If Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam – the team behind Janet Jackson's recent platinum performance – were to produce the next Barry Manilow album, chances are they'd even have ol' Barry funking with authority. So it comes as no surprise that they've been able to turn the Human League into one tight unit on Crash. Not that these British synth specialists are utterly without soul – their 1982 breakthrough LP, Dare, was rather funky in its own icy, high-tech way. Since then, however, the former art-school band from Sheffield has spent a few years floundering.

Interestingly, the song that's bringing the League back to the Top Forty isn't one of the minimalist funk numbers that dominate Crash, but "Human," a wonderfully kitschy soul ballad about infidelity and remorse that even the S.O.S. Band would be proud to call its own. Despite a silly spoken confession from Joanne Catherall, "Human" is one of the most affecting radio hits of the year.

Lead singer Phil Oakey, who manages to pull off a successful rap on "I Need Your Loving," shows considerably more range than he has in the past. On the simplistic dance-floor numbers like "Jam" and "Swang," he sings with a certain self-effacing charm, as if winking to let us know that he knows that he's no George Clinton. And on the slower songs – like "Human" and the mournful "Are You Ever Coming Back?" – he sounds genuinely caught up in his angst-packed material.

One friendly suggestion to the band on the packaging of Crash: If you're going to sing such subpedestrian lyrics ("Swang/Real city dancing/Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah/Swang/Real city dancing/Yeah"), don't print them on the jacket. Looking at these lyrics apart from the music is like reading a Norton Anthology of the Ohio Players.

On a happier and more important note, the inspired decision to put the limey League through the Minneapolis mafia's state-of-the-art hit machine was exactly what was needed to bring this band back from the brink. Crash is not simply an impressive comeback; it's a funky redemption. (RS 487)

DAVID WILD