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* ContinuityAnnouncement: Since "Circus of Death" is set during an episode of ''Series/HawaiiFiveO'', the re-arranged version in the single's B-side starts with a continuity announcement that mentions the aforementioned show.
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''Reproduction'', released in 1979, is the debut studio album by English SynthPop group Music/TheHumanLeague. Originally formed by Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh and existing under varying names before hiring Philip Oakey as frontman, the band slowly built up a cult following in Britain's musical underground through continuous live performances, eventually catching the attention of indie label Fast Product with a demo tape. The band released one single, "Being Boiled"/"Circus of Death", and an EP, ''The Dignity of Labour'', under Fast, further ending up on the radars of other musicians and journalists, which in turn boosted their exposure and ability to reach more audiences on-stage, even playing in the [[Creator/TheBBC BBC Radio One]] booth for Creator/JohnPeel.
to:
''Reproduction'', released in 1979, 1979 through Creator/VirginRecords, is the debut studio album by English SynthPop group Music/TheHumanLeague. Originally formed by Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh and existing under varying names before hiring Philip Oakey as frontman, the band slowly built up a cult following in Britain's musical underground through continuous live performances, eventually catching the attention of indie label Fast Product with a demo tape. The band released one single, "Being Boiled"/"Circus of Death", and an EP, ''The Dignity of Labour'', under Fast, further ending up on the radars of other musicians and journalists, which in turn boosted their exposure and ability to reach more audiences on-stage, even playing in the [[Creator/TheBBC BBC Radio One]] booth for Creator/JohnPeel.
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* GratuitousPanning: The synth bass in "The Path of Least Resistance" plays exclusively in the left channel during the verse and chorus before a second synth bass appears in the right channel during the reprise of the verse.
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* DressRehearsalVideo: The music video for "Empire State Human" depicts the band performing on a soundstage, using highly skewed camera angles to make the band members appear taller or shorter in reference to the song's lyrics.
* HitlerCam: In the music video for "Empire State Human", the second verse sees Philip Oakey viewed from the ground-up to make him appear taller than he actually is, tying in with the narrator's superhuman growth.
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* ShoutOut: "Circus of Death" is set during an episode of ''Series/HawaiiFiveO'', with the first verse explaining that [=Steve McGarrett=] was flown out to Britain to investigate the titular circus. The song additionally begins with a ContinuityAnnouncement for the show.
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* ShoutOut: ShoutOut:
** "Circus of Death" is set during an episode of ''Series/HawaiiFiveO'', with the first verse explaining that [=Steve McGarrett=] was flown out to Britain to investigate the titular circus. The song additionally begins with a ContinuityAnnouncement for theshow.show.
** The music video for "Empire State Human" includes projections of various pop culture figures, including the title character of ''Series/{{Columbo}}'', [[Film/DollarsTrilogy the Man With No Name]], and ComicBook/{{Batman}} & ComicBook/{{Robin}} as they appeared in [[Series/Batman1966 the 1966 TV series]].
** "Circus of Death" is set during an episode of ''Series/HawaiiFiveO'', with the first verse explaining that [=Steve McGarrett=] was flown out to Britain to investigate the titular circus. The song additionally begins with a ContinuityAnnouncement for the
** The music video for "Empire State Human" includes projections of various pop culture figures, including the title character of ''Series/{{Columbo}}'', [[Film/DollarsTrilogy the Man With No Name]], and ComicBook/{{Batman}} & ComicBook/{{Robin}} as they appeared in [[Series/Batman1966 the 1966 TV series]].
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* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The album's sound is much more minimalist compared to ''Music/{{Travelogue}}'' and the Mk. II incarnation's output.
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* TakeThat: The LP version of "The Word Before Last" ends with a sample of a newscaster stating how an unidentified party "described [[UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher Mrs. Thatcher]]'s first three months in power as disastrous."
to:
* TakeThat: The LP version of "The Word Before Last" ends with a sample of a newscaster stating how an unidentified party "described [[UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher Mrs. Thatcher]]'s first three months in power as disastrous."
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/reproduction.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"The eternal moment laid bare."'']]
