SQUEEZE
Trixies (BMG)
Bet you didn’t have a contender for album of the year from Squeeze on your 2026 bingo card. In fact, bingo is probably something that went on in Trixies – the titular nightclub upon which this whole album is based. Just to confirm, it is a concept album about an imaginary nightclub – one written back in the early 1970s, before Glen Tilbrook and Chris Difford became the enduringly popular missing link between Lennon & McCartney and Chas & Dave.
Despite this, it exudes maturity, banging tunes, and ranks among the storied band’s best work. This unearthed collection of polished-up and reworked pre-fame one-time demos paint a picture of an imaginary nocturnal world, spanning a myriad of ne’er-do-wells, rogues, rapscallions and bounders. It’s lush, immersive and truly singular: think early-period Elton John, definitely early Bowie, and the acceptable Englishness of The Kinks’ Village Green Preservation Society or Arthur. As Tilbrook croons in the opening track, “Trixies is alright”. In fact, it’s much more than alright.
words JAMES W ROBERTS
