Just when everyone assumed that The Human League had called it quits in the studio with their waning relevance to popular music, 2011 marked the release of ‘Credo,’ their first studio album in ten years, following 2001’s ‘Secrets’ album. As a point of interest, this album comes an incredible three decades after their storming debut ‘Dare.’ This album presents further refinement to the band’s output, both compositionally and in terms of production.
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| The Human League: Credo |
This album reconciles a refined take on 80’s synthpop in terms of soundworld with a partially reinvented style which on the surface would appear to combine Kraftwerk with latter day Pet Shop Boys aesthetics. That said, the album remains quintessentially Human League by nature through the minimal yet accomplished synth writing accompanied by Philip Oakey’s unsubtle yet smooth vocals leading several tracks but frequently employing the vocal talents of Susan Ann and Joanne Catherall who complete the trio’s lineup.
The album opens with ‘Never Let Me Go,’ decadent in references to the band’s early days in terms of timbres chosen but further adorned with contemporary techniques such as auto-tuning. ‘Never Let Me Go’ is the second single to be released from the album and is quickly followed by the premiere single ‘Night People,’ released several months prior to the album, largely as a call to fans that “The Human League lives!” The 5:30 runtime of ‘Night People’ draws attention to the way in which the band have accomplished an extended form to the majority of the tracks on this release while maintaining heightened anticipation by the listener, avoiding the typical boring cliche of 8 bar loops rising and falling.
Some tracks, such as ‘Egomaniac’ are particularly notable for their ability to evoke new moods alongside the generally [purposefully] disjointed quality of several pieces, for which the band first found fame. In this track for example the key vocal harmony is interspersed between dark synthetic writing and urgent electronic percussion. The chorus of this song also proves to be particularly effective, enforcing the maintained dark theme.
While much of the album veers toward the heavily sequenced, mechanical musical style pioneered by Kraftwerk many years previous, brief instances exist such as ‘Breaking The Chains’ which exhibit a greater reliance on strong grooves, a mainstay of earlier Human League output. In this particular track, the brief uses of stuttering and other common modern day effects add to the listeners interest. This album certainly marks a welcome return to the studio for the band.
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