''Reproduction'', released in 1979, is the debut studio album by English SynthPop group Music/TheHumanLeague. Originally formed by Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh and existing under varying names before hiring Philip Oakey as frontman, the band slowly built up a cult following in Britain's musical underground through continuous live performances, eventually catching the attention of indie label Fast Product with a demo tape. The band released one single, "Being Boiled"/"Circus of Death", and an EP, ''The Dignity of Labour'', under Fast, further ending up on the radars of other musicians and journalists, which in turn boosted their exposure and ability to reach more audiences on-stage, even playing in the [[Creator/TheBBC BBC Radio One]] booth for Creator/JohnPeel.
Eventually, the band caught the eye of several bigger labels enticed by the band's growing visibility, ultimately accepting an offer from Creator/VirginRecords CEO Richard Branson, who promised full creative control. However, Branson went back on his word almost immediately by pressuring the band to put out a {{disco}} single, "I Don't Depend on You"; the band did, however, convince Virgin to put it out pseudonymously as "The Men," not wanting to alienate their established fans. When it failed to chart, the band immediately went back to their prior electronic style with Music/IggyPop and Music/{{Magazine}} collaborator Colin Thurston as co-producer. The resulting album is very much representative of the band's initial style before their later move to glossy dance music, featuring an ominously minimalist, pseudo-{{industrial}} sound and lyrics riffing on contemporary trends in British society.
Despite the band's early cult following, the album and its sole single, "Empire State Human", failed to chart. That same year, Music/GaryNuman rose to prominence as the new leading success in SynthPop, and this change in public attention would inform the Human League's subsequent work on ''Music/{{Travelogue}}'' and especially ''Music/{{Dare}}''. Following the success of the latter album, Virgin would re-issue ''Reproduction'', at which point it found more sustained success; the 1981 reissue charted in the UK for 23 weeks, peaking at No. 32, and was certified silver by the BPI at the end of the year. The BPI would later award it a gold certification in 1988.
!!Tracklist:
[[AC:Side One]]
# "Almost Medieval" (4:43)
# "Circus of Death" (3:55)
# "The Path of Least Resistance" (3:33)
# "Blind Youth" (3:25)
# "The Word Before Last" (4:04)
# "Empire State Human" (3:17)
[[AC:Side Two]]
# "Morale... You've Lost That Loving Feeling"[[note]]Latter half originally by the Righteous Brothers[[/note]] (9:39)
# "Austerity/Girl One (Medley)" (6:44)
# "Zero As a Limit" (4:13)
!!''Blind youth take hope, you're no Joe Trope'':
* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: According to the spoken-word intro on the Fast Product version, "Circus of Death" takes place in 1962; the song itself was first released in 1978 and was re-recorded for ''Reproduction'' a year later.
* AlternateUniverse: "Circus of Death" is set in an alternate version of Earth where humanity was eradicated in the 1960s by a MonsterClown and his living circus.
* BoleroEffect: "Zero As a Limit" starts off slow and quiet before building up in speed and intensity as it goes on, representing the fearfulness of being run over by a car.
* CircusOfFear: "Circus of Death" depicts a monstrous EldritchAbomination that takes the form of a constantly-growing circus led by a MonsterClown, who placates the circus' victims with the FantasticDrug "dominion" before annihilating all of humanity.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: "Empire State Human" revolves around a kid who grows as tall as a building simply by concentrating hard enough.
* CoverVersion: The second half of "Morale... You've Lost That Loving Feeling" is a rendition of a Righteous Brothers song.
* DownerEnding:
** "Circus of Death" ends with the titular circus wiping out all of humanity, with the last words of the song being a radio broadcast from the final victim just moments before his death.
** The album ends with "Zero As a Limit", a frantic piece about a violent car crash.
* DrugsAreBad: The MonsterClown in "Circus of Death" gets people addicted to a FantasticDrug so he can keep them under his thumb before he wipes them out.
* EldritchAbomination: The title being in "The Circus of Death" is heavily implied to be sentient, with the MonsterClown ringleader serving as its direct mode of interaction with humanity.
* EpicRocking: "Morale... You've Lost That Loving Feeling" clocks in at nine and a half minutes (mainly due to it being two songs sequenced together), while "Austerity/Girl One (Medley)" lasts just under seven.
* FantasticDrug: In "Circus of Death", the MonsterClown leading the titular circus uses a drug called "dominion" to keep victims subservient.
