Band’s first album in eight years was written when Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook were teenagers
Squeeze announce the release of new album Trixies – the record that could have been Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook’s first…
When it comes to storytelling, very few pop groups have done it as well as Squeeze. But even the group’s songwriting mainstays Difford and Tilbrook would be hard pushed to devise a plot twist like the one that has resulted in Trixies, their first album in eight years but the first they ever wrote.
Before the sky-high classics such as Up The Junction, Tempted, Cool For Cats, Another Nail In My Heart, Labelled With Love and the world tours and festival highlight sets, there was Trixies. Written by the teenage Difford (19) and Tilbrook (16), the songs are a collection of stories set in a fictional night club, Trixies. The only problem with these songs was that, back in 1974, the musical vision of the young creators exceeded their virtuosity.
“We fully committed ourselves to songwriting but this was three or four years before we even got to make our first record. Long story short, these were songs that we just didn’t have enough musical experience to record properly,” explains Difford.
Fifty years on, and having rediscovered the original cassette, that problem no longer exists for the band…
Listen to Trixies (Part One) below:
Creative Partnership
“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,” says Tilbrook, “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!”
By returning Difford and Tilbrook to the birth of their creative partnership, Trixies has acted as the catalyst to a latter-day songwriting surge. On the heels of Trixies, an album of brand new Squeeze songs – recorded concurrently with Trixies – is finished and set to follow in the future.
“The act of revisiting the Trixies songs had me in tears,” smiles Tilbrook, “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.”
The sentiments are echoed by 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.”
Trixies Tracklisting:
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)
Trixies is released on 6 March 2026 via BMG and will be available on black vinyl, transparent pink vinyl, transparent red vinyl, CD and Deluxe CD. Pre-order here
Featured image credit: Dean Chalkley
Read More: Squeeze – the stories behind the songs
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