Disco de Squeeze: “5 Live”

This album is actually quite different from A Round And About - for a start, the sound recording quality is actually a little worse, but on a more positive note the band sounds quite a bit better, even (or maybe, who knows, especially) without Jools Holland.

The choice of tracks is occasionally surprising - they leave out "Labelled With Love" and "Up The Junction" for example and include some forgotten album tracks like "I Think I'm Go Go" - but when they perform well they are truly brilliant. "If I Didn't Love You" is simply superb; "Piccadilly" is excellent; "Take Me I'm Yours" has a real edge to it.

There's no reason to buy this album if you're not already a fan, but that's probably a good thing, because while fans won't be disappointed it is, when all's said and done, 'just' a live album, and not even a complete 'best of'; and I wouldn't like to introduce friends to one of England's best bands of the last 30 years unless it was to their best material, performed and polished with more care than a raw, best-to-be-there crowd-pleasing sing-a-long.

I'd actually give this album more than just three stars, but I wouldn't like to put it up there with four-star albums, of which Squeeze have produced many (and even more which get five stars).

Nice to see John Bentley back, too, especially as it kind of adds a note of validity to the Squeeze brand (last time I saw them live it was Glenn Tilbrook plus backing musicians). Buy this if you already like the band, and want to make your day a little bit brighter.

A great live band shows they can duplicate their sound accurately live again. Not as lengthy as "Around and a Bout", but worth owning for all Squeeze fans.

This disc, taken from the band's long overdue reunion jaunt finds Squeeze v.2007 in pretty good form throughout. The arrangements are pleasantly stripped-down and the band is rock solid if not exactly adventurous. True, there's really nothing here that sounds radically different from "A Round and A Bout" from 15 years ago, but that's probably not the point. It's a nice chance for those who couldn't catch the tour to hear what the band is all about these days and for those who did see the shows, a nifty little souvenier.