ROANOKE TIMES Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times DATE: Friday, August 9, 1996 TAG: 9608090014 SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO SOURCE: ANDY SMITH PROVIDENCE JOURNAL-BULLETIN
Squeeze has always been a songwriter's band, known for the ingratiating melodies and deft wordplay of its writers, Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, who have fronted a shifting cast of musicians over the years.
Indeed, in their early years, Difford and Tilbrook were occasionally compared to a couple of other songwriters, John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Tilbrook, who is the primary singer, writes the music. Difford, who contributes harmonies and takes an occasional lead vocal, writes the lyrics.
Squeeze is now touring the United States as an acoustic show, with just Difford, Tilbrook and an accompanying guitarist. In a phone interview from England, Difford said the format is dictated by economic necessity.
``It's simple; we can't afford to bring the whole band over,'' Difford said. ``We'd like to, but at the moment it's not possible.''
If the band does well with a single off its new album, ``Ridiculous,'' (probably the buoyant ``This Summer''), Squeeze might be able to come back with a full band. A complication is that the band's record company, I.R.S., has gone out of business.
``The acoustic shows use a different chemistry,'' Difford said. ``It's a very human show ... we've done a few of them over here (in England) and they've gone very well.''
Squeeze's new album is a typically tuneful effort that ranges from the childhood nostalgia of ``Electric Trains'' to a whole series of finely crafted relationship songs.
There's the sweet ballad ``Heaven Knows,'' the desperate plea of ``Walk Away,'' the confusion of ``Lost for Words'': ``I'm lost for words and no longer see why they've slipped right through my hands.'' In ``Great Escape,'' a wife leaves her drunken husband.
The band's love of wordplay goes to extremes in the tongue-in-cheek ``Daphne,'' in which Difford rhymes ``judge and jury'' with ``Nana Mouskouri,'' the Greek pop singer.
Squeeze began in the late '70s, coming up at about the same time as fellow Brits Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson. The band found its early form on ``Cool for Cats'' in 1979, which included ``Up the Junction'' and kept going with ``Argybargy'' and ``Eastside Story,'' which yielded favorites such as ``Pulling Mussels from the Shell'' and ``Tempted.''
In 1984, Difford and Tilbrook released their own record, which, to no one's surprise, sounded pretty much like Squeeze.
They re-formed Squeeze for 1985's ``Cosi Fan Tutti,'' and have continued producing albums since, although many fans and critics don't feel they've been up to their best work of the early '80s.
``I don't think we're competing with our own pasts, that doesn't really faze me,'' Difford said. ``I hope we're better now than we were then.''
Although the band's publicity links Squeeze with some of the current ``Brit-Pop'' bands such as Blur and Supergrass, Difford said he doesn't feel much of a connection: ``We're not in the same youthful league as them.''
Squeeze enjoyed some radio success in 1987-88 with ``Hourglass'' and ``853-5937,'' and has kept a loyal core of fans.
``We're accepted like the neighborhood cat,'' Difford said. ``Everyone likes us when we come around, and we get stroked, and then we go off and come back again.''
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