In May of 1982, British recording artists Squeeze released their 5th studio LP, entitled “Sweets From A Stranger”. The band had worked extremely hard touring particularly in the US up to this point, and this was the first time that an upcoming album release of theirs could be described as “highly anticipated”.
Their previous LP “East Side Story”, had yielded a near top 40 hit in the US with “Tempted”, and the groundwork had been laid for “Sweets” to finally break the band big in the colonies. They had become something of a critic’s darling up to this point , with both “East Side Story” and the LP previous to that , “Argybargy” receiving glowing notices practically across the board. The sales were respectable, but nothing compared to the critical praise being heaped onto the band up to this point.
The band’s record company A&M , decided to make the record buying public aware of this by launching an ad campaign entitled, “When it comes to Squeeze, they can’t be called “critics”.” In addition to ads in all the major print media, the LP jacket itself for “Sweets” was uniquely equipped with a 4” cardboard overleaf along the right side that bellowed not just the ad campaign itself, but excerpts of actual reviews from the band’s previous releases to prove it.
There was just one problem. The actual reviews for “Sweets” were less than stellar. The record was considered either too dark or uninspired, depending on what review you read. This made the ad campaign a bit of an embarrassment. Another world tour by the band would again fail to reap the rewards they’d hoped for. This, among other issues would cause the band to break up shortly after the conclusion of that tour as they would only stay together long enough to release one more single, then calling it quits.
Then something even stranger happened, no pun intended. A compilation of Squeeze singles released by A&M records began shifting units. Lots of units. The type of record sales the band had hoped for during their career but never achieved started happening in a major way. “Singles, 45’s and Under” went to #3 in the UK, and even though it only went as high as #47 in the US, it sold consistently over a long enough period of time to earn it platinum status.
Even casual followers of the band can tell you that they reformed a couple of years after this, to varying degrees of success. “Sweets From A Stranger” though, still carries that bad reputation as a dark, brooding affair, released by a band that had burnt itself out. A better explanation may be that despite a few clunkers, the songs were of an overall high quality and that the some of the choices made during the recording process were the true culprit.
“Out Of Touch” kicks off the proceedings here and it is certainly an odd choice for an album’s opener. It seems like an attempt to deliver a grown up version of “Take Me, I’m Yours” with it’s bleating synths and unique rhythm track. Lyrically, the song has some fine moments (“I won’t comb my hair for you anymore..”) but ultimately the rhythm track lacks the musical bite of the lyric and there is no clear-cut hook.
“I Can’t Hold On” is more of a stab at the classic Squeeze sound, but you get the feeling that by this time the band could churn out this type of song in their sleep. So only two tracks in, and we have an attempt to forge a new direction, only to have that come crashing to a halt by following that up with the basic formula. This confusion continues over much of the record.
“Points Of View” is a winner on all counts. This mid tempo ballad highlights all the things that made Squeeze so great. Songs about guys trying to get laid and failing miserably at it. We can all relate can’t we? Chris Difford’s lyrics once again score big points (“She sings solo, I see double”) and Glenn Tilbrook’s melody here is among his best. The entire song has the immaculate pace and feeling of a pop standard.
“Stranger Than The Stranger On The Shore” can be viewed as the first misstep on the record. It’s actually not a bad song, but it’s ultimately a poor choice to record it like a dance track with movie mystery sound effects.
“Onto The Dance Floor”- It’s funny, because all of the failed experiments that I talked about on some of the earlier tracks actually work pretty well here. This thing plods along in gloriously comical fashion with lead bass that is reminiscent of Spinal Tap’s “Big Bottom”.
“When The Hangover Strikes” falls in line with my previous comments about “Points Of View”. Written and recorded as if it could be sung by Sinatra or Fitzgerald with a full orchestra in tow. It succeeds on all accounts from inception to execution.
“Black Coffee In Bed” , the albums initial single only charted as high as #51 in the US, and it’s puzzling as to why. It may be because at just over six minutes, it was too long for a 45, and as far as I can tell, there was no shorter single version. The video got heavy rotation on MTV, but that had the last two minutes or so of the song chopped off at the end.
“I’ve Returned” also harkens back to the classic Squeeze sound , but is a much better song than “I Can’t Hold On”. Chris Difford continues to write lyrics from a place that depicts him as a cantankerous lout, hell bent on destroying every relationship he finds himself in. Hard to tell how much of that is actually derived from fact, but enough has come out about his own personal trials for us to believe it’s at least partly autobiographical.
“Tongue Like A Knife” is also a standout track, but would have been fine without the ending tacked on that too closely resembles “My Favorite Things” from “The Sound Of Music”.
“His House, Her Home” has a curiously pleasant vocal by Chris Difford, casting aside his gravelly baritone to deliver this bittersweet memoir of a man who’s moved in with a divorcee and her kids.
“The Very First Dance” simply does not measure up to some of the album’s better tracks and it’s appearance here just makes you think that they didn’t have anything better in the can to offer. Unfortunately, it’s another clumsily assembled fake drum-laden dance track that never takes off.
The album’s final track, “The Elephant Ride” stands head and shoulders above everything else on the record. I would go as far as to say that it ranks very closely among the greatest songs they ever wrote. It has glorious harmonies, a killer bass line, and melodies to spare, tossed at the listener in rapid succession, each one more beautiful than the previous.
Although the overall verdict on “Sweets From A Stranger” will probably always be that of a band that had lost their way, it’s important to note that there are several other records by other bands that were much worse and sold millions more copies. Some of the blame ultimately has to go towards the poor promotion and grueling tour schedule that the band were obliged to adhere to. The sales figures on their posthumous compilation proves that there was indeed, a massive audience out there if only the record company could have mustered the vision and belief in the product they had and connected the dots properly.
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