Squeeze – Domino (1998) (Music Review)

Squeeze – Domino (1998) Squeeze are an excellent band. But I didn’t love this album and it’s possible that I’ll be biting my fingers after writing this review. Because sometimes, after several listens, an album takes on a whole new dimension and you end up finding it absolutely brilliant. Now, I’m not saying it’s bad. It’s well constructed, it’s creative, it’s still pretty complex. It’s just that it doesn’t thrill me like the band did so well in its early days. But that all makes sense when you know the story.

Squeeze are considered to be a British New Wave band, although in my opinion they’re much more than that. Domino is the band’s twelfth studio album. After a career of wrangling with various major labels, the band decided to record and release Domino independently, on Glenn Tilbrook’s own label (and producer), Quixotic Records. Core members Tilbrook and Chris Difford were joined by three new members of Squeeze for this album: drummer Ashley Soan, bassist Hilaire Penda and keyboardist Christopher Holland (the younger brother of Jools, the band’s first pianist). The album was hastily made and received some negative reactions from critics. But that’s mainly because we’ve experienced the band’s genius and we know they’re capable of much better work.

Both Difford and Tilbrook have since denounced Domino as a weak effort, marred by time constraints and growing friction between the two songwriters who wrote all the songs on the album. Difford opted not to tour in 1999 due to concerns unfortunately linked to his history of alcoholism, after which Squeeze broke up. The album did not appear in the UK Albums Chart and was their first not to do so.

That said, their biggest fans were reassured: Squeeze returned with an album in 2010 called Spot the Difference . Domino, meanwhile, was released three years after Ridiculous. Stephen Thomas Erlewine (born 18 June 1973) is an American music critic. He is the author of several artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer and occasional contributor of liner notes. This gentleman was very dismissive of the album, calling it a ‘disappointment’ and a ‘dud’, commenting further that ‘all the familiar elements are in place, but nothing really clicks’.

My Rating