Album Info

Argybargy (Deluxe Edition)

Argybargy (Deluxe Edition)

By Squeeze

Rock - 1980

Squeeze may be best known as a “singles band,” but songwriters Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook were on such a... more

Tracklist

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About Argybargy (Deluxe Edition)

Squeeze may be best known as a “singles band,” but songwriters Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook were on such a hot streak at the time they recorded 1980’s Argybargy that the resulting album has absolutely zero skips. The main attraction here is the New Wave classic “Pulling Mussels (From the Shell),” an intricately built hook machine with impressionistic and subtly lascivious lyrics describing a romantic encounter at a British working-class seaside resort. “Another Nail In My Heart,” another modestly successful single, is nearly as packed with earworm melodies and boasts a particularly hot guitar solo by Tilbrook. The most thrilling parts of Argybargy are when the self-conscious elegance of Difford and Tilbrook’s musical craft is infused with the twitchy nervous energy of the New Wave zeitgeist. “Misadventure” sounds as though it’s being played in double time, zooming so fast that Tilbrook’s lead vocal always seems to be chasing to catch up with the beat. “Vicky Verky” is a manic speed-freak take on early rock ’n’ roll, while “If I Didn’t Love You” conveys the conflicted lust of its character with a jerky rhythm and a stuttered vocal hook that oh-so-cleverly arrives just after the line “the record jumps on a scratch.”