For the month of October, I’m taking the #OctAtoZBandChallenge challenge. The premise is simple. Pick a band starting with the day’s assigned alphabet letter and then choose a song from that band.
Day 8
When music fans think of The Human League, some of the first traits that undoubtedly come up are Phil Oakey’s princely vocals, the shimmery synth chops and the call-and-response duo of Oakey and Sulley. Most fans don’t think of scorching guitar riffs or political statements first. But that’s what we have with “The Lebanon”, the lowest-charting single from the band in the U.S., which also failed to achieve the same success as the Dare singles. It is my favorite Human League song by far.
“The Lebanon” flies in the face of conventional synth-pop music. It’s dominated by that incendiary guitar riff, relegating the synth chords to a rhythmic role. The song looks back at the Lebanese civil war. It feels like the cities are on fire when you play the track. While synthesizers and Oakey’s vocals and songwriting gave The Human League its identity, its songs like “The Lebanon” that make me wonder what could’ve been had the band experimented a bit more on guitar.
“He left his home the week before. He thought he'd be like the police. But now he finds he is at war. Weren't we supposed to keep the peace.”