Humans - Happy Hour
#484
October 22 1981 LISTENING POST DISCOVERY
Humans
Happy Hour
Genre: New Wave
4.5 out of 5
Highlights:
Get You Tonight
Lightning
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
Foreign Culture
Obituary
Does anyone know anything about this band? I mean from personal experience? Has anyone heard of Humans? They got a record deal with I.R.S. and there was an accompanying videotape which was distributed by Mike Nesmith. Anyone familiar Mike know that, post-Monkees, he was on the vanguard of video music. Elephant Parts begat Television Parts. So, it’s no surprise that he would find some band to promote these efforts. And, listening to, say, the excellent “Lightning”, I can get the similar sensibilities.
This jittery record actually sounds a few years ahead of its time while sounding OF it’s time entirely. Make sense? Maybe not.
I could hear “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” slipped into a set on College Radio right after, say, any Boomtown Rats track. Rodney must have played these guys, yes?
They aren’t derivative despite the style or the era. “Change” being an example of Bowie tinged but confident enough to strut their stuff.
Side One closes out with the Neo-reggae menacing “Foreign Culture”, which is terrific inasmuch as they are pilfering one in the song and I love me some meta.
Side Two is a bit less interesting and that could just be because these guys don’t have a lot of catchy choruses in them so there’s no single here. It’s all front loaded.
But, man, “Obituary”…that’s really something.
Imma have to give this another spin. It’s great.
Does anyone know anything about these guys??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnGCOFvAIB4
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