“L” is a collection of perfectly crafted pop songs, with the rare quality of combining complex structures and progressions with familiarity and tunefulness. But saying “L” is some sort of easy-going pop album, reassuring, limpid and immediate would definitely be a mistification. Godley & Creme are the masters of cleverness and displacement, and there’s no song in “L” which does not evoke an impregnable sense of disorientation. The sophisticate nightclub/jazzy music structures are enshrouded of a detached and artefact allure, and some obscure deconstructionist element always crawls in the background making the songs subtly disturbing.

The style calls for mixed comparisons: from Queen at their most retro-sounding mellowness peak, to The Residents’s cynicism or Frank Zappa’s multi-instrumental intrications and Eno/Bowie/Fripp decadent atmosphere and sound. But I must admit none of these comparisons is actually able to describe the uniqueness of such a composite style, which despite all manages to keep light, cohesive and personal and – most of all – to produce memorable, ever-surprising songs. —Marco