Ah, songcraft.
My memories of Squeeze go back to high school where I was quite comfortably dating a nice young woman. But her neighbo(u)r, two years younger, was of the few girls I knew who ever had a crush on me and the desire and ability to corrupt my idyllic innocence. Let’s put it this way: she was blonde, she was hot, she was mischievous, and her first cousins were two well-known model/actress sisters who were directly related to a very, very famous American author (I will leave it to you to guess). Her favo(u)rite band was Squeeze, and she succeeded in, shall we say, convincing me not to be entirely monogamous. Now admittedly this was not one of my finest moments as a youth, I am as much to blame as she, and neither relationship lasted. But for a few months I experienced the thrill of sneaking around, listening to Singles 45 and Under (as well as Talk Talk Talk by the P Furs) while we spent hours fooling about in her room when her mom was out.
Anyway, it was hard to listen to Tempted without this flashback, and it can’t but dispose me positively. Like The Jam, the very Englishness of this band prevented more popularity over here, and up to today I always felt Singles was enough, with every song on it a pleasure, so I never felt the need to explore beyond it. It seems unfair — dumb, actually — to criticiz(s)e this for not being quite as strong song-for-song. Still, In Quintessence, Piccadilly, and Mumbo Jumbo all hold their own with what’s on Singles, which includes Tempted and Is This Love? already. Squeeze appeals to me not only lyrically, with these little relationship miniatures and local heroes/villains, but also because rhythmically all the instruments — especially the piano —work together to ground the vocals as opposed to compete with them. Another thing l like: there’s no mistaking them for any other band. Their sound is their own, whatever the influences.
As usual with Difford, some of the turns of phrase are really wonderful:
I bought a novel, some perfume, a fortune all for you / But it's not my conscience that hates to be untrue
He became drinker and she became mother / She knew that one day she'd be one or the other
A man behind me talks to his young lady / He's happy that she is expecting his baby / His wife won't be pleased but she's not been 'round lately
Just a few of the gems I enjoyed.
On the other hand, there’s a nastiness about Vanity Fair that I found a bit distasteful. And sometimes this band likes to XTC things up a bit, meaning they lean on the rhythm of children’s fairy tales and pastorals as filler musically (note: lyrics about sailors are nearly always accompanied by odd timbres for both bands). I didn’t mind the country and rockabilly turns too much, and even a drag like There’s No Tomorrow I can take knowing that some more sprightly, thoughtful, poignant or clever tunes are coming.
To the point
@mrbelfry made, though — great records make you uncomfortable while good records make you comfortable. I don’t find these stories with plots lightweight really, but I agree that from an impact standpoint, this is a pillow fight, not Ali/Foreman. There are enough fine songs here to rate this a pleasant 7/10 and make me think the rest of Squeeze’s catalog is worth exploring. That said, I repeat: they’ll never do a better song than Up The Junction. That’s okay though — not many bands ever have.
Great pick,
@journolud !
