Squeeze The Demos

As in, demo recordings by the British pop band Squeeze. Lead singer/songwriter Glenn Tilbrook's website (www.glenntilbrook.com) is offering the first of five promised CDs featuring the original four-track demos for their best albums. First up, 18 songs that were pared down and eventually became "East Side Story", Squeeze's best effort in my opinion.

In his liner notes, Tilbrook says "wanna hear my demos?" is one of the scariest phrases in the musical lexicon, but these are actually pretty good, and for fans, it's intriguing to hear how a song like "Someone Else's Bed" morphed from a semi-acoustic tune into the much harder version on the studio release.

Tilbrook and his writing partner Chris Difford have both released several solo CDs since Squeeze broke up, and they're all worth getting. In better news, the band has reunited for some dates this Summer, which I hope implies a new Squeeze release "soon."