On Credo their ninth album, and the first for over a decade,the music is surprisingly bright-eyed and irony-free. This is a group whose outrageous synths, unisex front people, urgent beats, and shameless lyrics are inspired the great androgynous pop acts of today, and they’ve subsequently stuck to the formula as though the past three decades didn’t happen.
The eleven songs on offer here sound like classic ‘League; deliciously cheesy songs about partying and polygamy cooked into a reliable dish of synthesiser and vocal effects with traces of house sneaking onto certain tracks. Were it not for the crystalline quality of modern production you could almost close your eyes and be back in the ‘80s.
Fans will also be pleased that their lyrics have happily stayed at the status quo. The Human League’s single The Lebanon was voted the ninth worst lyric of all time in the Taxing Lyrical anti-awards, for “Before he leaves the camp / He scans the world outside / And where there used to some shops / Is where the snipers sometimes hide,” (If you haven’t heard it, there’s a key-change on ‘hide’). Happily, not much has changed here. Witness the track Night People: “Leave your cornflakes in your freezers / Leave your chocolate and your cheeses / Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s / Give your soul what air it pleases.” Yep.
At once terminally daggy and unremittingly cool, this LP is a late-game resurgence from a great and unjustly forgotten band.
