I have two copies of "Crash", the original UK release and the coloured version from 2022's "The Virgin Years" box set.
This album is from 1986 and was (in)famously produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. As I mentioned in my review of "Hysteria", the band were really struggling with production at this point in their career and it was thought that using Jam and Lewis would provide the spark required.
What everyone didn't seem to appreciate was that Jam and Lewis are a "production house" that control almost every aspect of the music they create. The tensions this approach created led to the break up of the band and the producers were forced to complete this record alone.
Things begin with "Money" which was written by the band, but the rhythm guitars and shrill brass stabs give it a distinctly American flavour. The change of production style is brought front and centre when the song moves into a funk influenced breakdown that sounds alien on a Human League record.
The worst song on the album is the God awful, "Swang" which is a bad song, that is badly produced and badly performed. We then move from the ridiculous to the sublime with the massive hit single "Human" which has a great melody and sympathetic production. For once the backing vocals on this track sound good but Philip is rather fragile.
For some reason the next song sees Philip in desperate need of preserves as he has, "gotta get some jam". Whilst the music for this song is better than most on the album, the lyrics are just nonsense. Things are more straight forward on "Are You Ever Coming Back?" which was written by the band but given a much more complimentary production sheen by Jam and Lewis.
On the flip side the first track "I Need Your Loving" wouldn't have sounded out of place on the Janet Jackson album "Control". Whilst there are no additional vocalists credited on this album there is no way the backing vocals here are by Joanne and Susan. This track was released as a single and its relative failure can't have come as a surprise to anyone.
The ubiquitous E.BASS 1 from a DX7 dominates the next song "Party". The first time I heard this I could swear they were singing, "Everyone is going to Cardiff". Once you hear it there is no going back. "Love on the Run" is another attempt by the band to harness the sound of Motown but it falls well short of "Mirror Man". The irrepressible DX7 bass rolls on through "The Real Thing" which is a moderately entertaining song with some terrible vocals. Things end with the Jam and Lewis composition "Love Is All That Matters". This is an fantastic song that leaves me in the mood to forgive some of the earlier transgressions (even if Philip is trying to channel his inner James Brown with predictably bad results). This album is good in places but ultimately it is a case of trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole. 2/5
