Disco de Squeeze: “East Side Story [Japan Bonus Track]”

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.

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.

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.

'East Side Story',Squeeze's fourth album is the only one to feature keyboard player Paul Carrack.This album has one big US pop hit but it's a BIG one-"Tempted" not only sets a nearly impossible standard to high songcraft for them but the soulful,gospel drenched piano and organ playing of Carrack give the catchy song a great classic 60's soul feel.The album is fairly diverse although "In Quintessence","Picadilly","Woman's World" and "Someone Else's Bell" stick very closely to Squeeze's classic economical retro 60's pop/rock style.Elvis Costello and Dave Edmunds also make a guest appearance resulting in the wistful country-western of "Labelled With Love"-the album's big British hit and (sadly) it deserved a better American fate-it's a very catchy tune."Vanity Fair" probably sparked some Beatles comparasins with it's symphony orchestra backdrop and classy lyricism and it's a valid statement.The album closes with Glen Tillbrook's catchy rockabilly of "Messin' Around".Meanwhile "Someone Else's Heart","There's No Tomorrow" and "F-Hole" are all great rock grooves with great basslines.So it being said that 'East Side Story' is not without it's adherants this would be an excellent first Squeeze CD to own if you don't have any music by them.If you already do get it anyway-it's still a classic pop album and as close to being as purely that genre as one could want.

This is probably one of my favorite albums of all time. Everything about it - the lyrics, the singing, the musical arrangements - is stunning. The sheer variety of music styles is astounding - from pop-rock ("In Quintessence") to R&B ("Tempted") to psychedelia ("There's No Tomorrow") to avant-garde orchestral pop ("F-Hole") to country ("Labelled With Love") to chamber music ("Vanity Fair") to rockabilly ("Messed Around") - and it's all done with the utmost skill. Although Glenn Tilbrook sings on a majority of the tracks, the album also features the vocals of Chris Difford (on "Heaven") and Paul Carrack (on the classic "Tempted"), and each vocalist makes their individual stamp on the songs. I'm not normally one to listen to albums repeatedly, but I could listen to this album over and over again and never get tired of it. In fact, at the risk of heresy, I would say that this album is the "Sgt. Pepper" of the 80's. Really, it's that good. Pick it up, you won't be disappointed.