BMG Records (release date 06.03.26)
Something old, something new….. for Squeeze’s first studio album in over eight years since 2017’s ‘The Knowledge’ they have revisited what might in a parallel world have been their debut album.
At the outset of what was to become one of Britain’s best ever songwriting partnerships, the teenage Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford sketched a concept album around an imaginary nightclub called Trixies, inspired by Chris reading the works of Damon ‘Guys and Dolls’ Runyon.
They rehearsed it and recorded some demos but, lacking the musical maturity to match that ambition, the project never saw the light of day. When they made it big on the crest of the New Wave later in the seventies, it seemed a wise choice to leave such a now unfashionable idea well alone.
However with the passage of time and the rediscovery of a cassette recording, a curiosity had to be satisfied to bring it to fruition. The songs have been left almost exactly as they were other than a resequencing of the order, but benefiting from modern recording techniques and the talents of their current bandmates, including bassist Owen Biddle who produces.
It doesn’t sound the most exciting of concepts to be honest, but the music is cleverly paced to match the mood with opener ‘What More Can I Say’ having a late night feel as well as being the first of many songs to namecheck the eponymous club and ‘You Get the Feeling’, where Glenn’s singing is at its melodic finest, starting a theme of finely observed character sketches of figures at the club, which will come as no surprise to devotees of their song writing.
Squeeze have influenced countless bands over the past four and a half decades, so there is an irony that some of the songs appear to reveal their own youthful influences. ‘The Place We Call Mars’ has a strong early Bowie or John Lennon feel, especially in the piano melody, while ‘Hell On Earth’ would have nestled comfortably alongside the contemporary art rock of Sparks, Roxy or 10cc.
Some of the lyrics take on a dark hue, including ‘The Dancer’, one of two songs that Chris sings, along with ‘Its Over’, the Lou Reed influences in his spoken style coming through.
There are a few rockers in ‘Don’t Go Out In the Dark’, with some distorted guitar, ‘Why Don’t You’ and one of my personal favourites, ‘Jaguars’, an old school rock n roller with slide guitar.
‘Trixies Part 1 and 2’ conclude with more very descriptive lyrics of the imaginary place and its characters – although the chorus line ‘Trixies is a gas, Trixies is all right’ is a little weak, in general the depth and maturity they showed even at that young age was astonishing.
The album is a mixed bag, but works on two levels- both an insight into their youthful talent and influences, and some strong Squeeze songs in their own right. And if you don’t like it, then like a bus on Deptford High Street, after a long wait there will be another along in a minute, as apparently it sparked them to write a further album’s worth of new songs at the same time. ****
Review by Andy Nathan
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