Argybargy

Did You Know?

• The album title is a British expression that Difford said 'sums up succinctly what our lives were like at the time.'
• Band manager Miles Copeland opposed the album name because the expression is not used in America.

Background

Following the commercial success of Cool for Cats and a successful international tour, Squeeze reached its highest level of success to that point. Glenn Tilbrook worried of becoming 'too big for [his] boots' and struggled with being recognized in public. Chris Difford married and spent the summer of 1979 in the US with his wife, writing over 40 new lyrics inspired by his new marriage and his time in Greenwich Village.

Recording

For their third album, A&M Records had Squeeze reunite with producer John Wood from Cool for Cats, with Tilbrook setting Difford’s best new lyrics to music. Recording wrapped up in late 1979. Argybargy marked founding member Jools Holland’s final album with the band until the 1985 reunion LP Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti. Difford noted Holland was growing distant, frustrated by his limited input and increasingly focused on his own solo and television ambitions.

Reception

Argybargy came out in February 1980 and logged 15 weeks on the UK Albums Chart, where it peaked at number 32. It marked Squeeze’s first appearance on a US chart, reaching number 71 on the Billboard 200. That summer, every track from the album jointly hit number 76 on the Billboard dance chart and stayed there for six weeks. Critics have praised the record highly. BBC Music’s Chris Jones described it as the band’s crowning achievement and a masterpiece of kitchen sink pop, insisting it is the one Squeeze album to own. AllMusic’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted the album’s restless, colorful energy and declared that with it, Squeeze stood at the top of new wave pop, with a sardonic yet lively voice unlike any other pop group. Paste ranked Argybargy the 20th best new wave album, calling it the band’s first truly great record and praising its cleverness, infectiousness, and underlying genuine emotion. John M. Borack placed it 58th on his list of the 200 greatest power pop albums.

Track listing

The original UK LP track listing was altered for the American release, with 'If I Didn't Love You' moved up to the first track of the second side, but the order otherwise remaining the same. The first disc includes the original album, the two bonus cuts from the 1997 reissue, and seven additional bonus tracks: 'What the Butler Saw,' 'Someone Else's Heart,' 'Pretty One,' 'Going Crazy,' 'Farfisa Beat,' 'Library Girl,' and 'If I Didn't Love You' (Glenn Tilbrook Demo). The second disc contains a concert recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon on 9 March 1980, plus a US radio commercial for the album. The concert setlist includes songs such as 'Slap and Tickle,' 'Pulling Mussels (From the Shell),' 'Another Nail in My Heart,' 'Cool for Cats,' 'Take Me I'm Yours,' 'Up the Junction,' and 'Going Crazy,' among others.