Music
[Review] The Human League ‘Credo’
Can’t put your finger on where you’ve heard the name The Human League before? Well, just revisit this classic 80’s gem, Don’t You Want Me, and feel waves of nostalgia wash over you. Now back with their ninth studio album, Credo, (10 years after their last album!) The Human League are back with more English synthpop. The question is should they have stayed in the 80’s or do they sound at home now. Check after the jump for the answer!
The album opens up with Never Let Me Go, which briefly sounds like it’s coming out of a ham radio before sharpening up. Enter Susan Ann Sulley’s vocals, which have been auto-tuned so severely that I could’ve sworn I was listening to GLaDOS from Portal. While entertaining and generally a solid song, I found myself wanting it to go just a bit further. It’s hard to describe, but I feel like the song never reached it’s full potential.
The production of this album is fantastic. The instruments layer each other perfectly and the vocal harmonies are wonderfully mixed. At no point did I feel like I was overwhelmed by all the tones and instruments. Rather, I enjoyed sitting back and paying attention to each layer, especially hearing how they all interacted with one another.
As well put together as this album is, only a few songs stuck out for me, those being Night People, Egomaniac, and Electric Shock. The rest of the album was pleasant and I enjoyed listening to it several times through but, just as with the opening track, the songs never felt like they reached their peak.
The Final Word: While not mind-blowing, The Human League’s Credo is still a very solid album that should give synthpop fans nearly 50 minutes of enjoyable listening. While I won’t be running back to listen to it with any sense of great urgency, I can see myself coming back to it here and there.
AMC has announced that The Vampire Lestat: One Night Only LIVE, the standing-room-only performance celebrating AMC’s premiere of its newly-released The Vampire Lestat at New York City’s iconic Beacon Theatre last month, will debut on streaming.
The Vampire Lestat: One Night Only LIVE begins streaming on AMC+ on August 23.
Ahead of its streaming premiere, fans can preview the concert event, featuring original songs from series composer Daniel Hart and performed by Sam Reid, in Hall H at Comic Con International on July 24.
Our own Daniel Kurland attended the special event, highlighting how electric the Immortal Vampire is on stage: “It’s clear in this season of television that Reid was born to be a rock star, but it’s surreal to see him effortlessly command the stage — and the audience — at every step of the concert. He recites Shakespeare monologues and bitches out Armand between songs, all while the audience screams in support. For the duration of this concert, Reid is Lestat, and he’s given thousands of fans a memory that’s as immortal as any vampire.”
Based on Anne Rice‘s The Vampire Chronicles book series, The Vampire Lestat is the rock and roll-centric third season of AMC’s “Interview with the Vampire” created by showrunner Rolin Jones.
The Vampire Lestat goes on an electric multi-city tour while being haunted by “muses” from his wild and rebellious past. As his band’s popularity and star power rises, so does Lestat’s influence over vampires and humans alike, leaving others to contend with Lestat’s power in the face of the Great Conversion, an unnatural surge in the vampire population.
Jacob Anderson, Assad Zaman, Eric Bogosian, Delainey Hayles and Jennifer Ehle star with Reid. Executive producers include Jones, Mark Johnson, Hannah Moscovitch, the late Anne Rice, and her son Christopher Rice.
The series finale airs this Sunday, July 19, on AMC and AMC+.