''Higher and Higher: The Best of Heaven 17'' is a

greatest hits album A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be creat ...

by English

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s b ...

band

Heaven 17 Heaven 17 are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1980. The band were a trio for most of their career, composed of founding Human League members Martyn Ware (keyboards, drum machine, vocals) and Ian Craig Marsh (keyboards) with voc ...

, released on 8 March 1993.

Content

The compilation includes

singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

from Heaven 17's first four studio albums ''

Penthouse and Pavement ''Penthouse and Pavement'' is the debut studio album by the English synth-pop band Heaven 17, released on 18 September 1981 by Virgin Records. " (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" was released as a single, but did not achieve chart succe ...

'' (1981), ''

The Luxury Gap ''The Luxury Gap'' is the second studio album by the English synth-pop band Heaven 17, released on 25 April 1983 by Virgin Records. It is the band's best-selling studio album, peaking at number 4 on the UK Albums Chart – eventually becoming th ...

'' (1983), '' How Men Are'' (1984) and '' Pleasure One'' (1986), plus two new

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

es that were released as singles: "

Temptation Temptation is a desire to engage in short-term urges for enjoyment that threatens long-term goals.Webb, J.R. (Sep 2014). Incorporating Spirituality into Psychology of temptation: Conceptualization, measurement, and clinical implications. Sp ...

" (

Brothers in Rhythm Brothers in Rhythm are a British electronic music group comprising Dave Seaman, Steve Anderson and Alan Bremner. The group was originally a duo comprising Seaman and Anderson, with Bremner joining later in 1999. They have remixed and/or produc ...

Remix), which reached number four in the UK Singles Chart in 1992 and "

(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" is a song by the English synth-pop band Heaven 17. It was their debut single, released on 13 March 1981, and the lead single from their debut studio album, ''Penthouse and Pavement'' (1981). It was a min ...

" ( Rapino Edit), which reached number 40 in 1993. The US version of the album includes the Tommy D Master Remix of "Penthouse and Pavement" in place of the original version. The remix was also released as a single in the UK in 1993, reaching number 54.

Re-issue

In 1999, ''Higher and Higher'' was re-issued as ''Temptation – The Best of Heaven 17'', featuring new artwork and the same track listing as the original 1993 version.

Critical reception

Upon its release, John Harris, writing for ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'', was critical of the compilation. He commented on the label's "marketing tactic" for releasing it to capitalise on the success of the

remix of "

" and noted how, like "most '80s synth-pop", the tracks "sound hideously dated". He felt that many of them were "plinky-winky plodding affairs" which are "made even more unbearable by Gregory's pseudo-operatic vocals and terribly pompous lyrics". Harris concluded, "At best, Heaven 17 sounded like

Blancmange Blancmange (, from , ) is a sweet dessert popular throughout Europe commonly made with milk or cream, and sugar, thickened with rice flour, gelatin, corn starch, or Chondrus crispus, Irish moss (a source of carrageenan), and often flavoured wit ...

with brains. At worst, they were three pretentious home keyboard enthusiasts who'd read too many books – and it was that aspect that usually held the upper hand." In a review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance ...

wrote that the album is "an adequate overview of eaven 17'scareer", although he also described it as containing "too much music for casual fans", that the order of the tracks was "slightly illogical" and that the album is "not comprehensive enough for dedicated collectors".

Track listing

All tracks written by

Glenn Gregory Glenn Peter Gregory (born 16 May 1958) is a British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose music career spans more than 40 years. He came to prominence in the early 1980s as co-founder and lead singer of the new wave and synth-pop b ...

Ian Craig Marsh Ian Craig Marsh (born 11 November 1956) is an English musician and composer. He was a founding member of the electronic band the Human League, writing and playing on their first two albums and several singles, until leaving in 1980 to form th ...

and

Martyn Ware Martyn Ware (born 19 May 1956) is an English musician, composer, arranger, record producer, and music programmer. As a founding member of both the Human League and Heaven 17, Ware co-wrote hit songs such as " Being Boiled" and "Temptation". Wa ...

. Note *The US version of the album replaces track 14 with "Penthouse and Pavement" ( Tommy D's Master Remix)

Production

*Produced by B.E.F. except tracks 1, 4, 8, 10, 11, 15, 17 by B.E.F. & Greg Walsh; track 5 by

& Greg Walsh; tracks 9 and 12 by

*Additional production and remix on track 1 by

; track 2 by The Rapino Brothers; track 14 on U.S. version by Tommy D

Charts

References

External links

''Higher and Higher: The Best of Heaven 17''
at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

{{Heaven 17 1993 greatest hits albums Heaven 17 albums Virgin Records compilation albums