Sunday, July 14, 2019

The 1985 Listening Post - Squeeze - Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti

Squeeze - Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti


#307/942
August 1985
Squeeze
Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti
Genre: Rock
2.75 out of 5

Highlights:
Last Time Forever



I wrote before about how my favorite Squeeze song, and perhaps one of my favorite songs of all time, was “In Quintessence”. A friend of a friend in college had decided that I was the living embodiment of this tune and I took that as a compliment at first, since no one had ever taken any interest in defining me in song. Until I learned that it was really an insult. Still didn’t matter. Still loved the song.
But that wasn’t my first introduction to Squeeze. That came from my cousin who had Argybargy. (She also had The Fine Art of Surfacing, so obviously she had great taste) Her name is Michelle and we liked to think that they were singing “Pulling Mussels for Michelle”. 
Later, my younger brother had the collection of singles, 45s and Under, which might be the most perfect collection of tracks ever put on vinyl to represent a band. 
So, of course, I had to get me some Squeeze. And being a completist I started with a cassette of U.K. Squeeze. 
Which was awful.
So terrible in fact that I didn’t return to Squeeze for many many years. I didn’t even own a copy of East Side Story until I was 33, only to realize after purchasing it that I already knew every song on it because, and I don’t know who owned it, the cassette was played in my family’s store during a summer. I didn’t put it on but play it did. 
I thought Sweets from a Stranger was mediocre and Difford & Tilbrook worse. They did not recover with this one.  For every okay track “Last Time Forever” there’s a tonnage of bad (looking at you, “I Learnt How to Pray”).

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