Reproduction

Reproduction
Studio album by The Human League
Released	October 1979
Recorded	Workshop Studio, Sheffield, 1979
Genre	Electronic music
Length	43:10
Label	Virgin Records
Producer	Colin Thurston
Professional reviews
Allmusic: Link
The Human League chronology
"The Dignity of Labour" 12" (1979) Reproduction (1979) Holiday '80 EP (1980)

Reproduction is the debut album released by British synthpop band The Human League. The album was released in October 1979 through Virgin Records Ltd.

Reproduction contains nine tracks of electronic music/synthpop and was recorded during six weeks at The Human League's studio in Sheffield. The recordings were produced by Colin Thurston, who had previously worked on some key new wave recordings such as Iggy Pop's Lust for Life and the first Magazine album, and would go on to produce numerous hit albums of the 1980s, most notably for Duran Duran.

The album was a commercial failure upon its initial release in October 1979, but it was re-issued and charted almost two years later in August 1981, earning a Silver disc by the end of the year and peaking at no.34 in early 1982. The album spent a total of 23 weeks on the album chart and was later certified Gold by the BPI in 1988.

The only single released from the album was "Empire State Human" which initially failed to chart, but was re-released in June 1980 (with a free single taken from the band's second album Travelogue) and reached #62. The band's debut single from 1978, "Being Boiled", was not included on the original release of Reproduction, but was added as an extra track on all CD issues from the late 1980s onwards. A re-recorded version of that single's B-side, "Circus of Death", was however included on the album.

The album also features The Human League's cover version of "You've Lost That Loving Feeling", a hit single back in 1965 for The Righteous Brothers.

The album was composed and engineered by The Human League (Oakey/Ware/Marsh) and Bob Last for Virgin Records Ltd. 1979.

Track listing

1. "Almost Medieval"
2. "Circus of Death"
3. "The Path of Least Resistance"
4. "Blind Youth"
5. "The Word Before Last"
6. "Empire State Human"
7. "Morale...You've Lost That Loving Feeling"
8. "Austerity/Girl One (Medley)"
9. "Zero As A Limit"

The following tracks were first added when the album was released on CD in the late 1980s:

1. Introducing
2. The Dignity of Labour, Part 1
3. The Dignity of Labour, Part 2
4. The Dignity of Labour, Part 3
5. The Dignity of Labour, Part 4
6. Flexidisc
7. Being Boiled (Fast Version)
8. The Circus of Death (Fast Version)

"Introducing" was originally the B-side of the "Empire State Human" single. The instrumental "The Dignity of Labour" tracks had been released as an EP in 1979, with Flexidisc (a tongue-in-cheek in-studio meta-conversation between the members of the band and their manager, Bob Last, about their plans to include a Flexidisc with their EP and what to put on it). The last two tracks were the A and B sides of the band's debut single, Being Boiled, released prior to their signing to Virgin.