Play (Squeeze album)
Play is a 1991 album by the British new wave group Squeeze. It is the band's ninth album, and their only released by Reprise Records. It is the first LP in the Squeeze discography to feature only four official members instead of five (Steve Nieve took on many of the keyboard duties that would have gone to Jools Holland in the past). Tony Berg produced the album. In the liner notes to the 1996 Squeeze compilation Excess Moderation, Glenn Tilbrook stated that he considers Play the beginning of Squeeze's "renaissance period." The album spent one week at number 41 in the UK Albums Chart in September 1991.[1]
Play | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | July 1991 | |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 52:25 | |||
Label | Reprise | |||
Producer | Tony Berg | |||
Squeeze chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from Play | ||||
|
The liner notes to the album are, appropriately, in the form of a play that incorporates the lyrics of the songs in a script that also references the plays Our Town by Thornton Wilder and Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.
Reception
Critical reception
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
Play received some positive reception from critics. Stewart Mason of AllMusic proclaimed the record to be "probably Squeeze's best post-reunion album", naming the tracks "The Truth" and "Walk a Straight Line" as "particular highlights".[2]
Track listing
All songs written by Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook.
- "Satisfied" – 5:10
- "Crying in My Sleep" – 5:03
- "Letting Go" – 5:01
- "The Day I Get Home" – 4:50
- "The Truth" – 4:12
- "House of Love" – 3:23
- "Cupid's Toy" – 4:31
- "Gone to the Dogs" – 3:54
- "Walk a Straight Line" – 3:50
- "Sunday Street" – 4:16
- "Wicked and Cruel" – 4:14
- "There Is a Voice" – 4:01
Personnel
- Squeeze
- Chris Difford – guitar, backing vocals
- Gilson Lavis – drums
- Glenn Tilbrook – guitars, keyboards, lead & backing vocals
- Keith Wilkinson – bass, backing vocals
with:
- Tony Berg – keyboards, guitars
- Bruce Hornsby – accordion
- Matt Irving – keyboards
- Steve Nieve – keyboards
- Claudia Fontaine, Beverly Skeete – backing vocals on 4, 10
- Laurence Johnson, Paul Lee – backing vocals on 7
- Betsy Petrie, Blanche Black, Christopher Guest, Gabriele Morgan, Mary Jo Braun, Michael McKean, Michael Penn, Steven Soles, Wendie Colter – choir on 4
- Jerry Hey, Bill Reichenbach, Dan Higgins, Gary Grant, Larry Williams – horns
- Arme Garabedian, Berj Garabedian, Joel Derouin, John Acevedo, Larry Corbet, Bob Becker, Sid Page, Suzie Katayama – strings
References
- Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. pp. 522/3. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
- Stewart Mason. "Play - Squeeze | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 25 December 2015.