Squeeze: Classic Or Dud

weird discovery: although I've heard it >50 times as a boy, 'If I Didn't Love You' is fucking amazing, like seriously a candidate for best Squeeze and one of the better pop songs of its era

seriously it's so great when you rediscover a piece of music you once knew off by heart but it still blows your mind

"If I didn't love you, I'd hate you."

Tilbrook: If I Didn't Love You was "musically inspired by Talking Heads. The line 'The record jumps on a scratch' was such a gift that I had to use it, so we sang 'If I, If I, If I, If I.'"

Difford: "I love Glenn's slide guitar solo. When he first did it I thought 'This guy's out of his tree. What's he doing?,' but it's brilliant."

"'Singles remind me of kisses / Albums remind me of plans.' They are my favorite lines on the whole album. When I used to have girls back to my flat I'd go through my record collection and find the album which had the longest side... I knew that by a certain point on the record if I didn't have my hand down her pants then it wasn't going to happen because I'd have to get up and change the record over... The best album for this purpose was Something/Anything by Todd Rundgren, because it had one side that was 30 minutes long. I'd put it on and get down to business and knew that I had a couple of minutes at the end of the album to lie on my back and then I'd have the excuse to get up and change the record."

Now, some 35 years later, Squeeze have re-recorded 14 of their classic tracks for Spot the Difference, an album of all their classic hits re-recorded in a way so painstakingly faithful to the originals that they challenge you to spot the difference.

dumbest...idea...ever.

in general, i kinda hate (and avoid) re-recordings of old stuff, but this goes beyond that. this is demented. in the metal world people will re-record albums cuz when they were young they only had five dollars to spend on making an album and now they have ten dollars. i kinda understand that. even if i never want to listen to the results.

I wouldn't mind hearing their first album re-recorded. Peel sessions are much better sounding. Other than that, no interest in this, I don't think...

Hmmmmmm. I really really love Squeeze but that just sounds like a pointless effort.

I was just wondering today if there were any remasters of squeeze's stuff. their 80s recordings sound a little thin and wouldn't it be nice to give them a little attack. but this is not what I had in mind.

In the past year or so they've redone Argybargy, Sweets from a Stranger, Frank and Ridiculous, but they're only available as imports in the U.S. Three of them have the appropriate b-sides plus unreleased stuff from each album, except Ridiculous, which for some reason has none of the b-sides that it should. Argy is a double with a concert on the 2nd disc.

This is the perfect opportunity to get all those b-sides in the right place, not doled out piecemeal on 17 redundant Greatest Hits records. Don't piss me off, guys, or I'll... get all sullen and bitch about it on the internet.

Tilbrook has also released 3 of a planned 5 volumes of demos from the Squeeze years.

DeepDiscount has the deluxe Argy for $23.38, and it was well worth it. Nice remaster, bonus tracks and great sounding live recording. I hope they do East Side Story next.

"New recordings - improved sound quality"

i wouldn't mind hearing it if it means improved sound quality (not that classic squeeze sounded *bad* per se -- it isn't as if they started off as some no-budget crusty-punk band). but if their idea of "improved sound quality" is the "compressed-to-an-inch-of-its-life" junk that too often passes for remastering then i can live w/t it.

If you're a Squeeze fan and you *haven't* heard the 1992 BBC Session of Take Me I'm Yours, please do yourself a favour...

http://open.spotify.com/track/3YDGxXzhoTJdtF5mPn5jBq

And when you're done with that, here's a song from Tilbrook's last solo album Pandemonium Ensues:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WZXIfAYAV4

I think you guys missed the point of the "Spot the Difference" album. They re-recorded those tracks so they'd have the rights to them and could license those out instead of the ones controlled by their record company.

oh yeah, I bumped this because I was wondering if it's worth going past "Argybargy"

oh yeah, I bumped this because I was wondering if it's worth going past "Argybargy"

Well certainly "East Side Story." And I think "Play" is the equal of "Cool/Argy/East," although it took some time to reveal itself--it's definitely not as poppy as any of those.

