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

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 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

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 $14.23

CD $9.45

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 $46.53

Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti marked not only a re-formation of the band but also a reunion with Jools Holland. And while history and a dated production style haven't been particularly kind to the album, it is not without its merits. True, it is marred by much of the overblown ambition that undercut Sweets from a Stranger and the Difford & Tilbrook album, but several of the songs -- especially the often overlooked "King George Street" -- are real gems in the classic Squeeze tradition, and the move   [ 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

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

CD $20.88

Over the course of Squeeze's 25-year career, an inexplicable number of greatest-hits compilations have surfaced (seven, to be specific), and nearly all of them have suffered from a serious flaw, whether it's the exclusion of important hit singles or the inclusion of mediocre album cuts and B-sides. The only two worthwhile compilations -- 1982's Singles 45's & Under and 1994's Greatest Hits -- both suffered somewhat by not covering the entirety of the band's career. Big Squeeze is the attempt to    [ read more ]

CD $36.08

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 $14.23