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From the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Human Racing

Nik Kershaw

1984

Human Racing
Album Summary

This album has been submitted by a user and is not included in any edition of the book.

Human Racing is the debut studio album by the English singer-songwriter Nik Kershaw, released on 27 February 1984 by MCA Records. Several songs like "Drum Talk" were based around improvisation; other songs, like "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", had a political message. Kershaw's most commercially successful solo album, it peaked at No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart and reached the top 10 in several other countries, including Germany, Finland, and Norway. The album spawned four charting singles in the United Kingdom. "Wouldn't It Be Good" peaked at No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart; "Dancing Girls" peaked at No. 13; "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" at No. 2; "Human Racing" at No. 19. Human Racing was the 22nd best-selling album of 1984 in the UK and received a nomination for Best British Album at the Brit Awards 1985. The album has been certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

Wikipedia

Rating

2.76

Votes

62

Genres

  • Pop
  • New Wave

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Reviews

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Oct 11 2024
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4

Wouldn't it be good has been the theme song to Cadbury commercials in Australia for about the last 30 years. It's a fucking banger. I didn't know the rest of the album, but it isn't as good. There's an "intense pop" feel, with all this stop-start stuff and synthesised slap bass etc etc, that I wasn't in the mood for today. I'm gonna give it a decent score though, for wouldn't it be nice and I won't let the sun go down on me, as well as the guitar solo in cloak and dagger. 4/5.

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Oct 09 2024
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3

Downside is more new wave bullshit Upside on a few tracks is that it *nearly* touches Oingo Boingo in new wave fun. Needs more horns! The lyrics are *very* "I'm 14 and this is deep"

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Oct 10 2024
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3

When people say they don't like 80s music this is what they think it all sounds like.

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Oct 11 2024
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2

Alexa - play me an album from the 80's

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Oct 17 2024
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2

Feel like a lot of the user albums are more of the nostalgic music people listened to a lot growing up. I never heard of this album before but I’d imagine if I grew up in the 80s this would be a popular one. To me this was some boy band solo artist 80s new wave stuff that was pretty dull and didn’t have any of the flair of the better new wave music. 4.3/10

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Oct 21 2024
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2

Basic 80’s pop. I don’t understand how this was so many weeks on top of the UK charts

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Oct 08 2024
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4

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: Wouldn’t it be good, Shame on you, Faces, I won’t let the sun go down on me

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Oct 11 2024
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4

Quintessential 80's vibe. I personally prefer The Riddle, but Wouldn't It Be Good and I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Me alone make it worthwhile to listen to the album.

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Oct 08 2024
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3

Good hit singles, but not such a good overall LP. A bit too experimental with those achingly 1980s synth sounds, perhaps.

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Oct 09 2024
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3

A rare New Wave LP that took me by surprise - was never really sure where this one was going, and the constantly-evolving rhythms and off-kilter instrumentation felt surprisingly distinct for an album in this genre. Some slower, standard takes of the time towards the back half drag a little, but overall this was a solid and pretty entertaining listen.

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Oct 09 2024
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3

Typical 80s sound. And this album has 2 songs I knew, but would never been able to name the artist

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Oct 10 2024
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3

I thought this was actually pretty wierd for what was apparently a successful pop album. New wave adjacent but kind of its own thing. I liked it OK, it was a good workout jam, but a little too far on the soft side for me and certainly dated.

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Oct 10 2024
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3

It's alright, seems like pretty standard mid-80s fare to me. 3 stars.

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Oct 11 2024
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3

Tough one. The bangers don't outweigh the 80's blandness

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Oct 13 2024
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3

Decent 80s pop. Wouldn't It Be Good is a banger. Rating: 2.5 Playlist track: Wouldn't It Be Good Date listened: 14/10/24

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Oct 28 2024
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3

Better than I expected, but I have an instinctive aversion to 80s production!

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Oct 09 2024
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2

The truth is that it's an album that bored me, I couldn't get any emotion out of it. At the beginning I had expectations, but track by track they faded away. I felt like one of those artists from the eighties who arrived one day and faded away in the face of the consolidated successes of the time.

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Oct 09 2024
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2

The best thing about this album is that it made me remember the Riddle. 2 The fucking chipmunks in gone to pieces lmao

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Oct 23 2024
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2

I think maybe my brother had this album when it came out, but that I didn't particularly connect with it. That hasn't really changed as I come back to it today. It's an odd little album, a bit of a hodgepodge of quirky synth-forward songs that are very much of their time. The singles are solid enough, but it's nothing I care to revisit. Fave Songs: Wouldn't It Be Good, Bogart, I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, Human Racing

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