Product Description

With their second album Squeeze truly hit their stride. Thecrazily hopped- up arrangements and murky production of their debut gave way to more sophisticated approaches on every front. The album's staying power is demonstrated by no less than four songs having become relative staples for the band over the years--the title song, along with "Slap And Tickle", "Up The Junction", and "Goodbye Girl".
They also proudly imbue a couple of the songs with a strong dose of their very British-ness ("Cool For Cats" had the strongest U.K. vocal inflection of any song to cross the ocean in the late seventies outside of Ian Dury). Chris Difford's lyrics find their way into thornier subject matter than most writers in thepop world tend to explore and, combined with Glenn Tilbrook's McCartney-esque melodies and phrasing, the listener is drawn in by the sweet seduction of it all.

Track Listing

1. Slap & Tickle
2. Revue
3. Touching Me Touching You
4. It's Not Cricket
5. It's So Dirty
6. The Knack
7. Hop Skip & Jump
8. Up The Junction
9. Hard To Find
10. Slightly Drunk
11. Goodbye Girl
12. Cool For Cats
13. I Must Go
14. Ain't It Sad

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26740 in Music
• Released on: 1998-02-02
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 44 minutes

Customer Reviews

Carry On Up The Junction
'Cool For Cats' represents Squeeze at the peak of their popularity. They had had a hit with 'Take Me I'm Yours,' but otherwise their hard, punk-angled debut was ordinary. Here, they invest their music with saucy, but intelligent humour, fun flavours and keyboard-led melodies. Of the four hits, the title track and 'Up The Junction' were the most successful. Along with 'Slap And Tickle,' their lyrics conform to repetitive rhythms with regimented precision. This isn't the case with all the songs though. 'Goodbye Girl' and 'It's So Dirty' reveal their Beatles influence. The Difford/Tilbrook partnership was always potent. Throughout the album their performances are sparky, making 'Cool For Cats,' though not quite as good as the more mature 'East Side Story,' a great pop album.

A little Slap and Tickle
If you enjoyed the singles ('Goodbye Girl', 'Cool For Cats', 'Up the Junction', and 'Slap and Tickle') then you won't be disappointed. It is full of the charming melodies and tragi-comic lyrics that are the Squeeze trademark. 'Slap and Tickle' is great as an opener, with its low atmospheric synth opening that builds with the keyboard riff and drums that crescendo into the first verse with its typically whistleable melody. 'Revue' follows and confirms that Squeeze were not just a singles band, with a great heavily syncopated chorus. Songs like 'It's Not Cricket' further support this, with its riff performed on a bell, and the great chorus: 'I can't name names 'cause that's not cricket', with the band punctuating the word 'cricket'. There are also some great rock and roll numbers like 'Hop Skip and Jump'. Most pop albums pre-1985ish often suffered from a weakening in the second half due to the fact that Vinyl was the leading format and bands tended to select their best material for side A, aware that many listeners would not take the effort to turn over the record and listen to side B. However, "Cool For Cats" seemed to daringly do the opposite and the album seems to get stronger as it progresses. It features the famous singles as well as the great 'Hard to Find' and 'Slightly Drunk'. Maybe Squeeze shot themselves in the foot a little and many, finding the first side to be 'OK' did not experience of the side B and consequently Squeeze albums have been largely ignored in comparison to the single. However, it could also be argues that Squeeze were slightly ahead of their time and intuitively pre-empted at time when listeners would be used to a single continuous format (i.e., the CD), thus allowing the album to stand the test of time longer than most. Either way, the album does start well and then gets better. If you're a big fan of the Squeeze 'best of' collections but have never gone any further, maybe it's about time to start venturing into the unfamiliar material of the albums. And "Cool For Cats" seems a reasonable place to start.

A few classics - well worth investing in
Squeeze have never had a number one hit - but "Cool for Cats" and "Up The Junction" both reached number two and are classics in their own right. This CD has them both - and the version of "Cool for Cats" is at least thirty seconds longer than the one you'll find on Greatest Hits.

Both these songs are well-known classics; but there are also a couple of gems to be found in the lesser-known songs. "That's not Cricket" and "Touching Me, Touching You" would fall into this category, although they sometimes stray a little too near eighties synthesiser music for comfort...

Although the Difford/Tilbrook partnership was clearly beginning to warm up when this album was released, there were greater songs to come - "Tempted", "Black Coffee In Bed" and "Annie Get Your Gun" spring to mind. But to hear "Up The Junction" in it's proper, early eighties context makes it all the more enjoyable. Buy the CD (great album cover, too).