Long before their reign as one of the most erudite bands in rock, Squeeze founding members Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook wrote a bunch of early songs as 1970s teenagers that have never seen the light of day. That will change on March 6, when BMG releases Trixies, the group’s first new album in eight years. The first taste of the music, “Trixies Part One,” is out now.
In 1974, Difford was 19 and Tilbrook 16 as they began writing tracks such as “Don’t Go Out in the Dark,” “You Get the Feeling” and “The Place We Call Mars,” which were set in a fictional club named Trixies. “We fully committed ourselves to songwriting, but this was three or four years before we even got to make our first record,” says Difford. “Long story short, these were songs that we just didn’t have enough musical experience to record properly.”
The “Pulling Mussels From the Shell”/”Tempted” hitmakers revisited the material with its latter-day touring band, including former Roots bassist Owen Biddle, who produced. “The songs that we wrote then astound me. I’m proud of them now, and I’m particularly proud that it was young us that did that. These are very much the same songs that we wrote then,” Tilbrook offers. “The only difference is that now I can teach the songs to the rest of the band. Back then, I didn’t even know what the names of the chords were!”
What’s more, an album of entirely new Squeeze material was tracked alongside Trixies and will be released at some point in the future. To cap the year, Squeeze are touring with Madness in the U.K. through a Dec. 20 show at the O2 Arena in London.
“The act of revisiting the Trixies songs had me in tears, partly because they’re so good, but also because I’m aware of all the stuff that I’ve still yet to hear and write,” Tilbrook says. Adds Difford, “It really fills me with joy that at my age we can discover that we wrote such great songs when we were teenagers. I’m very proud of that.”
Here is the track list for Trixies:
“What More Can I Say”
“You Get the Feeling”
“The Place We Call Mars”
“Hell on Earth”
“The Dancer”
“Good Riddance”
“Don’t Go Out in the Dark”
“Why Don’t You”
“Anything But Me”
“It’s Over”
“The Jaguars”
“Trixies Part One”
“Trixies Part Two”