* FinalSolution: The titular being in "Circus of Death" aims to slaughter all of humanity and successfully does so with the help of a FantasticDrug.
* HeightAngst: The narrator of "Empire State Human" has loathed being "human-sized" since childhood and desires to grow to the size of a skyscraper.
* MonsterClown: In "Circus of Death", the titular circus' ringleader is an all-powerful clown who keeps victims under his thumb with a FantasticDrug.
* ProductionThrowback: The intro to "Circus of Death" includes the Dominion Jingle from the band's demo album ''The Taverner Tape''.
* RearrangeTheSong:
** The album includes a re-recording of "Circus of Death", the B-side to the band's debut single. The album version removes the spoken-word intro explaining the meaning of the songs and individual verses, replacing it with a ContinuityAnnouncement for ''Series/HawaiiFiveO'', and features a more layered production with echo effects at the end of each line in most of the verses.
** The CD release replaces the "knit one, purl one" intro on "The Path of Least Resistance" with a synth bass riff and adds distortion effects to the second verse's vocals. The LP mix would eventually be restored on a 2017 Japanese CD reissue.
* ReCut: CD editions of the album remove most of the musique concrete interludes and add the B-side "Introducing" and the band's Fast Product output as bonus tracks.
* ShoutOut: "Circus of Death" is set during an episode of ''Series/HawaiiFiveO'', with the first verse explaining that [=Steve McGarrett=] was flown out to Britain to investigate the titular circus. The song additionally begins with a ContinuityAnnouncement for the show.
* SiameseTwinSongs: "Morale... You've Lost That Loving Feeling" is the original song "Morale" and a CoverVersion of the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" played back-to-back and sequenced together as one track.
* TakeThat: The LP version of "The Word Before Last" ends with a sample of a newscaster stating how an unidentified party "described [[UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher Mrs. Thatcher]]'s first three months in power as disastrous."
* TheXOfY: "Circus of Death" and "The Path of Least Resistance".
----
[[caption-width-right:350:''"The eternal moment laid bare."'']]
''Reproduction'', released in 1979, is the debut studio album by English SynthPop group Music/TheHumanLeague. Originally formed by Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh and existing under varying names before hiring Philip Oakey as frontman, the band slowly built up a cult following in Britain's musical underground through continuous live performances, eventually catching the attention of indie label Fast Product with a demo tape. The band released one single, "Being Boiled"/"Circus of Death", and an EP, ''The Dignity of Labour'', under Fast, further ending up on the radars of other musicians and journalists, which in turn boosted their exposure and ability to reach more audiences on-stage, even playing in the [[Creator/TheBBC BBC Radio One]] booth for Creator/JohnPeel.
Eventually, the band caught the eye of several bigger labels enticed by the band's growing visibility, ultimately accepting an offer from Creator/VirginRecords CEO Richard Branson, who promised full creative control. However, Branson went back on his word almost immediately by pressuring the band to put out a {{disco}} single, "I Don't Depend on You"; the band did, however, convince Virgin to put it out pseudonymously as "The Men," not wanting to alienate their established fans. When it failed to chart, the band immediately went back to their prior electronic style with Music/IggyPop and Music/{{Magazine}} collaborator Colin Thurston as co-producer. The resulting album is very much representative of the band's initial style before their later move to glossy dance music, featuring an ominously minimalist, pseudo-{{industrial}} sound and lyrics riffing on contemporary trends in British society.
Despite the band's early cult following, the album and its sole single, "Empire State Human", failed to chart. That same year, Music/GaryNuman rose to prominence as the new leading success in SynthPop, and this change in public attention would inform the Human League's subsequent work on ''Music/{{Travelogue}}'' and especially ''Music/{{Dare}}''. Following the success of the latter album, Virgin would re-issue ''Reproduction'', at which point it found more sustained success; the 1981 reissue charted in the UK for 23 weeks, peaking at No. 32, and was certified silver by the BPI at the end of the year. The BPI would later award it a gold certification in 1988.
