Human Racing

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This article is about the Nik Kershaw album. For the title track, see Human Racing (song).
Human Racing
File:Nik-Kershaw-Human-Racing.jpg
Studio album by Nik Kershaw
Released 27 February 1984
Recorded Summer 1983
Studio Sarm East Studios, London;
Sarm West Studios, London;
Marcus Music; and
Cherokee Studios, Los Angeles[1]
Genre
Length 39:39
Label MCA
Producer Peter Collins
Nik Kershaw chronology
Human Racing
(1984)		 The Riddle
(1984)The Riddle1984
Singles from Human Racing
  1. "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me"
    Released: 16 September 1983
  2. "Wouldn't It Be Good"
    Released: 21 January 1984
  3. "Dancing Girls"
    Released: 2 April 1984
  4. "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (Re-release)"
    Released: June 1984
  5. "Human Racing"
    Released: August 1984
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Smash Hits 1/10 stars[2]
AllMusic 3/5 stars[3]

Human Racing is the debut album by the English singer-songwriter Nik Kershaw. The album was released in February 1984 on MCA Records, peaking at #5 on the UK Album Chart and was certified Platinum by the BPI. It was the 22nd biggest selling album of 1984 in the UK and received a nomination for Best British Album at the 1985 Brit Awards.[4] The album also reached the top ten in several other countries including Germany, Finland, and Norway.

The album was re-released on 27 February 2012[5] on Universal's new Re-presents imprint featuring rare bonus content. The reissue is a 2-CD set with the original album digitally remastered from the original 1/2" mix tapes; the bonus content consists of associated 12" mixes and B-sides including a previously unreleased version of "Bogart", a special brass mix of "Shame on You" and a live version of "Cloak and Dagger" recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon.

Production and recording

The album features guest keyboardists, including Don Snow, Nick Glennie-Smith, and Reg Webb, the latter a member of the band Fusion (for which Kershaw was the guitarist). Several songs like "Drum Talk" were based around improvisation; other songs, like "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", had a political message. "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", "Wouldn't It Be Good", "Dancing Girls" and "Human Racing" were all released as singles with corresponding music videos.

Human Racing was recorded over a period of ten weeks during the summer of 1983. Every day at 11:00, Peter Collins, Julian Mendelsohn, and Kershaw himself gathered at Sarm East Studios in East London to record the album.[6] When Kershaw was asked about how he wanted the album to sound he said:

"What we really did was just re-record the demos I'd made the previous year on a Portastudio, in my front room. All the parts were there, we just improved the quality and changed a few sounds around. We stuck quite faithfully to the original arrangements."[7]

Release and chart performance

The album's first single in the United Kingdom was "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", which peaked at #47 upon its first release in late 1983. It became a major hit in Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Switzerland. "Wouldn't It Be Good" became Kershaw's first major hit in the UK, spending three weeks at #4 on the UK Singles Chart and logging his longest chart run there. It is the song Kershaw is best known for in the United States, where it peaked at #46. Further hits from the album were "Dancing Girls" and the title track, which reached #19 in the UK. First single "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" was later re-released, becoming the album's second international hit and reached #2 in the UK. In Canada and the Netherlands Kershaw is also best known for this song, where it peaked at number #5 and #6 respectively. The album peaked at #5 in the UK and #70 in the US. In the UK, it was certified Platinum and was the 22nd best selling album of 1984.

Critical reception

Smash Hits magazine gave the album a highly negative review, awarding it 1 out of 10, and calling it "Competent but relentlessly dull synthesised meanderings of no importance to anyone but Mr Kershaw himself (and even he doesn't sound that interested)."[2] Reviewing for AllMusic, critic Scott Bultman wrote of the album: "His debut, although rough around the edges, showed talent and promise.".[8]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Nik Kershaw. 

Side one
No. Title Length
1. "Dancing Girls"   3:46
2. "Wouldn't It Be Good"   4:32
3. "Drum Talk"   3:10
4. "Bogart"   4:38
5. "Gone to Pieces"   3:11
Side two
No. Title Length
6. "Shame on You"   3:33
7. "Cloak and Dagger"   4:55
8. "Faces"   4:05
9. "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me"   3:23
10. "Human Racing"   4:26
Total length:
 39:39
Additional tracks

Personnel

Additional personnel
Engineering

Chart performance

Chart (1983) Peak
position		 Total
weeks
Australia (Kent Music Report)[13] 35 18
Canadian Albums Chart[14] 19 23
Dutch Albums Chart[15] 13 17
German Albums Chart[16] 8 27
New Zealand Albums Chart[17] 32 11
Norwegian Albums Chart[18] 7 10
Swedish Albums Chart[19] 38 3
Swiss Albums Chart[20] 12 24
UK Albums Chart[21] 5 61
U.S. Billboard 200[22] 70 17
Chart (2012) Peak
position		 Total
weeks
UK Albums Chart 159 1

Singles

  • "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" (#47 on first release in 1983; #2 on re-release in 1984)
    • B-side - "Dark Glasses"
  • "Wouldn't It Be Good" (#4)
    • B-side - "Monkey Business"
  • "Dancing Girls" (#13)
    • B-side - "She Cries"
  • "Human Racing" (#19)
    • B-side - "Faces" (Simon Boswell remix)

See also

References

  1. ↑ Kershaw 2012, p. 2-3.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  6. ↑ "Nik Kershaw To Release Expanded Reissue Of ‘Human Racing’". thisisnotretro.com. 15 February 2012. Retrieved 2013-07-09.
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  9. ↑ Kershaw 2012, p. 14-15.
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  12. ↑ Kershaw 2012, p. 3.
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External links

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