Argybargy was a commercial and critical success, reaching number 32 in the UK and becoming the first Squeeze album to chart in the US. The album has since been recognized as a classic of new wave and power pop.
After the released of commercial succes of "Cool For Cats" Squeeze reached its highest level of success to that point. This level of fame and recognition began to take its toll; Glenn Tilbrook worried of becoming too big and struggled with being recognized in public. He recalled: "I was standing in a pub in Blackheath with my mates when I became conscious of the fact that a lot of people were looking at me. ... I had to get out. I'd never experienced anything like it before and it was a horrible feeling. As much as I wanted to be successful and famous, I wasn't as comfortable with fame as I'd thought."
Anyway, after the released of "Cool For Cats", Chris Difford married and spent the summer of 1979 in the US with his wife. There he wrote over 40 new lyrics, inspired by his new marriage and his time spent in Greenwich Village. He recalled, "I would sit in the flat all day while wife Cindy went to work and this fluidity of lyricism came gushing forth.
The recording was nice, the band brought back Cool for Cats producer John Wood and Tilbrook composed music for the best of Difford's new lyrics. The album was recorded during the tail end of 1979. Argybargy would be the last Squeeze album featuring founding member, the iconical and one and only Jools Holland until Squeeze's first reunion album. About this, Difford recalled, "He was becoming less and less involved at this time. I think he was getting frustrated that he wasn't getting more of a shout in the band, but by then he was spending less time thinking about being in the band and more about his career." Holland would release a solo album before moving to a television career.
The album title was taken from a British expression that Difford said "sums up succinctly what our lives were like at the time. We were in each other's pockets, travelling in a minibus and on Freddie Laker planes. It was getting tiring, but we lived on the adrenalin of it." And because the titular expression is not used in America, band manager Miles Copeland opposed the album name. Difford recalled, "Miles told us no one would know what it meant but we didn't give a shit and were in a belligerent, young Englishmen's mood, so we kept it.
The album spent 15 weeks on the UK albums chart, peaked at No. 32 and in the United States, peaked at No. 71, and several single from the album made in onto the "Billboard Dance Chart".
No hay comentarios.:
Publicar un comentario