Still tempted By Dean Essner

“We start recording when we get back from this tour,” Tilbrook said.

Squeeze has always been a detail-oriented band. Its lyrics ponder the utter banalities of everyday life, whether it’s “the billboards and the buildings” of new wave hit “[[Tempted]]” or the java stain that disrupts the narrator’s humdrum thoughts in “[[Black Coffee In Bed]].”
More than 30 years removed from its three-record apex — stretching from [[Cool For Cats]] to East Side Story — this attention to detail remains, living on through the painstaking process of making today sound exactly like the 1980s.
“Every tour we’ve done we’ve been very meticulous with rehearsing the songs and not taking them for granted,” said lead singer and guitarist Glenn Tilbrook. “I think that Squeeze got a little complacent in the ’90s, particularly. We didn’t know it, but once you play the songs so many times, you think you don’t need to rehearse. But you do.”
The current lineup, which features other premier songwriter Chris Difford, will take its newly discovered hunger for perfection to a sold-out Rams Head Live in Baltimore tomorrow, a concert that will showcase its long pop career.
But the rejuvenation doesn’t halt there. Also in the works is a new record, which Tilbrook plans to record using fresh, spontaneous studio techniques.
“We start recording when we get back from this tour,” Tilbrook said. “I’m adopting a different approach with this record. It’s an old-school way, minimal overdubs. It’s like, here’s the song, let’s try it this way, let’s try it that way, let’s go for another take. It’ll be how we interpret the songs on the day.”
In terms of tomorrow’s show, though, expect the classics, of course, as well as some serious rarities such as “[[Points of View]]” from 1982’s Sweets From a Stranger and “[[Melody Motel]]” from 1989’s Frank.
“We’re going deep into our catalogue,” Tilbrook said. “We’re playing some songs that we’ve never played live before, and I think so far people have really enjoyed that.”
In the end, seeing Squeeze in 2012 may be an inevitable trip through the London band’s finest new wave stylings. However, it’s comforting to know that even with such a glorious past, it still feels the need to remain sonically restless and, inadvertently therefore, culturally relevant in today’s music society.
Squeeze will perform at Rams Head Live tomorrow. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are sold out.