Where Cool for Cats marked a great leap over the debut, Argybargy improved at least that far over its own predecessor. Still a distinctly British band, Squeeze compensated with an incredibly catchy batch of songs that, despite the subject matter, spoke the universal language of bright, bouncy, instantly endearing pop. The acute observations of the British working class were even more vivid -- none so poignant as the classic "Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)," which offers a series of detailed   [ read more ]

CD $37.98

Sweets from a Stranger can be summed up by the title of one of the best songs on Squeeze's fifth album: this is where the hangover strikes, where the band's rapid progression finally caught up with it. It's as much mental as it's musical, as it's clear that Squeeze were tired out from touring, from all the carousing -- nearly every song here has a reference to drinking or its aftermath -- from the roundabout of keyboard players that led to Paul Carrack bailing after just one album (replaced here   [ read more ]

CD $46.53

One of Squeeze's most mature and thoughtful albums, 1991's Play might be a bit pretentious in spots -- the liner notes are written out as a theatre script, with the songs laid out as dialogue -- but it's probably Squeeze's best post-reunion album. Shorn of the misguided experiments of Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti and the naked chart ambitions of Babylon and On and Frank, Play is a simple and low-key collection of songs charting (loosely; this is less of a concept album than many reviews claime   [ read more ]

CD $15.18

The band's debut, credited (in the U.S.) to U.K. Squeeze to avoid confusion with a similarly named band, is quite unlike anything that would follow and nearly seems like the work of another band. Much of the reason for this comes from producer John Cale's somewhat warped vision of the band. Cale threw out all of the songs the band came to the studio with and demanded that they write new ones on the spot (he also proposed calling the album "Gay Guys," and undoubtedly had something to do with the hot   [ read more ]

CD $46.53

Squeeze's The Complete BBC Sessions runs from 1977 until 1994 -- from the release of their debut EP until just after their tenth album, 1993's Some Fantastic Place -- and that time span suggests that the double-disc, 29-track collection covers more ground than it does in actuality. As it happens, Squeeze didn't have too many {#BBC Sessions} during their salad days of 1979-1982, when they were one of the biggest and best new wave bands: they only had one in March of 1982, a few months before {^Sw   [ read more ]

CD $18.98

Released in the thick of Brit-pop mania in 1995, it would have seemed that Squeeze's eleventh album Ridiculous might have benefited by the peak interest for all things bright, Beatlesque, and British. Certainly, their label felt that way, pushing the band as the forefathers of Brit-pop, a statement that certainly had some merit, as Glenn Tilbrook's music pulled together strains of classic '60s guitar pop and new wave in a manner not dissimilar to Blur, whose Damon Albarn wrote character vigne   [ read more ]

CD $14.23

CD $9.45

If any one album were responsible for sowing the seeds of Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook's reputation as the new Lennon and McCartney, it's Argybargy, Squeeze's third album and undisputed breakthrough. Squeeze made a great leap forward between their awkward debut and its great sequel, Cool for Cats, but that distance is small compared to the gap between Cool for Cats and Argybargy. Cool for Cats was the work of a rock & roll band -- one that lathered on the keyboards and h   [ read more ]

CD $22.78

Released as a primer for the reissue of the Squeeze catalog, as well as a nifty tie-in to Difford and Tilbrook's reunion, Universal UK's 2007 compilation Essential Squeeze is a generous 20-track overview of the band's best work, spanning from their first single, "Take Me I'm Yours," to 1998's "Without You Here," adding the previously unreleased (and quite good) "Library Girl" and "Last Call for Good Measure." Essentially, Essential functions as an expanded 45s & Under with {   [ read more ]

CD $27.53

Roundly regarded as Squeeze's grand masterpiece, in its planned incarnation East Side Story was going to be much grander: it was designed as a double-album with each side produced by a different musician, all a forefather of a different aspect of Squeeze. Dave Edmunds and his Rockpile cohort Nick Lowe were both contracted, as was Lowe's main producing success story Elvis Costello, and then Paul McCartney was slated for a side, but as the sessions started all but Elvis and {$Edm   [ read more ]

CD $14.23

Where Cool for Cats marked a great leap over the debut, Argybargy improved at least that far over its own predecessor. Still a distinctly British band, Squeeze compensated with an incredibly catchy batch of songs that, despite the subject matter, spoke the universal language of bright, bouncy, instantly endearing pop. The acute observations of the British working class were even more vivid -- none so poignant as the classic "Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)," which offers a series of detailed   [ read more ]

CD $46.53

Squeeze finally had a big hit with 1987's Babylon and On but its 1989 follow-up, Frank, was its better, a superior showcase of their strengths as a band and Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook as songwriters. Despite the success of Babylon and in particular its punchy hit single, "Hourglass," Squeeze decided to scale back the sound of Frank, moving away from the glassy, cavernous Babylon -- a production immediately evocative of its times -- in favor of a relatively unadorned, clea   [ read more ]

CD $46.53