Argybargy
East Side Story
Sweets From a Stranger
1979
This is supposedly an improvement over U.K. Squeeze, but having never heard that album, I’m in no position to opine. What I do know is that Squeeze dives head first in early New Wave here, and the dated synths engulf the sound a little too much. And I hate to say it, but there’s too much Difford here. Nothing personal, I just cannot get into his croaky low voice. It still makes for a solid, even album.
The evenness can be double-edged. While there isn’t exactly a crap track on here, I’d be hard-pressed to pick out a lot of total standouts. “Up the Junction” most certainly is a standout, as Tillbrook wistfully sings of a wonderful relationship going sour. The lyrics aren’t as obvious as that theme implies, as he is more about details than ’she don‘t love me no more’ cliches. It was a huge hit in UK along with the title track, a rare case of Difford’s ‘unique’ vocals accentuating a song. It’s just a novelty disco-y tune, but thoroughly British and witty.
Beyond that, my other favorite Cats track would be “Hard to Find.” Difford’s horizontal verses can grate, but they serve as a great counterpoint to the fun clapping chorus provided by Tillbrook. Elsewhere, “Revue,” “Touching Me Touching You,” (yep, it’s about you-know-what) “Slightly Drunk,” and the break-neck “It’s So Dirty” are all solid fast pop tunes, most of them with Difford and Tillbrook’s octave harmonies: Difford croaking the same melody as Tillbrook, only an octave lower.
Slight diversity is provided by the pure disco “Slap and Tickle” and the gloomy Difford-sung “The Knack,” but neither are that great. The latter would be better if it were a bash on the overrated group Knack, but I’m sure the album was recorded before “My Sharona” hit it. Holland’s token number “Hop, Skip, and Jump” is mildly enjoyable retro, “It’s Not Cricket” is a somewhat dorky novelty tune, and the ballad “Goodbye Girl” sure ain’t no “Up the Junction,” if you get my drift.
Cool For Cats shows Squeeze as a work-in-progress, as the insightful lyrics and pop melodies are present, but have not fully matured yet. They would improve upon those on the next two albums, and limit Difford’s vocals a little bit too. But Cats does not have any super-low points, just less-than-great tracks and too much synth. At least it has “Up the Junction.”
1980
Yay!! Squeeze corrects some of the stuff that brought down Cool For Cats on here. The production is more tasteful, the young-man stories are more reflective, and Tillbrook becomes the main voice, rightfully so. I mean, Difford supplied all of the lyrics, he just wasn’t blessed with Tillbrook’s lovely tenor. The Difford-and-Tillbrook harmonies are used a little more sparingly, mostly in choruses. And again, the songs are pretty much so solid it hurts, with one exception to be named later.
I sure couldn’t ask for a better one-two punch than “Pulling Mussels (From a Shell)” and “Another Nail In My Heart.” Neither of them were sizable hits in UK or the US, which is a shame. The thorough British seaside imagery of “Mussels” is lost on little old never-been-out-of-the country me, but I love it and I love the effortless melody. The heartbroken “Another Nail in My Heart” is even better, with a similar but more minor-key melody that still cannot be beat.
Nothing else here matches the quality of the openers, but most everything else is very good, even more so than the solid tracks on Cats. “Separate Beds” is another entry in the midtempo love ruminations, almost as good as “Up the Junction.” “If I Didn’t Love You” and “I Think I’m Go-Go” are also good slower tracks, the former being kind of underrated and the only song on here comprised solely of Difford-and-Tillbrook dual singing. Still really good though. “Vicky Verky,” “Farfisa Beat,” “Misadventure,” and “There at the Top” all rule, as faster tunes. Geez, I don’t have much to say about individual tracks, they are all similar but I like them all. “There at the Top” probably has the best melody, and “Farfisa Beat” is a fun little dance number.
That leaves Chris Difford’s lone spotlight (aside from a verse on “Go-Go”) “Here Comes That Feeling,” which is short and really forgettable. Oh, and Holland’s “Wrong Side of the Moon” is so damn infectious, his best retro tune yet. There’s not a lot of diversity in Argybargy, and nothing really groundbreaking. Just damn good pop. Get this album first. If nothing else, you need “Mussels” and “Nail.” That’s right, need. Like food and water and football.
