Note: the CD I listened to was the "enhanced 2CD + Blu-ray edition" which includes the album, a second CD of demos & live cuts, and a Blu-ray of 24-bit HD audio masters & the album mixed by Bob Clearmountain in Dolby Atmos. All packaged in an quadfold digisleeve.
Edited from the band's website:
Although ‘brand new’ may not be entirely appropriate; written by the teenage Chris Difford (19) and Glenn Tilbrook (16) at the very start of their songwriting partnership, when concept albums and rock operas were de rigueur, the songs are a collection of stories set in a fictional night club, Trixies.Well, considering the age and inexperience of the boys when these tunes were written, they're not terrible. But coming back to them decades later? Maybe not the best idea. I've got an old play script I wrote when I was 17 years old but I sure wouldn't stage a production of it today.
“We fully committed ourselves to songwriting but this was three or four years before we even got to make our first record. Long story short, these were songs that we just didn’t have enough musical experience to record properly” explains Chris.
Under the guiding production hand of Squeeze’s bassist Owen Biddle, this collection of songs finally gets to enjoy its moment in the spotlight. “The songs that we wrote then astound me. I’m proud of them now, and I’m particularly proud that it was young us that did that. These are very much the same songs that we wrote then,” says Glenn, “The only difference is that now I can teach the songs to the rest of the band. Back then, I didn’t even know what the names of the chords were!”
Anyway, I knew that some Squeeze tunes require multiple listenings before appreciation, but that didn't do the trick for me with these tracks. Then I heard the songs live (see below) and that didn't help, either. So this probably won't get many spins in the future, if any. And a three disc set was indeed overkill. Metacritic has the album rated as 83/100 so I'm obviously missing something. And I'm OK with that.
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart
Tracks: 13 tracks, almost all midtempo or slower. The best track on the album is You Get The Feeling, followed at a distance by Hell On Earth. I usually skip the attempt at Bowie glam rock, The Place We Call Mars and The Dancer, which is terribly repetitive.
CD 2: 11 demos from 1974 plus 2 live tracks from 2024. Nothing worth hearing more than once, if that.
Blu-ray: the 13-track album in Dolby Atmos. Good news: I think Atmos mixes sound terrific. Bad news: what that means for my bank account.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: My lovely wife and I caught the band September 22, 2026 on their "Tried, Tested and Trixies" tour, which I've dubbed their "Maximum Hubris" tour because of the questionable decision to play Trixies in its entirety:
- Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)
- Up the Junction
- Another Nail in My Heart
- Is That Love
- *The entire Trixies album*
- Hourglass
- Black Coffee in Bed
- Third Rail
- Goodbye Girl
- Slap & Tickle
- Cool for Cats
- Tempted
- Take Me I'm Yours
Previously revisited for the blog:
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