The Human League's second album,
Travelogue, was their first to be released in the U.S. (Not that you would have noticed at the time, given the limited distribution; the album subsequently was picked up for reissue by Virgin/Atlantic in 1988.) It was also the last to feature the nearly original lineup of
Martyn Ware,
Ian Marsh,
Philip Oakey, and Adrian Wright. Already, the band's synthesizer textures and
Oakey's mannered voice were starting to lean in a pop direction, but much of this album retained the austere tone of earlier synthesizer groups such as
Kraftwerk and
Tangerine Dream. The conflicting musical directions led to a split in the band after this album, with
Ware and
Marsh forming
Heaven 17 and
Oakey and Wright reorganizing a new version of the Human League. Ironically, both ventures were more pop-oriented than before. ~ William Ruhlmann