Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are not many bands that can make the ordinary extraordinary, that take a minute of a life and turn it into a whole progression of infinite possibility and yet still be down grounded and down to Earth enough for all who hear it, who understand the significance of it all.

For Squeeze, the words have long-held significance; they have proposed an urban romance since their first initial days of one of London’s New Wave and one that hasn’t been tainted by the spectre of time. It is the words and overwhelming playful music that brings the band back into the spotlight in some great fashion with their first studio album with brand new songs in many years, the gloriously enjoyable Cradle To The Grave.

The snapshot of a life, the picture which encompasses an existence well lived and an energy that is uncontainable, all these urban treats and explosive verbal paintings and images set down can only really come from the minds of Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, they can be inspired by events laid down and observed and without the floral addition or the inclusion of wrongly used imagination. The imagination is there, it lets the songs flow with care, with the smile of a thousand voices all applauding the possible and the tones of many instruments playing their parts, but it is not ruled by it, it doesn’t cower to the inclusion of the unworthy for dramatic intent, it just observes and reports; the flourish coming from the band and it is the grand gesture of simplicity to enjoy.

With songs such as Happy Days, the superb Only 15, the care of detail in Snap, Crackle And Pop and the splendour of teenage guilt remembered in Haywire, Squeeze have come up trumps in Cradle To The Grave, an album that echoes the glory of the past but reflects up on it as if seen from a position of relative personal comfort, an age in which the devil may care attitude of youth is to be seen, not as arrogance or an embarrassment, but one in which is mellowed, the wry smile and honest laugh of a life that worked and which every detail is committed to memory and glorified fully.

Age is a peculiar thing, memory and time even more so, In Cradle To The Grave it barely seems like a day has passed since Messers Difford and Tilbrook were chasing dreams and fulfilling them, this album honours that feat of artistic and human experience.

Ian D. Hall