Squeeze - Trixies

What Can I Say?; You Get The Feeling; The Place We Call Mars; Hell On Earth; The Dancer; Good Riddance; Don’t Go Out In The Dark; Why Don’t You; Anything But Me; It’s Over; The Jaguars; Trixies (Part One); Trixies (Part Two)
(BMG)

Releasing their first new album in eight years, Squeeze return with Trixies. The collection of songs is set in a fictional nightclub named Trixies and was written by the group’s founders Chris Difford and Glen Tilbrook at the very start of their songwriting partnership when they were aged nineteen and sixteen respectively.

Composed before the band scored success with hits such as Up The Junction, Cool For Cats and Tempted amongst others, the songs here showcase the musical vision the duo shared.

Written in 1974 when the music world was dominated by glam rock and soul music, those influences seemed to have had an impression on the songwriting partnership that has often been compared to that of Lennon and McCartney.

The opening track, What More Can I Say? is not the energetic opener you might be expecting; instead, the jazz-tinged song sets the tone for the album, conjuring up images of walking home in the rain, lonely and out of luck after spending a night at a low-budget nightclub.

The following track, You Get The Feeling is more like having a good dance at Trixies where a compelling melody envelops the harmonies. The glam rock influences surface on The Place We Call Mars, a reference maybe to David Bowie around his Ziggy Stardust phase, whilst on Hell On Earth there is a definite influence from Sparks. Both tracks come unexpectedly as a complete contrast to latter-day sounding Squeeze.

Chris Difford’s dark and menacing vocals always made Cool For Cats so distinctive – he performs the same trick again on The Dancer and The Jaguars.

What the album showcases is the mature songwriting the duo processed at such an early stage that at the time they didn’t have enough musical experience to record properly.

More than fifty years on the album stands up on its own as an endearing body of work that ranks with the best of many a Squeeze album.