluxe Edition) (2020)

The album opens with the tinkling introduction to the brilliant lead single, Tell Me When – a fresh sound, that also gives a nod back to their former 80s selves. It’s a great piece of pop, giving Phil Oakey a strong set of lyrics to sing, in a back and forth vocal cycle with bandmates Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley. The track also includes a teasing false ending. Second track These Are The Days starts with what sounds like an old alarm clock, before switching to a fat bass synth. This track is pretty light. It’s not particularly catchy, but musically it’s quite nice. This is followed by second single One Man In My Heart, a track that gives Phil a back seat, gives Susan the front seat. The song is catchy, and perfectly formed. Next up is Words with Phil reclaiming lead vocals. Lyrically this song is a bit weak, but I really like its simple, slow, minimal, composition. Phil’s unmistakeable 80s vocal style really works well here amongst the delicate tinkling synths, and sluggish bass line. Fifth track Filling Up With Heaven is a grower, and became the third and final single from the album. As with Tell Me When, the back and forth cycle of vocal duelling between male and female vocals, works perfectly here. There’s also some wonderful sounding synths in use here. Houseful Of Nothing is up next, and it’s a chilled out track, until about 2/3rds of the way through when the mid-section breaks. The seventh track John Cleese: Is He Funny is an instrumental, and feels like an Oakey indulgence – on the album just because it could be. The group used analogue synths for this album, and this was probably a place to really showcase them. Penultimate track Never Again stands out as a really nice track – musically and lyrically, and perhaps should have been a single. And the final track Cruel Young Lover picks up the volume and pace. Musically it’s quite a strong track, but lyrically it is repetitive, and it gets a bit long-winded.

Rhino are to reissue The Human League‘s 1995 album Octopus across a number of formats, to mark the album’s 25 anniversary. Octopus was originally issued on East West Records and with the band then officially a trio – vocalists Philip Oakey, Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley – they cocked a snook at the guitar-driven Britpop of the time and created an album fashioned from analogue synthesizers. Their instincts were vindicated when The Human League enjoyed their first UK top ten hit in nine years with the infectious Tell Me When. Follow up single One Man in My Heart consolidated the success (peaking at number 14) and even third and final single ‘Filling Up With Heaven’ still sneaked into the top 40. As a result of all this Octopus went gold and peaked at number six in the UK album charts.