“The Sound Of The Crowd” by The Human League

"The Sound of the Crowd" was the record that finally broke the Human League: a stand-alone single on Virgin in April 1981 that climbed to 12 in the UK that May, before it was remixed and folded into Dare later in the year. Philip Oakey and keyboardist Ian Burden wrote it together, and it was cut at Genetic Sound Studios in Streatley, Berkshire, in March 1981, with Martin Rushent producing alongside the band and David M. Allen assisting on the engineering.

It's also where the new League found its voice. Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall, freshly recruited, trade lines with Oakey's lead, the first time women sang on a Human League song, while Burden, Jo Callis and Oakey stack up the synthesizers. The lyric pairs catchy orders with imagery obscure enough to keep listeners guessing.

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