!!Tracklist:
[[AC:Side One]]
# "Almost Medieval" (4:43)
# "Circus of Death" (3:55)
# "The Path of Least Resistance" (3:33)
# "Blind Youth" (3:25)
# "The Word Before Last" (4:04)
# "Empire State Human" (3:17)
[[AC:Side Two]]
# "Morale... You've Lost That Loving Feeling"[[note]]Latter half originally by the Righteous Brothers[[/note]] (9:39)
# "Austerity/Girl One (Medley)" (6:44)
# "Zero As a Limit" (4:13)
!!''Blind youth take hope, you're no Joe Trope'':
* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: According to the spoken-word intro on the Fast Product version, "Circus of Death" takes place in 1962; the song itself was first released in 1978 and was re-recorded for ''Reproduction'' a year later.
* AlternateUniverse: "Circus of Death" is set in an alternate version of Earth where humanity was eradicated in the 1960s by a MonsterClown and his living circus.
* BoleroEffect: "Zero As a Limit" starts off slow and quiet before building up in speed and intensity as it goes on, representing the fearfulness of being run over by a car.
* CircusOfFear: "Circus of Death" depicts a monstrous EldritchAbomination that takes the form of a constantly-growing circus led by a MonsterClown, who placates the circus' victims with the FantasticDrug "dominion" before annihilating all of humanity.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: "Empire State Human" revolves around a kid who grows as tall as a building simply by concentrating hard enough.
* CoverVersion: The second half of "Morale... You've Lost That Loving Feeling" is a rendition of a Righteous Brothers song.
* DownerEnding:
** "Circus of Death" ends with the titular circus wiping out all of humanity, with the last words of the song being a radio broadcast from the final victim just moments before his death.
** The album ends with "Zero As a Limit", a frantic piece about a violent car crash.
* DrugsAreBad: The MonsterClown in "Circus of Death" gets people addicted to a FantasticDrug so he can keep them under his thumb before he wipes them out.
* EldritchAbomination: The title being in "The Circus of Death" is heavily implied to be sentient, with the MonsterClown ringleader serving as its direct mode of interaction with humanity.
* EpicRocking: "Morale... You've Lost That Loving Feeling" clocks in at nine and a half minutes (mainly due to it being two songs sequenced together), while "Austerity/Girl One (Medley)" lasts just under seven.
* FantasticDrug: In "Circus of Death", the MonsterClown leading the titular circus uses a drug called "dominion" to keep victims subservient.
* FinalSolution: The titular being in "Circus of Death" aims to slaughter all of humanity and successfully does so with the help of a FantasticDrug.
* HeightAngst: The narrator of "Empire State Human" has loathed being "human-sized" since childhood and desires to grow to the size of a skyscraper.
* MonsterClown: In "Circus of Death", the titular circus' ringleader is an all-powerful clown who keeps victims under his thumb with a FantasticDrug.
* ProductionThrowback: The intro to "Circus of Death" includes the Dominion Jingle from the band's demo album ''The Taverner Tape''.
* RearrangeTheSong:
** The album includes a re-recording of "Circus of Death", the B-side to the band's debut single. The album version removes the spoken-word intro explaining the meaning of the songs and individual verses, replacing it with a ContinuityAnnouncement for ''Series/HawaiiFiveO'', and features a more layered production with echo effects at the end of each line in most of the verses.
** The CD release replaces the "knit one, purl one" intro on "The Path of Least Resistance" with a synth bass riff and adds distortion effects to the second verse's vocals. The LP mix would eventually be restored on a 2017 Japanese CD reissue.
* ReCut: CD editions of the album remove most of the musique concrete interludes and add the B-side "Introducing" and the band's Fast Product output as bonus tracks.
* ShoutOut: "Circus of Death" is set during an episode of ''Series/HawaiiFiveO'', with the first verse explaining that [=Steve McGarrett=] was flown out to Britain to investigate the titular circus. The song additionally begins with a ContinuityAnnouncement for the show.
* SiameseTwinSongs: "Morale... You've Lost That Loving Feeling" is the original song "Morale" and a CoverVersion of the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" played back-to-back and sequenced together as one track.
* TakeThat: The LP version of "The Word Before Last" ends with a sample of a newscaster stating how an unidentified party "described [[UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher Mrs. Thatcher]]'s first three months in power as disastrous."
* TheXOfY: "Circus of Death" and "The Path of Least Resistance".
----
