Essential Squeeze

This release starts with the strangely unnerving ‘Take Me I’m Yours’.

With a dark, menacing undertow it sounds almost like an electropop Echo and the Bunnymen. It’s one of the highlights of the DVD and makes you wander just what Squeeze could have been capable of, but after ploughing through the obligatory, but none the less brilliant, ‘Cool For Cats’ and ‘Up The Junction’, things go rapidly downhill.

Squeeze gradually descended into middle of the road territory, charting the tepid water of Level 42-esque white boy funk and sub-Housemartins jazz pop, before meandering into meaningless drivel in the mid/late 80s.

Having said that, it’s worth buying this collection to watch the progression of the band’s image through the videos - from pseudo new wave cool, to Bon Jovi-esque flowing locks. But the highlight is when Glenn Tilbrook becomes an exact cross between Richard Madeley and Princess Diana in the mid 80s. Priceless.