Heaven 17 - How Men Are

I can imagine they must have had such a blast recording those shouted "YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH"'s on 'Five Minutes To Midnight'... I'm listening to it now and marvelling at how many ideas it's had thrown at it, and yet it doesn't sound cluttered or confused at all. Excellent ending, too, the way it just cuts off.

<3 this album so much, it seems so get overlooked compared to the first two, leaning towards 'Shame Is On The Rocks', but it could be any of these really

― soref, Wednesday, March 25, 2015 11:09 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think this record is overlooked in general, rather than just in terms of Heaven 17's own discography! I mean, even The Human League's lesser albums like Crash seem to get talked about more.

Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware talk about

How Men Are

http://thequietus.com/articles/04817-heaven-17-interview-penthouse-and-pavement

Good article, thanks

I do think Roddy Frame was right in that there was a title track begging to be made here.

Voted "This Is Mine," but I admit I haven't listened to this album in years. I remember it felt sort of amorphous and unfocused after The Luxury Gap, but I still liked it.

does anyone prefer The Luxury Gap to P&P? I do. Better realized.

Oh, definitely. That's their classic imo. But I like P&P a lot, too.

Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware talk about

How Men Are
quite a bit in this interview
http://thequietus.com/articles/04817-heaven-17-interview-penthouse-and-pavement

― soref, Friday, March 27, 2015 7:47 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ooh, thanks for this! Great article. I had no idea that How Men Are was Heaven 17's "cocaine album", although listening to it again I'm not entirely surprised.

Voted "This Is Mine," but I admit I haven't listened to this album in years. I remember it felt sort of amorphous and unfocused after The Luxury Gap, but I still liked it.

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Friday, March 27, 2015 4:52 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, I can understand your point of view on this, actually (The Luxury Gap comes across as being more straightforward in comparison to How Men Are), but I definitely don't think of How Men Are as being unfocused. It sounds like they put a lot of work into it and agonised over it to me, just that the music itself is a touch more restless.

The Luxury Gap is probably the one I feel like listening to the least, fwiw. I do like the record, though.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

does anyone here have thoughts/feelings about Heaven 17's post How Men Are albums? I like Pleasure One and Teddy Bear, Duke & Psycho and especially Bigger Than America, Before After felt like a disappointment at the time, I listened to it again because of this thread and I kind of like some of the ballads towards the end

never heard any of the post-HMA albums.

and to be honest, until this thread revival i had not given HMA much thought.
yet, i happen to think it's a lot better than the excess TLG.
for me it's all about the final section of the album and the definite build to the 'end of career' conclusion that is '.. (and that's no lie)'.
the false endings and the genuine end of the 80s excess party vibe, just hits so hard.

had i voted, that would have been my choice.

it pretty much was the end of their career in terms of chart placings, though they seem to be doing OK with the live shows over the last decade or so.

I think of Bigger Than America as a companion to the Human League's Octopus which came out the year before, it seems unfair that Octopus went top 10 in the UK and Bigger Than America didn't even chart

that said, this album is stuffed to the max with a lot of perfect examples of perfection of 80s production excess.

the trumpet solo during this is mine, followed by the layered vocal chorus = genuine shivers up the spine,

the upbeat, everything will be ok, but hey, actually it wont cos life is shit groove of sunset now, never fails to hit the spot ..

etc ..

xpost.

yes, this is a great album left unloved.

this skin i'm in is pretty tedious going ..

both flamedown and reputation are pretty much h17 by numbers ..

whereas ..

..and that's no lie is next level pop.

for me it's all about the final section of the album and the definite build to the 'end of career' conclusion that is '.. (and that's no lie)'.
the false endings and the genuine end of the 80s excess party vibe, just hits so hard.

had i voted, that would have been my choice.

― mark e, Wednesday, April 1, 2015 7:53 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, it would have been absolutely perfect if it had been the last song they ever released because it does have, as you say, these real "end of career" feel to it. The vocals at the end are fucking sublime, IMO. It's Afrodiziak (featuring a pre-Soul II Soul Caron Wheeler) isn't it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu0Xu0qbvZg

Ah... just forget it.

Heaven 17 to play their first US shows according to Slicing Up Eyeballs

saw them at a festival a couple of years back, and yeah, it was a festival for middle class old'uns.
but the fact is, h17 were insanely good.
so much better than i ever expected.