Squeeze: New Wave’s Literate Hitmakers
From “Up the Junction” to “Tempted,” how Difford & Tilbrook turned sharp vignettes into pop brilliance before their 1982 hiatus.
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Audio Note: This audio version was AI-generated using a model of my voice, originally recorded during an old podcast. It's not perfect, but it helps bring the article to life.
Intro
In college in the late ‘90s I got fully into new wave, and Squeeze quickly became one of my favorite bands. And why not? You’ve got the honey-tongued Glenn Tilbrook who’s uncanny at adding vocal emphasis and inflection at the perfect moments. Chris Difford sings a couple tracks on most albums and his lower, no-nonsense delivery is a great counterpoint to Tilbrook. And their acclaimed songwriting: Difford can write both silly songs (Touching Me, Touching You) and heartwrenching narratives (Up the Junction). And Tilbrook melds it with tight melodies in the new wave tradition, channeling the Elvis Costello wing of new wave but can throw curveballs too (the country pastiche Labelled With Love).
UK Squeeze
As mentioned in my New Wave Headscratchers article, Squeeze had a terrible time producing their debut with their idol John Cale (of Velvet Underground fame), pressured to write songs that didn’t fit their sound. Some tracks, like Bang Bang at least showed that Squeeze was good with start-stop dynamics and other new wave staples. Others, like Wild Sewerage Tickles Brazil, were uncharacteristically bizarre. As a whole, the debut feels tentative and uneven, but it captures a young band still shaping its identity while hinting at the literate pop to come.
The record company, anxiously sensing a dud in their debut, asked Squeeze to quickly record a couple extra tracks before pressing date. This was a huge break for Squeeze, as they got to add the solid Take Me I’m Yours. It plants the seeds for great work to come. The insect-sounding bassline combined with marching rhythm make for a cool combo. Its already clear Difford has a deep lyrical playbook with “my chills and thrills and spills” and “a grape to tempt your leisure”. And Tilbrook vocals have good hooks, and there are glimmers of his signature vocal inflections (for example, right before the choruses).
Squeeze - Take Me I'm Yours (listen on Spotify)
Cool for Cats
Take Me I’m Yours was a hint at Squeeze’s talent, and their sophomore album Cool for Cats mostly realized that. The melodies are tighter, the hooks catchier, lyrics vivid, and Tilbrook’s vocals more confident. Indeed, the album’s mix of cheeky humor, sharp working-class detail, and tighter hooks established Squeeze as one of the smartest, most relatable voices in new wave. The album opener Slap and Tickle is appropriately a good bridge between the sound of Take Me I’m Yours and the rest of the album. The title track is a great showcase for Difford’s train-chugging vocals.
There’s not a weak track, but Up the Junction takes the cake. The song title is a British slang term for “screwed”, so right off the bat Difford says the song will go sour. The narrator falls in love, gets married and has a daughter. Great so far, but then he succumbs to alcoholism and his wife leaves him. The song ends with him feeling empty but too proud to try for reconciliation. Difford is detailed with the lyrics but it doesn’t feel dense because the story advances at a good clip. Strong, tight guitar riffs and simple but powerful organ complement the song beautifully.
Squeeze - Up the Junction (listen on Spotify)
Argybargy
Argybargy is not at all a mess; indeed, it’s a great doubling-down on what made Cool for Cats great. And it also expands their sound. For example, I Think I’m Go-Go and Here Comes That Feeling have a new psychedelic flair that will inform their following two albums. And the single If I Didn’t Love You has a slightly menacing feel to it that works. The melancholy Separate Beds is also a standout track; more on that here. Often considered their first fully realized masterpiece, Argybargy marries consistently strong melodies with lyrics that balance wit and emotional sting.
In my new wave summer article I covered the most popular track (Pulling Mussels From the Shell), but Another Nail in My Heart also deserves a mention. It manages to sound upbeat right from the intro, but there’s no mistaking it’s a heartbreaking song (title aside). It deals with the aftermath of his live-in girlfriend leaving him. While Junction is a riches-to-rags progression, Nail focuses on the narrator’s current pain, with flashbacks providing the evidence. The line “I had excuses, those little boy lies that she computed by watching my eyes.” is classic: He admits he was immature to her but, still feeling the sting of the breakup, calls her cold with the computer metaphor. Duality by Difford! The choruses use repetition in its vocal hook but still advances the narrative.
Squeeze - Another Nail in My Heart (listen on Spotify)
East Side Story
Squeeze was riding high on critical accolades, and were often dubbed “the next Lennon and McCartney” (referring to their songwriting skill, not the Beatles’ bickering). Squeeze planned to make the upcoming East Side Story a double album, with a different producer helming one side of each record. While that was truncated, they did get Elvis Costello to produce it. With his production and an eclectic palette that dipped into soul, country, and classic pop, East Side Story showcased the duo’s versatility at its peak.
For a while, Tempted has been the only track that anyone remembers. And the lead vocalist is music journeyman Paul Carrack, so he’s most associated with the vocals of Squeeze. Tilbrook is secondary, and Costello himself has a couple lines. More on that in my Best-of-1981 article🔒.
Picadilly is another standout track. Tilbrook is front-and-center vocalist this time, and like Mussels is a terrific series of vignettes of British life, this time centered on the Picadilly Square area (kind of like New York’s Times Square). There’s references to giving a busker money, going to the Taj Mahal restaurant and later Trini Lopez. The music and vocals are light and breezy, even the call-and-response outro.
Squeeze - Picadilly (listen on Spotify)
Sweets from a Stranger
Sweets From a Stranger was Squeeze’s fifth album in 5 years, and after the epic scale of East Side Story, exhaustion had set in. The track When the Hangover Strikes makes me want to take a nap (which I believe was done on purpose to express their exhaustion). Though at times uneven and born of exhaustion, the album still offered flashes of brilliance, but its weary tone signaled the need for a reset.
Black Coffee in Bed is less explicit about this exhaustion but it’s hinted at (again, title aside). This is through the relaxed, extended melody and resigned tone of Tilbrook. Not a slight: the song doesn’t meander. It again deals with breakup fallout, but there’s a twist this time: the narrator sleeps with his friend as a rebound but while in bed struggles to forget about his ex. The internal battle is shown through the lines “there’s nothing of your love that I’ll ever miss” and the coffee stains bringing back pleasant memories with his ex.
Despite riding high, Squeeze was desperate for a long-overdue break and broke up. The end.
Of course, this wasn’t really the end. Squeeze returned mid-decade with seven more albums, including the surreal MTV hit Hourglass.
If you like this article and want more, check out our collector’s PDF version⧉ for only $9.99. It has:
this writeup highlighting Squeeze’s golden era
Extra sections about Difford & Tilbrook, Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti and Babylon and On
an album timeline
an influencer and follower infographic
select expert and fan commentary
Extra features
Squeeze - Black Coffee in Bed (listen on Spotify)
Outro
From their sharp vignettes of British life to bittersweet love songs dressed in irresistible hooks, Squeeze carved out a catalog that feels both timeless and unmistakably of its era. Difford and Tilbrook proved that pop could be witty, literate, and still endlessly catchy. Their golden age ended in 1982, but even through reunions and reinventions, the core spirit of Squeeze—melody with bite, humor with heart—remains intact. If the hits are what drew you in, the deeper cuts show just how rich their songbook really is. And if you’re still hungry, the PDF expands the story even further.