Squeeze Album: “East Side Story [UK Bonus Tracks]”

Make no mistake, East Side Story is the band's early masterpiece. While Sweets was far more experimental (as was Cool for Cats), the band's fourth album focused on songcraft. Originally intended as a double album (with hopes for Elvis Costello, Paul McCartney, Dave Edmunds and someone else who I can't recall at the moment), East Side Story is the band's most perfectly formed album.

Every track belongs here and the arrangements from the startling guitar break on Inquintessence to the organ hook that opens Tempted are brilliant. This is an album that's crying out for a second disc of live material from the same album. The two bonus tracks are a mixed bag. One's quite good and the other is just a so-so remake of an oldie.

The American Beat version reportedly has better dynamics and is a flat transfer of the original release but I don't have it nor have I heard it for comparison. It doesn't have any bonus tracks.

By the way, this is exactly the same remaster that was used for the box set Six of One that is now out of print.

I found this album on vynal at my local record store last spring. I bought it because when I was a little girl my dad used to play this album and dance around the house with me. I expected it to hold nothing more than nostalgia. It had been so many years, yet I still remembered most of the words and melodies. It's also interesting to know that this was Paul Carrack's (of Genesis fame)side project. It frustrates me that people only know tempted. In Quintessence and Piccadilly should have been hits. The album flows, while touching on different sub-genres of ska. Elvis Costello's influence is very obvious. I personally like ska because it's fun, and on this album, they're having FUN!

While I have to believe that Argy-Bargy is the better album, East Side Story is a classic that deserves the highest rating.

Really fun, with great songs (the original release of Tempted), this album is a must-have for any serious collector of British rock.

Sometimes a little on the odd side, this album is great fun to listen to.

I just received a new copy of this CD by the label American Beat, and regarding the sound quality, in a word: crap. This is not a remaster like with ArgyBargy. The first song, In Quintessence sounds as if it was mastered from a cassette as the highs dropped slightly at least twice during the course of that short opening song. If you want to own this CD, the price is not bad. But if you're a sound quality nut like me, you may want to wait around for the remaster if it ever happens. Record companies are not known for remastering an entire artist or group's catalog to completion. They often stop at some odd point, such as The Cure albums. They stopped at Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me when they should have kept going until they remastered Disintegration, which badly needs it instead of their first album or two, which was pointless. The rest of the CD sounds (quality-wise) average. Better than a mastering from the 1980's but not quite what I was looking for in terms of detail. A pity. This band and especially this album surely deserves better.

Of all the new wave bands to come out of the 80's, Squeeze were the most classicist of the pop makers. "East Side Story" marked a creative peak for them and marked the moment when Chris Difford and Glen Tilbrook began to really earn those Lennon/McCartney accolades that had been bandied about in their names. For roughly 50 minutes, this album rips through all sorts of variations on the pop songbook of styles with only a couple of minor misfires, which are redeemed by the mere presence of "Tempted," which is one of the - if not the very - best songs of the 80's.

The band was feeling their oates on several fronts. For starts, flamboyant showboat Jools Holland was out of the band, with the soulful crooner Paul Carrack taking his place. This attention more on the band's exquisite songcraft. Difford and Tilbrook had also started out with the concept of the album as a two disc affair with each side being a collaboration. Only Dave Edmunds came through on the pledge, and he contributed the album's fiery opener, "In Quintessence."

The remainder fell to frequent touring buddy Elvis Costello and producer Roger Bechiran. The remaining 13 songs on ESS fell to their studio skills, I have often wondered how much they pushed Squeeze to experiment with the eccentricities of "Heaven," "There's No Tomorrow" and "F-Hole," the album's three quirkiest songs. While the experiments didn't always work for me (I could have totally done without the countrified "Labeled With Love"), the band's incredible skills with a hook come through every time.

The penultimate moment to all of this, again, was "Tempted." Giving Carrack a moment to have a white-soul workout with the clever wordplay and the tricky vocal interplay (including a cameo from Costello) made this a most irresistible song. While it didn't make it to the charts in America, it has kept the staying power of a classic. And while it wasn't even a single, the interconnected melodies of "Mumbo Jumbo" have never failed to blow me away. Same for the rock-abilly closer of "Messed Around" (makes me wish Edmunds had been around for this one), that still makes me tap my toes in sheer amazement.

"East Side Story" was Squeeze (and by extension, Tifford and Dilbrook's) peak. Afterwards, indulgence started getting the better of them. For this album, though, every highlight seemed to be followed by yet another moment of brilliance.