Secrets (The Human League album)
Secrets is the eighth studio album by the British synthpop band The Human League. The album was released in 2001 with the short-lived music label Papillon Records, a sublabel of Chrysalis Records after it was sold to EMI.
Genesis
The album was the participation of the producer team TOY (Q. Engstrom, Kerry Hopwood & Dave Clayton ) and producer Dave Bascombe and mixer who mixed the decoupled comeback single All I Ever Wanted. Bascombe had produced, among other things for Depeche Mode and Tears For Fears. Engstrom, Hopwood and Clayton also had connections with Depeche Mode; Engstrom, a sound engineer in the Matrix Studios in London, the keyboardist Clayton and the Arranger Hopwood had met during the production of the album Ultra by Depeche Mode in 1997 and produced together since 1998 as a TOY, including Love and Violence for Wolfgang Flatz. The album was recorded in the home studio of the band in Sheffield and The Temple of stress, a music studio with an attached label in London. In many compositions Neil Sutton was involved, since the album Romantic? wrote for The Human League songs. Seven of the 16 tracks are instrumentals. All I Ever Wanted and Love Me Madly? were released as singles. The produced by Barry Gilbey title Tranqulity was used only for the sinlge All I Ever Wanted. Love me Madly? appeared after the bankruptcy of Papillon Records 2003 Nukove Records.
Reception
Tim DiGravina of the music database Allmusic called the album at the same time an urgent and exciting access to the past and a look into the future. A handful of the songs its on a level with the best material the band.
Oliver Ding of Plattentests.de characterizes the album as a return comeback attempt and certifies that the " neoromatischem murmur " under the title dietary counseling revisited " like much nutritional value as [ a ] telephone directory an average small town in Germany ".