Track Listing

1. (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang
2. I'm Your Money Listen Listen
3. Height of the Fighting (He-La-Hu) Listen Listen
4. Play to Win Listen Listen
5. Penthouse and Pavement Listen Listen
6. Let Me Go
7. Trouble
8. Come Live with Me
9. Crushed by the Wheels of Industry
10. Sunset Now
11. Flame Down
12. This Is Mine
13. Foolish Thing to Do
14. Contenders
15. (And That's No Lie)
16. Temptation

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15015 in Music
• Released on: 1999-08-02
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Customer Reviews

Good budget introduction to underrated band.
Heaven 17 were originally an off-shoot of the BEF- which Ware & Marsh formed after leaving the Human League. While vocalist Glenn Gregory sounded similar to Phil Oakey- the music was looking more towards a blend of soul & synthetics. The horrible cover apart, this is a good compilation- better than the remixes/repackages (such as 'Higher & Higher') and the 'megamix'-containing 'Endless' (which forgot to include 'Come Live with Me').

We get a healthy dose of the great 'Penthouse & Pavement'- in which H-17 took the new Thatcher-instilled Yuppie aesthetic to postmodern ends. Think of the developing London of 'The Long Good Friday' & the ethics of Gordo Gekko in 'Wall St.'. The title track & 'Play to Win' are ironic-soulful excursions on these survivalist aesthetics. Ware & Marsh had moved from the 'no future' of the cold war predicting League ('Life Kills', 'Being Boiled', 'Circus of Death')which was the result of too much JG Ballard & hanging round with Cabaret Voltaire. The future was spelt out by The Men single 'I Don't Depend on You'- which took Chic to new synthetic realms (and predated Daft Punk by close to two decades; it's on 'Travelogue'). '(We don't need this)Fascist Groove Thang' was the contoversial single that sounded like 'Head'-Prince covering The Pop Group & Magazine's 'Model Worker' at the same time. Imagine a funk band playing to lyrics from Ballard's 'Atrocity Exhibition'- the spectre of Reagan & the end of the world looms over this amusing dance number. Yes, the 80's would party away to transcend the gloom of potential apocalypse & the misery of the UK captured by 'Ghost Town'.'The Height of the Fighting' is closer to the League sound- very catchy despite the embarrasing chant. Not far from the kind of thing A Certain Ratio did. My only quibble is the abscence of 'Let's all Make a Bomb'-reason alone to buy the original album (avoid the 1983 rerecording with bagpipes on though!)...For a while H-17 got even better- the production & ambition increased accordingly- 'I'm Your Money' predated the sampledelic notions of 'How to be a Millionaire', '19', Big Audio Dynamite, Jesus Jones etc. 'Let Me Go' was a gloomy synthsoul song bemoaning the past ("it was the best years of our lives") & 'Crushed by the Wheels of Industry' was formative in the electronic-industrial front. This is as harsh as Cabaret Voltaire circa 'Crackdown', New Order circa-'Blue Monday' & would lead towards Propaganda, AR Kane & Nitzer Ebb/Front 242. It was a key party record in the experimental Sheffield scene- as the book 'Energy Flash' will tell you. It was also popular in the 'acid house'-scene and the initial eclectic Ibiza scene of the 80's. And it was on the soundtrack to 'Electric Dreams': a very disturbing film concerning a love triangle between man,woman & computer!...'Come Live with Me' was a gorgeous ballad- a kind of transcendent 'Lolita' or a futurist 'Grange Hill' plot. It still stands up as perfect electro-soul today- though the albums were decreading in quality. The final absolute classic here is the timeless 'Temptation'- probably their key single and/or albatross. This is a definite influence on the soulful-electronics of Timbaland,Destinys Child, Roger Sanchez and Aaliyah. It was around this time that Heaven 17 restarted Tina Turner's credit & in the process made her millions!...The band seemed to become blander after this- Ware producing the difficult 'Perhaps' by The Associates & the band outstaying their initial premise. They seemed to be repeating themselves, but with less imaginative music- closer to Kajagoogoo, A Flock of Seagulls or any of the new-wave bandwagon jumpers. 'This is Mine' was OK- but the rest of it is very mediocre & proof that H-17 had achieved what they had set out to do & there was no need to stick around.

So, a good budget priced introduction to an underrated band- but plenty to skip towards the end!

A good collection of a great band's work
Quite possibly the finest band out of Sheffield, Heaven 17 produced some fabulous tunes during hte 80's. This CD will give the uninitiated a good overview of the Band's work. One reason for getting this CD is the inclusion of the track "Foolish tHing to Do", some Heaven 17 fans will abhor this track but I've always thought it was one fo their best. So go ahead, take a trip back to the early 80's and use this as your soundtrack - there are worse things you could do!