Squeeze - Singles – 45's and Under

I couldn’t pick one Squeeze album that encompasses everything I like about them, so I’m cheating with a compilation. If I were to put a second compilation album in, it would be Singles Going Steady by the Buzzcocks.

There are so many songs on Singles – 45’s and Under that I adore. This compilation shows what great songwriters Difford and Tilbrook are, such incredible story tellers. You can see that morphing in just four years from the new wave electro pop of ‘Take Me I’m Yours’ to country with ‘Labelled With Love’. I really feel Chris Difford is a cherished lyricist, but not cherished enough. His work over these singles in incredible, but ‘Up The Junction’ is the one. It’s one of the greatest British singles of all time. It’s so sad. I’ve always loved that song but recently I’ve had an obsession with it.

There are other great songs: ‘Is That Love?’, ‘Black Coffee In Bed’, ‘Tempted’, ‘Slap and Tickle’, ‘Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)’. Great lyrics throughout, but if I had to crystalise one band into one single, ‘Up The Junction’ is incredible. It has an interesting structure. It has no chorus, only verses.

Squeeze haven’t picked up enough of a younger audience now as they should have, in comparison to, say, Madness. When Britpop came around people would always talk about The Kinks but not Squeeze, who were in many ways an equal predictor of Britpop. These guys should get more love than they do.