Python-redis get() returns byte objects despite setting StrictRedis.decode_responses=True

 r = redis.StrictRedis(host=shard['host'], port=shard['port'], charset='utf-8', decode_responses=True)
 pipe = r.pipeline()
 for key in keys:
     pipe.lrange(key, 0, -1)
 olists = pipe.execute()

This fetches byte objects instead of strings despite setting the charset and decode_responses=True.