Octopus is the seventh full-length studio album recorded by British synthpop band The Human League. It was produced by former Tears for Fears keyboardist Ian Stanley and released by EastWest Records in 1995. It the first new album from the Human League in five years since being sacked By Virgin Records. Octopus was the first Human League album which presented the band as a trio consisting of singers Philip Oakey, Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley. Former Human League member Jo Callis and Keyboard player Neil Sutton also contributed heavily to the writing of the album.
Octopus saw a return to the public eye for The Human League, who had been out of the charts since their 1990 album Romantic? The first single "Tell Me When" received support from MTV in the UK and the U.S. and the song became the band's first top-ten hit in nine years, peaking at number six in the UK singles chart. It also climbed to number thirty-one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The Octopus album also peaked at number six in the UK, becoming the Human League's fifth top-ten album.
The album's second single "One Man in My Heart" was a ballad sung by Sulley which also placed in the UK top-twenty and was later described as 'the best love song of the 1990s' [1]. Filling up with Heaven, the album's third single, was also a top-forty UK hit.
Although the album was the Human League's best selling since the mid 1980s and created a resurgence in interest in the band; East West Records experienced a complete change in management and decided to cancel the band's contract as well as those of other established artists. It took the band another six years before finding a label (Papillion Records) prepared to release a new album, Secrets.
