How Men Are by Heaven 17

How Men Are, Heaven 17's third studio album, came out on Virgin on 24 September 1984, produced by B.E.F. and made by the Sheffield trio of singer Glenn Gregory and former Human League co-founders Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh on synthesizers. The Fairlight CMI and the LinnDrum still do most of the heavy lifting, but real instruments start creeping in: a small orchestra swells through three tracks, Earth, Wind & Fire's brass section the Phenix Horns punch up two more, and the vocal group Afrodiziak sings on four.

It's slicker and warmer than the chilly synth-pop that made their name, cool-headed dance music with a big band's muscle. It peaked at No. 12 on the UK albums chart and went silver that October. The singles told a story of their own: "Sunset Now" and "This Is Mine" reached No. 24 and No. 23 in the UK, but a remix of "...(And That's No Lie)" stalled at No. 52 early in 1985.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.