LEAGUE: HUMAN ERROR

“CRASH!” Human League. A&M.; For its first album in 2 1/2 years, this English neo-disco band has turned to the hot Minneapolis team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, obviously hoping that the producers of Janet Jackson’s “Nasty” and “What Have You Done for Me Lately” can come up with something better than the League’s last LP, the dreadful “Hysteria.” But even the Flyte Tyme wizards can’t transform dross into gold. Singer Phil Oakey’s droning-wimp vocals are as dull as ever, and even though he leaves much of the songwriting to Harris and Lewis, the songs don’t rise above the usual League level.

The one exception is “Human,” a pretty little ballad. The rest of the album is flaccid dance-pop, with some songs (notably the incredibly plodding leadoff track “Money”) defining Human League’s weaknesses so well that they seem like parodies. The lyrics are empty and repetitive, the “soul” elements merely tacked on. Like Culture Club and the Thompson Twins, Human League basically represents what’s wrong with the most popular school of ‘80s English pop music, where knee-jerk dance rhythms, pose and the right clothes are everything. “Crash!” indeed. And burn, too, one hopes.