1981
Difford and Tillbrook decide to switch gears here. Cool for Cats and Argybargy were not known for covering a lot of different genres. The main shot of diversity came from Holland’s token retro tune, and Holland had exited by now. In his place at keyboards is journeyman Paul Carrack, the Trent Dilfer (if I may use an NFL reference) of the music world. Carrack only made his presence known on one track, but what a track it would be.
The opening track “In Quintessence” makes one think that another Argybargy is in store, as it’s a typical but good pop tune from Diff and Till. Elsewhere in the typical Squeeze area, the sly “Picadilly” is highlighted by an up-and-down verse melody, and “Is That Love” and “Mumbo Jumbo” can definitely be called Beatlesque. The whole major-minor changes on both tracks (especially “Is That Love”) sound right out of mid-’64 Beatles, a la “I’ll Be Back.” “Someone Else’s Bell” is OK, but the sympathetic “Woman’s World” passes me by each time
Now onto the diverse numbers on East Side. Carrack only sings lead vocals on the soulful “Tempted,” but not too bad, considering it’s one of the best singles of the entire decade. Seriously. That descending line on the chorus is simple yet is brilliant at the same time. And hey, there’s Elvis Costello on backup vocals! I believe he produces the song too. Didn’t crack the Top 40 here or in the UK, but it remains Squeeze’s calling card. Elvis also appears on the OK atmospheric “There’s No Tomorrow.” “F-Hole” is somewhat bizarre, I guess it’s psychedelic or something, with that acid-y orchestra and atonal melody. I actually like it though, and it’s followed by the straight-up country “Labelled With Love.” It is decent, but why was this one of Squeeze’s biggest UK hits?
Oh, and Difford drops by with some vocal spotlights. Actually, the moody “Someone Else’s Heart” sports somewhat sensitive vocals, and it’s a good track. But it’s back to Croaksville with the much weaker “Heaven.” And the final two tracks, the torch ballad “Vanity Fare” and the rockabilly “Messed Around,” fall flat. So East Side does not get an equal score to Argybargy, even though “Tempted” pushes the score to a high 7. The seams would come apart on the next album.
1982
Now what’s up with that album title? Doesn’t really make the album sound all that attractive, eh? No wonder it’s a POS that flopped. OK, that was mean. It’s not quite a POS, and I don’t know about its sales. What I do know is Sweets is weaker than before. They make the same mistake as on Cool For Cats, contemporizing the sound to the point of distraction. That, and the listen isn’t all that fun, as the love reflections sound more depressing and, er, hung over. Personal tensions within the band didn’t help either.
One stone-cold classic emerges from the collection: “Black Coffee in Bed.” It could very well be “Tempted Vol. 2,” except Tillbrook’s chops aren’t really cut out for soul as well as those of the departed Carrack. Yet it’s still a very good white-eyed soul tune, and its six-minute length is redeemed by Elvis Costello’s wailing backup vocals at the last minute. I nearly cried when I heard him, I was so proud!! Too bad Costello and Tillbrook/Difford didn’t do an album together.
Most of the really good songs are on the second half of Sweets along with “Coffee.” “Tongue Like a Knife” and the quasi-psychedelic “The Elephant Ride” (a.k.a “Today is None of Our Concern”) are good ballads, but “His House Her Home” is even better than the two. I think it’s Difford on vocals, as he coaxes his very best performance ever, and the melody is beautiful. “I’ve Returned” would have worked well on Argybargy as a good pop tune. Only “The Very First Dance,” with its grating breathy hook, fails. ‘
Now that first half is more problematic. “I Can’t Hold On” is a nice energetic tune and “Points of View” is a passable ballad. But I don’t favor the jazzy ballad “When the Hangover Strikes,” I don’t really need that depiction. And the remaining three tunes are all marred with synths and suck. Maybe “Out of Touch” would be better with a different arrangement, but “Stranger than the Stranger on the Shore” and “Onto the Dance Floor” are half-baked as it is. And that high-pitched thingie on “Stranger”? No thank you.
Sweets does picture the band at a ‘ready to break up’ stage, and they did indeed break up afterwards. They got back together a few times in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but had lost all momentum by then. Sweets just doesn’t sound too focused, with weakened melodic skills and overbearing production at spots. But “Black Coffee” is a keeper for sure.