Love That Album Podcast Episode 122 - Squeeze "Argybargy"

Hey all you cool cats and mussel pullers….I hope you can be tempted to squeeze in some time to listen to episode 122 of Love That Album Podcast.

For this month’s episode, I am joined again by guitarist Shane Pacey to talk about Squeeze. This is the band that has over its history combined hook-laden melodies with tales of human frailty and surviving difficult circumstances. You can smile and dance to the music before you realise, “Hey, that’s a song about infidelity / domestic violence / being arrested for stealing because you can’t afford to feed your unborn child”…..oh and they wrote a song about masturbation (but it wasn’t the one I thought it was for a long time).

Nominally, we tasked ourselves with delving into the band’s third long player, Argybargy. However, as is customary at LTA Headquarters, we spent a lot of time discussing Squeeze as an entity as well as the record under focus. Were Difford and Tilbrook really the new Lennon and McCartney of their day? Could their songs have worked in the twenties around the piano in an old British Music Hall environment? What were Butlins holiday camps? All these questions and many more are skirted around on this episode.

You can download the show from Spotify, Stitcher or iTunes (search for “Love That Album podcast”) or from the website at http://lovethatalbum.blogspot.com.

Once again, my huge thanks go to Shane for taking the time out to join me on the show and giving “some old chat”. You can (and should) check out his brand of blues at either https://shanepaceytrio.com.au or at https://bondicigars.com/. If you like Bert Jansch, Shane has a great new album called The Gardener available at https://shanepacey.bandcamp.com/album/the-gardener which would definitely have been approved of by the great man.

Send the show feedback at rrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au (written or mp3 voicemail) or join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/lovethatalbum.

If you’d consider writing an iTunes review or recommending the show to a friend, we’d be immensely grateful. 

If you enjoy what you hear, please tell a friend or ten to tune in.

Right click to download episode 122 here.

Love That Album: The Compilation Edition Episode 28 - Movin’ To The UK Pop

Welcome to Episode 28 of Love That Album: The Compilation Edition.

This time around Eric goes freeform once again to talk about some UK based Rock, Power Pop and Punk... First off is a couple of thoughts about the UK Rock group The Move featuring a pre-ELO Roy Wood. The Move who, despite their nine Top 20 UK singles and being one the most popular British bands, never seemed to click with listeners in the United States. Eric notes that they have been covered by Cheap Trick and cited as one of the influences on one of his favourite bands New Math/ Jet Black Berries.

Next up, calling back to  I'm In Love With That Song: Love That Album - The Compilation Series: Episode 14: Power Pop Perfection Eric talks about the 2 volumes of of the Rhino Records D.I.Y. series which cover the UK pop end of the spectrum.  

DIY: Teenage Kicks - UK Pop I (1976-79) and DIY: Starry Eyes - UK Pop II (1978-79) which features bands and songs you have heard alongside ones you haven't...

You can download the show by searching for Love That Album in the iTunes store or downloading streaming directly from  http://lovethatalbum.blogspot.com

Send the show feedback atrrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au (written or mp3 voicemail) or join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/lovethatalbum

If you enjoy what you hear, please tell a friend or ten to tune in.

Right click to download bonus episode 28 from here

Love That Album podcast Episode 18 - Chris Difford - Cashmere If You Can

From the mid 70s through to the late 90s, Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook had a songwriting partnership that had the pundits comparing them to Lennon/McCartney. Don’t feel under any pressure, guys. As mainstays of the band Squeeze, Tilbrook’s music and Difford’s lyrics covered a multitude of subjects including spouse abuse, living under cramped conditions, infidelity, and wanking. They survived the new wave label and later on, the AOR label to just make great songs till Squeeze’s demise.

Both men have recorded great solo albums, and different to their Squeeze output. Difford’s lyrics have become very personal, and on his latest album “Cashmere If You Can”, he sounds like he’s been listening to a lot of Loudon Wainwright III records.

On episode 18 of Love That Album, I talk about “Cashmere If You Can” and how it sounds like a public type of therapy of Difford.

Download the show from either http://lovethatalbum.blogspot.com or by searching for “lovethatalbum” in the iTunes store. Send written or mp3 feedback to rrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au

Right click to download and save Episode 18 here.

Songs That Left Me Speechless, Part 3 – This Is Where You Ain’t by Glenn Tilbrook

I believe there’s a misconception about happy songs being played in a major key with sad songs being played in a minor key. There are many sad songs in a major key (The Beatles’ “For No One”, The Beach Boys’ “Warmth Of The Sun”, Neil Young’s “Helpless”) and happy songs in a minor key (“Hava Nagilah”, The Hollies’ “Bus Stop”). For some reason, be it by association with film scores or possibly some neurological explanation (not that I’d know), we still tend to associate (in Western society anyway) major-happy and minor sad.

One explanation for the examples of major-sad given above could possibly be due to tempo. I’m not sure I can think of too many sad major-key up-tempo songs. “From Above” by Ben Folds and Nick Hornby sort of fits the bill. However, Glenn Tilbrook’s “This Is Where You Ain’t” certainly fits the bill.

Tilbrook and songwriting partner, Chris Difford, had to endure the tag of being the new Lennon- McCartney when their band Squeeze first appeared on the scene in the late seventies. Who wants to live up to that? It is true that they could write insanely catchy songs. (Come to think of it some of their songs could fit the bill under major-sad-up-tempo). “Up The Junction” is about a broken relationship with a vivid description of being financially up the creek (or junction!!!!) “Some Fantastic Place” is dedicated to a recently departed friend. “Pulling Mussels From A Shell” is the catchiest song about wanking since Pete Townshend got off from “Pictures of Lily”. “Last Time Forever” is a major key song about spouse abuse. Difford and Tilbrook had an insanely catchy way with a melody and clever lyric.

When Tilbrook recorded his first solo album, he possibly topped the lot at confusing our collective neurons by recording “This Is Where You Ain’t”, the album’s opener. When I hear this and close my eyes, I picture the Motown house band. I think of the Four Tops. I imagine ever so slight but tasteful soul singer’s choreography. It’s a song with a happy major key melody over a catchy beat.

It’s also a song about the aftermath of divorce.

Tilbrook’s lyrics evoke his feelings after the separation from his wife. He seems regretful it’s come to this and he’s sitting alone with the memories of previous good times.

                This is where we had some fun

                This is where we ate

                And now the fact I have to face is that

                This is where you ain’t

Tilbrook’s wife ended up moving to Australia from the UK with their children:

                I’m a long way from happy, you’re a long way from home

Of course, we’re only getting the poetic side of the story. There could have been shouting and dishes thrown and neglect, but that’s not how Tilbrook conveys his feelings here. One minute it was all good times, and the next it was all incredibly sad – and it’s all done to a deceptively happy sounding melody with a catchy beat.

Of course, if you’ve not heard the song and are just going by my description, it could be fair to say, “Maybe Tilbrook had it wrong. Maybe he should have slowed it all down or changed it to E minor”. Look, I can’t explain it in technical terms, but I think the melancholy the song conveys in its recorded version could not have worked if he’d changed anything about it. I don’t know how a great songwriter can successfully relay a downbeat story to an upbeat melody, but Tilbrook does it. A clever album compiler should put together an album of songs of this ilk and call it “Dancing With Hankies”.