March

Squeeze – Trixies (BMG)

Written by original Squeeze members Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook when they were just teenagers, the band’s first studio album in nine years is conceptualised. Themed on a mythical nightclub, the thirteen tracks are a homage to ‘Trixies’ and their earliest songwriting, technically making this the band’s real first album and their earliest songwriting.

Dreamy opening track ‘What More Can I Say’ is a slow nostalgic dazzle at the end of the night with the tribute “Trixies is alright”; the bubbling acoustics of ‘You Get the Feeling’ continuing the utopia vibe of a club filled with the underground nightlife characters of singers, jazz musicians, lovers and cabaret dancers.

A major influence on the band was David Bowie, with ‘The Place We Call Mars’ an obvious glam rock take on ‘Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’, with the jewels of alien keyboard effects and sickly chord progression amongst Difford and Tilbrook’s harmony.

Sparksesque backing vocals and T. Rex keyboard feed the gritty excess of ‘Hell On Earth’ before ‘The Dancer’ with its ‘80s icy organ – a minimalist dark tale about a burlesque dancer being exploited by the male gaze – provides a mature outlook coming from two teenage boys seemingly thrown into this seedy world.

Following the hooky guitar and farfisa organ of the creeping ‘Don’t Go Out in the Dark’, ‘Why Don’t You’ is a Bolan styled stomping boogie, with crackling garage guitar that fits the sexy cabaret theme also released as a similarly noir shot video – the catchiest tune on the track list.

‘It’s Over’ is a ballad of melting watercolours, with touches of bass as the club shuts and the twinkling rise and fall of slide guitar. There’s popping percussive stamps reminiscent of the Glitter Band meeting a square dance in ‘The Jaguars’ before the final two tracks ‘Trixies Part One/Two’ sum up the proceedings of this darling rough-around-the-edges institution, finishing on the finale of musicians, drug dealers, dancers, directors, models, comedians, actors and “all the sordid people who carry something lethal”, with the endearing vocals repeat the same thematic slogan, that “Trixies is alright.”

‘Trixies’ is out now on limited edition vinyl, vinyl, CD and digitally.