Listen to my picks of better later Squeeze here:

The ILM Fan-made BEST OF/ANTHOLOGY Compilation project -- POST Tracklists, Cover Art, Liner notes, editorials, spotify links and/or otherwise LEGALLY obtained streaming album lists HERE!

There's something inexplicably great about the lines "I'd beg for some forgiveness / but beggings not my business" in Up The Junction.

my favorite song by them right now is "Goodbye Girl", such a wonky time

It's great!

Melody Motel is so weird.

Tempted is among the worst songs ever written. Utter crap, and every copy on earth should be destroyed, similar to what happened with smallpox virus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qums4Soo2Is

How's the Difford-Tillbrook solo album?

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, May 29, 2006

I heard an excerpt a few months ago -- sounds like the boys decided to record a Hall & Oates album and failed.

The live at the Hammersmith Odeon, March 9, 1980 set on the deluxe edition of Argy Bargy is just super hot.

i really like squeeze, but i cant abide jools holland's superfluous boogie woogie breakdowns. 'cool for cats' is a prime example. needless.

Where? There's an instrumental break in that song and then a melodic solo at the end. Neither of them strike me as "boogie woogie."

the instrumental break. it just seems crowbarred in.

I think that's how people educated by message boards describe piano playing on a Squeeze album

Just listened to that live set (I always had it, just never really bothered with it for some reason), you're right, this is really fun

I mean these guys have nothing on XTC or whoever they're usually compared to, but they are one of the most likeable bands ever, so there's that

I listen to Another Nail in my Heart on repeat sometimes.

Squeeze are a fucking class act, man. so much excellence.

I LOVE SQUEEZE.

I listen to Another Nail in my Heart on repeat sometimes.

― Trip Maker, Friday, May 25, 2012 11:29 AM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I do that too, sometimes.

Oh and guess what? I'm going to see them in July! :D

I was just going to say something about Up the Junction being one of the best songs ever but thought to C&P myself first and, well:

Heard Up the Junction in the car today and god damn that is one of the best songs ever, no question. <3 <3 <3

― ★彡☆ ★彡 (ENBB), Wednesday, December 30, 2009 9:59 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they're pretty killer live. i mean they did that album a couple years back where they did virtually identical re-recordings of old songs, they can play everything perfectly and Tilbrook's voice hasn't really aged any.

Awesome. I'm really excited. They're opening for the B-52s who will be fun to see and all but I bought the (fairly expensive) tickets pretty much for Squeeze alone.

Up The Junction is my all-time favorite Squeeze song, no joke.

i'm like the only person who likes Squeeze that doesn't really get the song. I appreciate the craft of it but I prefer the big shameless chorus stuff.

Saw them play several times in the Argybargy/E Side Story period.

Alfred, I have an autographed Difford-Tillbrook solo album if you want to make me an offer!

I haven't listened to anything past Argybargy but right now I don't think they've topped "Goodbye Girl", such a cool, wonky tune

"Vicky Verky" is the classic for me

^Yeah, I love that one, too.

ok this Hammersmith Odeon set is good but jesus Difford singing "Mess Around" stfu

Tempted is a very, very bad song.

I really love Cool For Cats, Argybargy and East Side Story, and a few selections here and there from what came after. I remember quite liking Glenn Tilbrook's solo record Transatlantic Ping Pong, too.

The first album is quite interesting though, and some of the stories surrounding its making are quite funny. John Cale apparently was so off his face he passed out during the sessions, so Jools Holland wrote "I am a cunt" on his forehead in marker. Apparently Mr. Cale was none the wiser and came into the studio STILL wearing the same slogan on his head the next day. Once he found out what the band were laughing at, he was understandably not amused and apparently he made life hell for the band for the rest of the studio time they had.

Tempted is a very, very bad song.

It's not their greatest, but it's not terrible when Tilbrook sings it. Paul Carrack always felt like an invader in this band, and that's the reason I have issues with both East Side Story and Some Fantastic Place.

I'd rather Carrack had sang the whole thing, he's a far superior singer to Tilbrook. Tilbrook's strengths is in the way he puts his chord sequences together. Stuff like 'King George Street' features a maddening amount of chords.

Guess who I'm gonna see tonight? :D