Rocktrospectiva: The Mature And Thoughtful "Play" Turns 35

Released on 23 July 1991 "Play" was the 9th., studio album by the British new wave group Squeeze. Back in the day was the first LP in the Squeeze discography to feature only four official members instead of five. Tony Berg produced the album. The album spawned the singles "Sunday Street", "Satisfied" & "Crying In My Sleep".  The album spent one week at number 41 in the UK Albums Chart in September 1991.

Considered one of Squeeze's most mature and thoughtful albums in which the liner notes are written out as a theatre script, with the songs laid out as dialogue. Play was a simple and low-key collection of songs charting the dissolution of a love affair. Reduced to a quartet by Jools Holland's departure for a career as a BBC television presenter, this aided the group to play with a loose, R&B-inflected casualness. 

Play may be one of Squeeze's greatest late period works. Producer Tony Berg, who'd just scored a sizable U.S. hit with the irresistible Michael Penn cut "No Myth." His studio wizardry meshed well with a collection of tunes that tackled various vagaries of love and loss, from breakups (the upbeat "Crying in My Sleep," the downbeat "Letting Go" to keeping it honest "The Truth," "House of Love", slice-of-life scenes "Sunday Street," "Satisfied" and even a relaxed celebration of coming back from a concert tour "The Day I Get Home". 

Though Play was only a moderate success in England, just missing the Top 40 of the British charts, the period is looked on warmly by both fans and even the band themselves, despite a challenging time behind-the-scenes where Difford entered rehab to address his relationship to alcohol. The album also received some positive reception from critics by proclaiming the record to be probably Squeeze's best post-reunion album. 

 

Play Track List:  

 

1. Satisfied

2. Crying In My Sleep

3. Letting Go

4. The Day I Get Home

5. The Truth

6. House Of Love

7. Cupid's Toy

8. Gone To The Dogs

9. Walk A Straight Line

10. Sunday Street

11. There Is A Voice 

New Music: Why Don't You

           

The legendary band Squeeze are back with a brand neew album "Trixies" and a new single "Why Don't You" it's the band first new album in nearly a decade is based on material written when they were teenagers, the single has all the Squeeze classic sound and video mixing scenes of the band with dancers and acrobats was directed by Oska Zaky and Connie Virdie

New Music: You Get The Feeling

            

Squeeze are back with a brand new album Trixies and with the release of the evocative acoustic scene setter single "You Get The Feeling". One of 2026’s most anticipated albums Trixies is the band’s first album in eight years but the first they ever wrote. A collection of stories set in a fictional night club Trixies, the album was written by the band’s founders teenage Chris Difford (19) and Glenn Tilbrook (16) at the very start of their songwriting partnership. Back in 1974, when Trixies was written, the musical vision of the young creators exceeded their virtuosity. “We fully committed ourselves to songwriting but this was three or four years before we even got to make our first record. Long story short, these were songs that we just didn’t have enough musical experience to record properly” explains Difford. Now, fifty years on, that problem no longer exists for the band who have played more than 600 shows since reuniting in 2007. “The original version of You Get The Feeling was more like an old blues song” recalls Tilbrook. “It took me 50 years to figure out how to do it justice!”.  The video was directed by Oska Zaky and Connie Virdie

 

Rocktrospectiva: The Acclaimed "Argybargy" Turns 45

Released on February 1980, "Argybargy" was the third studio album by English new wave band Squeeze, came after the band's sophomore release, Cool for Cats, with lyrics written by Chris Difford while living with his wife in New York City. The band reunited with Cool for Cats producer John Wood and recorded the album in late 1979. The album spawned four singles "Another Nail In My Heart", "If I Dind't Love You", "Pulling Mussels (from The Shell)", and "Farfisa Beat"

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".

The album received a critical acclaimed from critics, calling the album as the band's summit recording, a kitchen sink pop masterpiece, the album to own and to connect with the band, that propelled the band into pop stardom, clever and intense, with genuine emotions just like a new wave record should be. 

 

Argybargy Track List:

 

1. Pulling Mussels ( from the Shell)

2. Another Nail In My Heart

3. Separate Beds

4. Misadventure

5. I Think I'm Go Go

6. Farfisa Beat

7. Here Comes That Feeling

8. Vicky Verky

9. If I Didn't Love You

10. Wrong Side Of The Moon

11. There At The Top

Primicia: Happy Days

         

La banda británica Squeeze vuelve tras años de ausencia con un nuevo disco y un nuevo álbum llamado "From The Cardle" que salío a la venta el pasado 2 de octubre, el single que se desprende es "Happy Days" la cual esta incluida en el programa Cradle To Grace basada en la autobiografía de Peter Kay.