Squeeze

Squeeze's first three records were littered with superb pop songs, but this was their first (and only) truly great album, from the first track ("In Quintessence") to the last ("Messed Around"). Producer Elvis Costello may've had something to do with this, pushing the unpretentious lads to experiment and open up more on songs like "Women's World's and "Vanity Fair," both of which recall Paul McCartney and Ray Davies'little English vignette style. "Tempted" (vocal by keyboardist Paul Carrack) is still played on the radio, but it wasn't the breakaway hit it should've been at the time.

In songwriters Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford, the British New Wave has finally found its
own John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Given the fractious, hopelessly faddish nature of
the current U.K. music scene, the honor certainly isn't what it used to be. In the wake of
hipper pursuits like the New Romantics' Eurodisco fixation and the Promethean
breast-beating of the Joy Division-Public Image Ltd. art-punk mob, Tilbrook and... More >

They're finally beginning to show the consistency that's the only excuse for obsessive popcraft. The songs are imaginative, compassionate, and of course hooky--the warped organ on "Heaven" bespeaks divine intervention. And with Elvis Costello coproducing, the music is quite punchy, though I wouldn't go so far as to say it rocks. (Grade - B+)