Dancing in the Streets - Human Nature

Joseph Smith | 27 February 2007

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Human Nature’s latest album of Motown hits repeats the winning formula that gave the boy band the biggest selling Australian album of 2006.

Dancing in the Streets – The Songs of Motown II is the follow up to Reach Out – The Motown Record, a collection of twelve tracks from Motown’s golden era of the 1960s and early 1970s.

The follow up contains 14 more covers from some of Motown’s greatest recording artists including Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and the Jackson 5.

The history

Motown Records is based out of Detroit, Michigan where it achieved widespread international success and played an important role in the racial integration of popular music in the 1960s.

Motown was the first record label owned by an African American. It broke down racial barriers and helped many African American artists achieve crossover success in the mainstream music industry. The recent film Dreamgirls explores some of this history.

Motown still exists today with a batch of contemporary recording artists but lacks much of the influence it once had.

The record

Human Nature was a very successful boy band in the late 1990s, but as the popularity of boy bands waned, so did Human Nature’s success.

Eschewing the variety of original material that they recorded on their earlier albums, Human Nature have shot back into prominence with their second successful album of Motown covers. Artistically, it leaves a lot to be desired. After all, the guys are just trading off the success that was earned by earlier recording artists and songwriters; much like Rod Stewart has with his Great American Songbook albums. Is it merely a cynical attempt in money-making?

Whatever artistic integrity might be lost in being a human jukebox and covering some classics, one can’t deny that Human Nature reproduce them well. They rarely if ever stray from the original versions and their voices have the quality to do each Motown hit justice.

The album is a good reminder that a good song is still a good song no matter how contemporary styles might evolve.

The album is also a reminder that it is possible to express romantic love (Ain’t No Mountain High Enough), sadness at lost love (Ain’t To Proud To Beg) and anguish at society (What’s Going On?) in a powerful way without resorting to vulgarity or profanity. Many modern hip hop and rap artists could learn from their musical fore-fathers (and -mothers) and follow suit.

The album also contains upbeat hits like ABC, I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) and Dancing in the Street which is sure to get even the most jaded among us up on the dance floor.

One could point out the irony of a bunch of white men appropriating songs that black men and women used to break down the walls of racism. But I won’t.