If you don’t hook up to “Tempted” at least once in your life, I feel great pity for you.
For the uninitiated: Squeeze is an endlessly rad band that was big in the late '70s and throughout the '80s both in the UK (their homeland) and the US. They had roughly a million hits thanks to Glenn Tillbrook and Chris Difford, the band's two main singers and songwriters. Their music is smart and weird and interesting, but also universally danceable and earworm-y — once you hear this record, it's the only thing you'll want to listen to for at least a week, but also possibly just for the rest of your life.
Singles — 45's and Under, which was released in 1989, works way more like a fluid album than a collection of hits. It's a perfect encyclopedia of what makes Squeeze a wonderful band. But it's also an expertly arranged documentation of the amazing artistic heights pop music can reach when it sets out to make you dance and tell you dynamic stories in every song. So let's take a few minutes to single out (OOF, I know, sorry) exactly what makes this record so essential.
