jueves, octubre 29, 2026
New Music: The Place We Call Mars
jueves, julio 23, 2026
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".
domingo, marzo 08, 2026
New Music: Why Don't You
viernes, enero 30, 2026
New Music: You Get The Feeling
jueves, febrero 20, 2025
Rocktrospectiva: The Acclaimed "Argybargy" Turns 45
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".

