Travelogue

Travelogue
Studio album by The Human League
Released	May 1980
Recorded	Monumental Pictures studio, Sheffield 1980
Genre	Electronic music New Wave
Label	Virgin Records
Producer	Richard Mainwaring
Professional reviews
Allmusic: link
The Human League chronology
Holiday '80 (1980) Travelogue (1980) Dare (1981)

Travelogue is the second full-length studio album released by the British synthpop band The Human League.

Released in May 1980, the band had yet to achieve any degree of commercial success. For Travelogue, the band worked with a new producer, Richard Mainwaring, who went on to produce OMD's platinum selling Architecture & Morality the following year. Travelogue entered the UK album chart at #16, which was also its chart peak, and remained on the chart for 9 weeks in 1980. Although a vast improvement on their debut album, Reproduction, which had failed to chart at all the year before, the lack of high success precipitated the departure of founding band members Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, who went on to form Heaven 17. Their departure led to remaining members Phil Oakey and Adrian Wright moving The Human League in a new musical direction with a new line-up. As the new band then began to make a commercial impact the following year, Travelogue re-entered the chart in August 1981 for a further 33 weeks, eventually being certified Gold by the BPI in May 1982.

Two songs were released as singles from the album; a new version of the band's first single, "Being Boiled" (as part of the Holiday '80 EP released a month before the album), and a cover of Mick Ronson's "Only After Dark" (which was ultimately given away as a free single with a re-issue of the band's 1979 single "Empire State Human" in June 1980). Neither of these were successful, though "Being Boiled" would be re-issued once again in early 1982 when it finally became a top 10 hit. The album also featured a cover of the famed advertising jingle for Gordon's Gin, written by Jeff Wayne.

Virgin Records remastered and re-issued Travelogue on CD in 1988, with an expanded track listing which included the Holiday '80 EP, the disco single "I Don't Depend on You" (originally released under the moniker "The Men"), and the single "Boys and Girls", which had been produced by Oakey and Wright after the line-up split.

Track listing

1. "The Black Hit of Space" (Ware, Marsh, Oakey, Wright) – 4:11
2. "Only After Dark" (Richardson, Mick Ronson) – 3:51
3. "Life Kills" (Ware, Marsh, Oakey, Wright) – 3:08
4. "Dreams of Leaving" (Ware, Marsh, Oakey, Wright) – 5:52
5. "Toyota City" (Ware, Marsh, Oakey, Wright) – 3:21
6. "Crow and a Baby" (Ware, Marsh, Oakey, Wright) – 3:43
7. "The Touchables" (Ware, Marsh, Oakey, Wright) – 3:21
8. "Gordon's Gin" (Wayne) – 2:59
9. "Being Boiled" (Marsh, Oakey, Ware) – 4:22
10. "WXJL Tonight" (Ware, Marsh, Oakey, Wright) – 4:46

Bonus tracks

1. "Marianne" (Marsh, Oakey, Ware) – 3:17
2. "Dancevision" (Marsh, Ware) – 2:22
3. "Rock 'n' Roll/Night Clubbing" (Gary Glitter, Mike Leander/David Bowie, James Osterberg) – 6:23
4. "Tom Baker" (Oakey, Wright) – 4:01
5. "Boys and Girls" (Oakey, Wright) – 3:14
6. "I Don't Depend on You" (Marsh, Oakey, Ware) – 4:36
7. "Cruel" (Marsh, Oakey, Ware) – 4:45

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