Godley and Creme L

Adelaide Advertiser 4 jan 1979
author unknown

Lol Creme, left, and Kevin Godley . . . how the other half lives.

GODLEY AND CREME
L (Mercury)

Kevin Godley and Lol Creme have made an extraordinary album — at last.

One half of the highly successful original 10cc, Godley and Creme ducked out of fame and fortune two years ago to develop the Gizmo — a device attached to a guitar which can produce orchestral sounds, from a cello to a violin.

They experimented with the Gizmo on a painfully received triple–album set called Consequences early last year. Now the duo returns to more conventional recording, with the Gizmo (to be launched commercially this year and priced at around $160 in England) getting a second outing on side two.

The front cover is styled on a learner driver's "L" plate: "It either means we're still learning, or it tells people to steer clear," says Creme.

Certainly it's not always a comfortable album and tends to wander a bit. Creme and Godley have retained all the intelligent humor of the old 10cc, but the music — almost all their own work bar a couple of saxophone solos, mostly by Roxy Music's Andy Mackay — lacks the economy of former cohorts Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart.

I liked the clever, sarcastic tone of the suicide bid on "The Sporting Life," the ridiculous American–inspired spoof "Sandwiches of You" and the dry wit of "Group Life" with its tell–tale tit bits of earlier (10cc) days.

Former art students themselves, Godley and Creme make authoritative work of the light "Art School Canteen" and there's a powerful serve of pity underlining the high–school persecution in "Punchbag."

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