Human's Lib is the debut album by the British pop musician Howard Jones. It was released in March 1984 and entered the UK Album Charts at the no. 1 spot, spending a total of 57 weeks in the charts. The album has been certified double platinum by the BPI for sales in excess of 600,000 copies. Four songs from this album were released as singles in the UK, all of which reached the top 20: "New Song" peaked at #3, "What Is Love?" at #2, "Hide and Seek" at #12, and "Pearl in the Shell" at #7. "New Song" and "What Is Love?" also made it into the Billboard charts in the US, both reaching the top 40. "Equality" was released as a single only in South Africa, as a commentary about the policy of apartheid there at the time.
Reception
Writing in Smash Hits at the time of the album's release, Neil Tennant commented that Jones had "a neat talent for writing melodic pop songs with clever hooks and real 1970s singer-songwriter lyrics. A must for all Supertramp fans." Don Watson of NME was more critical, writing, "It's as hard to distinguish his music as it is to distinguish it from your carpet; conveniently, though, the lyrics are printed on the inner sleeve so that we may fully appreciate the complete lack of any novel observation in the songs... What's so amusing about Jones' songwriting is the glib manner in which he brandishes threadbare platitudes as unique insights." In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music criticRobert Christgau panned Human's Lib as a "revolving self-help manual" marred by Jones' "ressentiment" and unadorned synth-pop. Mike DeGagne of AllMusic was more favourable in a retrospective review and enthusiastically stated that Human's Lib "is fueled by the nonstop synth-pop hooks and brightly textured melodies that went on to be a trademark of Howard Jones".
Track listing
All tracks composed by Howard Jones unless indicated otherwise. Track timings are taken from the original UK LP edition. Many CD editions substitute a 6:32 mix of "What Is Love?" for the 3:45 album version and add "China Dance", an instrumental B-side from the "Hide & Seek" single, as a bonus track.
