Human League Anthology - A Very British Synthesizer Band

[negative1]

finally got my copy.

very pleased with the package, and the booklet. although i plan to rescan it, and convert it into
a real hardcover book. (will probably be reduced in size).

i'm still reading it, but i did look at all the pictures. yes, there is a huge lack of content about
the early version of the league, but there are only so many pages, and so much you can put into it.


about the price, i think that considering if the book was half the price of the package (?), that it
is now at a reduced point, and well worth it for fans that want the book too. if you only want
the music and the dvd, it would be better to still wait for further price drops, which are going
to happen.

later
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[Fred Taghon]

I was just reading the information on the packaging for this release thanks for photos of discogs.com and I'm confused.

It says the following tracks are "First Commercial Release 2016"/"Previously Unreleased" but they all seem to either be album versions or versions that have appeared on CD-Singles:

Life On Your Own - Appears to be the album version
Soundtrack To A Generation (Edit) - Appears on the CD-Single
All I Ever Wanted (Radio Edit) - Appears to be the album version

Also I can't find any evidence of the "Edit" of "Love Is All That Matters" existing anywhere but here? Is it an edit made specifically FOR this collection? I do see the "DJ Edit" of "I Need Your Loving" was on the UK 7" Promo but nothing about "Love Is All That Matters".

Also, as far as I can tell:
The Edit of "Louise" does appear to be legit, as it was on the UK & USA 7" promos
The William Orbit Remix of "Heart Like A Wheel" is longer than the version on the CD-Single

[mgidaho]

Nice font size 4 or so in the booklet. Granted I'm getting older and my eyes aren't what they used to be, but c'mon man! It's like taking a pages of eye exams.

[negative1]

Nice font size 4 or so in the booklet. Granted I'm getting older and my eyes aren't what they used to be, but c'mon man! It's like taking a pages of eye exams.

i have scanned the whole book, and am in the process of making it a hardcover,
i'm also darkening the text to make it easier to read. (it will be readable in text and pdf also)

some small rescaled examples:

some of the scans are blurry and low resolution, and if i can find higher resolution scans
i can use those instead.

samples:
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later
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[moni]

Also I can't find any evidence of the "Edit" of "Love Is All That Matters" existing anywhere but here? Is it an edit made specifically FOR this collection? I do see the "DJ Edit" of "I Need Your Loving" was on the UK 7" Promo but nothing about "Love Is All That Matters".

https://www.discogs.com/Human-League-Lo ... ase/509414

[Fred Taghon]

Also I can't find any evidence of the "Edit" of "Love Is All That Matters" existing anywhere but here? Is it an edit made specifically FOR this collection? I do see the "DJ Edit" of "I Need Your Loving" was on the UK 7" Promo but nothing about "Love Is All That Matters".

https://www.discogs.com/Human-League-Lo ... ase/509414

That is a 4:06 edit which I have. The new anthology has a 2:58 "DJ edit"

[André]

I finally bought the box set: I had a ten pounds voucher so that lessened the hurt. Here's my review, for what it's worth:

Terrible package, just terrible. Where to start with this fiasco? Well the so called hardback book is not, it's a softback book. The essay is ok but the visuals are slapdash and underwhelming: you get some poor resolution photos that seem taken from Smash Hits or No1, grainy and dull colours, band portraits spread over two pages where Phil's face falls right in the fold and you can't see it. Sparse memorabilia over plain pages notably a whole section on Iggy Pop (backstage passes, ads and other) with no obvious relation to Human league! And then you have the general artwork. Now the league is still famous for their approach to glamour, class and sleekness (often tongue in cheek), here we have 9 full page of caricatures (!) of the band by Pete McKee, who also wrote his recollection of buying the album Dare (fascinating... not). When we come to the music and the DVD, it's still not 'wow!'. The DVD has loads of TV performance footage, some of which are cropped and the overall quality of the image is not as good as it could be.
Then you have 3 cd's of music, which is very little for the excessive retail price of this set i.e £80. You get most of the singles a-sides (I count 4 missing, 5 if you count I Don't Depend On You by The Men) and two b-side (Sound of the crowd instrumental! and Hard times). It would have been good to get b-sides and mixes that are still missing on CD, maybe live tracks... anything to bulk it up to 4 or 5 cd's of rare music. So like many I bought the whole thing for the last disc of unreleased material... And here there are some nice surprises, but so much more could have been added, there are plenty of demos, kicking around the net, surely the band and the label has more to offer us in their archives. After all this box set is aimed at fans, but just not catering for fans... Who ever put this together must be underwhelmed by the project, burnt out by his job or nearing retirement.

[VicT]

Btw, has anybody received the replacement booklet? I still have even no automatic reply to my request...

[pinkyblue82]

Ditto on the replacement booklet. I sent that email ages ago.

[Passing_Stranger]

Makes me wonder if it's a concerted effort by the labels to fuck up all those anthology boxes. If it's true I'm axious to know what are reasons behind that.

And it only reinforces my view that there's no future in "official" reissues of anything - only guys like, say, Lost80s can make a worthwhile product for real fans. If only they could have access to archives...

[pinkyblue82]

Funny, in today's mail a new book and insert. What was the original problem again?

[negative1]

well, despite the issues, and criticisms of the boxset.

virgin, did send out replacement booklets and tracklisting sheet.

got mine today (in US), so now i have an extra booklet, which
i gave to my brother.

later
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