Dare is the third studio album by English synth-pop band the Human League, released in October 1981. The album, produced by Martin Rushent and recorded between March and September 1981 following the departure of founding members Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, and saw the band shift direction from their previous avant-garde electronic style toward a more pop-friendly, commercial sound led by frontman Philip Oakey.

Dare became critically acclaimed proved to be a genre-defining album, whose influence can be felt in many areas of pop music. The album and its four singles were large successes, particularly “Don’t You Want Me”, which both Rolling Stone and The Village Voice credited with kickstarting the Second British Invasion. The album reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and has been certified triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

Technical features

• Use of analogue technology; synthesisers, drum machines and sequencers to control them all
• Linn LM-1 drum machine – influential and realistic sounding
• One of the first ‘commercially successful synth pop albums in the 80s; less serious and introspective than previous albums by e.g. Kraftwerk and Ultravox
• Layered/overdubbed production based on synth lines played along to an electronic drum beat
• Use of real spaces for reverb e.g. the toilet!

The Album

Martin Rushent was the producer who began working with the group at his own Genetic Sound Studios in Reading, Berkshire, starting with the Oakey/Burden‐penned single ‘The Sound Of The Crowd’ which reached number 12 in the UK a couple of months later.

Dare, the Human League’s multi‐platinum third album, remained on the UK charts for 71 weeks and would serve as a highly influential blueprint for ’80s electronica‐driven synth pop.

“In those days, making electronic music was a big job, particularly the way that I was doing it,” says Martin Rushent. “To get the sounds I wanted, I was layering synths — I might have 24 synths playing one synth line, all programmed, all analogue and all drifting out of tune. It used to take hours and hours and hours, and I don’t know how we ever got through it.”

Rushent’s work on Dare evolved out of Phil Oakey’s pop‐oriented sensibilities — driven by his love of Abba — and the producer’s organic approach to recording allowed for experimentation rather than following any sort of master plan.

“I think the only master plan that existed was how the band should look,” says Rushent. “That was very important to Phil, who was trying to make a new electronic Abba. He probably thought it was going to sound a bit darker than how it ended up, and the best example of that was ‘Don’t You Want Me’. When I first heard it, only about half of the song had been written and it was very, very rudimentary. That was the case with most of the songs — they were semi‐written or they just consisted of a riff. You know, ‘Yeah, that’s a great riff, let’s build it into a song,’ and everyone then singing their ideas.

“It would always start off with me laying down a sort of guide drum track. The only track that didn’t use the LinnDrum was ‘The Sound Of The Crowd’, because I didn’t have the LM1 yet. Once I did, I’d lay down a very rudimentary guide beat and then we’d add the bass synths, programming them and working out all the different bits. Next, there’d be a guide vocal, just so we knew where we were, and this would be followed by a basic keyboard pad to give us some chords, before I’d program in all of the drum fills. After that, we’d keep layering stuff on until we thought the track sounded finished, and some time during that process we’d also do the vocals.

“In the case of ‘Don’t You Want Me’, the vocals went on quite early. That was because the drums and bass were finished, and we also had a really good guide synth keyboard, but there were logistical problems due to the availability of Phil and the girls. So I said, ‘Let’s do the vocals now. Then, when you’re away, Jo [Callis] and I can finish the track.’ That’s what happened — once Phil and the girls had buggered off to do whatever they had to do, Jo and I went to town on it and made it far more commercial.

“Phil is a great singer. His voice is so distinctive and so microphone‐friendly, it was easy doing his vocals. I’d get him to do three takes, comp them and it always worked. A Neumann U77 was the mic that I used, and occasionally we’d record him in the toilet. That’s what we did for ‘Don’t You Want Me’. For some reason, Phil’s voice sounded really good in there”.

“On ‘Don’t You Want Me’, there’s a moving line under the chorus that sounds like a low, guitar‐y type of synth sound, programmed on a Roland 800”, explains Martin Rushent. “That came about because the computer screwed up and played the line a half‐beat out of time. The moment we heard it, Jo [Callis] and I went, ‘Wow, that’s amazing! What the hell has happened?’ So the next time around I played it as originally intended and said, ‘Shit, I think we’ve lost it, Jo.’ Then he did it again and I said, ‘Oh, I’ve worked it out, it’s half a beat late. So what we need to do is move it all back half a beat, and that’s it.’ That’s what occasionally happens in the studio — you hear something and think, ‘That sounds really good. I never would have thought of that.’”