Music

[Review] The Human League ‘Credo’

Published

13 years ago

September 14, 2011

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.

JonathanBarkan

Managing editor/music guy/social media fella of Bloody-Disgusting

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Music

“He Walks By Night” – Listen to a Brand New John Carpenter Song NOW!

Published

2 weeks ago

April 9, 2024

John Squires

It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on Sacred Bones Records.

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.

“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.

“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…