Digitally remastered and released on DVD for the first time, most of Phil Oakey and pals' greatest hits are included on The Very Best of the Human League. With their heavy eye make-up, bizarre hair-styles and generally dodgy fashion sense, few people could have predicted back in the early 1980s that the group would become long-standing pop and style icons. Opening with the simple promos for experimental tracks "Circus of Death" and "Empire State Human", the videos evolve in budget and sophistication, reflecting the band's growing popular success and the general development of the pop video as a genre. Some of the early promos attempt pastiches of popular film and television productions: "Love Action (I Believe in Love)" is a take on The Graduate, while "Don't You Want Me" appears to have been shot on the set of Jersey-based detective series Bergerac. Heralding the arrival of the Quantel Paintbox--the ground-breaking televisual special effects generator--the "Open Your Heart" promo incorporates a variety of tacky special effects, which may have looked great on Swap Shop in 1981, but now look remarkably ridiculous. The lesser-known video for the Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis-produced track "I Need Your Loving" and the retrospective video montage for their 1998 Greatest Hits collection track "Love is All That Matters" also oddly make it on to this compilation. The videos for the non-Virgin Record singles are included, too ("Tell Me When", "One Man in My Heart" and "All I Ever Wanted"), with "One Man in My Heart" providing a step-by-step guide to making a cappuccino.
On the DVD: The Very Best of The Human League has been mastered effectively overall, with the visual and audio quality of the 1981 promo for "Love Action" being particularly crisp. The Top of the Pops and Later... performances provide an added perspective on the evolution of the band, and the interview with Phil, Joanne and Susan supplies a further comprehensive and accessible overview of their past and future development. --John Galilee
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