Cool for Cats (album) explained

Cool for Cats
Type:	Studio
Artist:	Squeeze
Cover:	Coolforcats.jpg
Recorded:	1978 and 1979
Studio:	Olympic Studios, Britannia Row Studios and Sound Techniques (London, UK)
Genre:	New wave power pop
Length:	38:12
Label:	A&M
Producer:	John Wood and Squeeze
Prev Title:	Squeeze
Prev Year:	1978
Next Title:	Argybargy
Next Year:	1980

Cool for Cats is the second studio album by the English new wave group Squeeze, released in 1979. Cool for Cats contains four UK hit singles,^[1] more than any other album the band has issued. The album peaked at number 45 in the UK Albums Chart, spending 11 weeks in that listing.^[1]

Its 1997 CD release, as part of the Six of One... box set contained two bonus tracks. This collection included the band's first six studio albums, each digitally remastered. In 1998 the six CDs were released individually. In 2007, the album was digitally remastered and released with 5 bonus tracks exclusively in Japan. Each of the 5 tracks came from B-sides from the singles released from the album.

Content

Billboard said Cool for Cats was a "hard-rocking" album with "hard-edged power pop". Alluding to the record, Steven Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described Cool for Cats as "the work of a rock & roll band [...] that lathered on the keyboards and herky-jerky rhythms".^[2]

Critical reception

In 1979, Billboard selected Cool for Cats as one of its "recommended LPs" and cited "Slap and Tickle", "Hop, Skip & Jump", "Up the Junction", and "It's So Dirty" as the album's "best cuts".^[3]

Reviewing the album in (1981), Robert Christgau wrote: "Power poppers (remember them?) suck this stuff up, and I understand why—not only does its songcraft surpass that of the band's debut, but it also isn't quite as sophomoric. It's sophomoric enough, though, and like so many such records makes you wonder where the power is. Not in the vision, that's for sure. And not in the beat. Great song: 'Up the Junction.'"^[4]

In 1995, Chris Woodstra proclaimed Cool for Cats to be a "pure pop masterpiece" in the All Music Guide to Rock.^[5]

Track listing

All songs written by Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook except "Hop, Skip & Jump", by Difford and Jools Holland.^[6]

1. "Slap and Tickle" – 4:00
2. "Revue" – 2:30
3. "Touching Me Touching You" – 2:25
4. "It's Not Cricket" – 2:35
5. "It's So Dirty" – 3:11
6. "The Knack" – 4:34
7. "Hop, Skip & Jump" – 2:46
8. "Up the Junction" – 3:12
9. "Hard to Find" – 3:37
10. "Slightly Drunk" – 2:41
11. "Goodbye Girl" – 3:08
12. "Cool for Cats" – 3:39

Bonus tracks (1997 reissue)

13. "I Must Go" – 2:16
14. "Ain't It Sad" – 3:29

Bonus tracks (2007 Japanese remaster)

(Note: These bonus tracks precede the 1997 bonus tracks on the album.)

1. "Saints Alive" – 2:30
2. "All's Well" – 2:27
3. "Christmas Day" – 3:53
4. "Going Crazy" – 3:53
5. "Blood and Guts" – 5:01

Personnel

Squeeze

• Glenn Tilbrook – keyboards, lead guitars, vocals
• Jools Holland – keyboards, vocals (7)
• Chris Difford – rhythm guitars, vocals
• Harri Kakoulli – bass
• Gilson Lavis – drums

Production and Technical

• Squeeze – producers, arrangements
• John Wood – producer, arrangements
• Brian Humphries – engineer
• Andrew Lumm – engineer
• Laurence Burrage – assistant engineer
• Michael Ross – art direction
• Geoff Halpin – original sleeve design
• Jeffrey Kent Ayeroff – artwork
• Janette Beckman – photography
• Mark Hanauer – photography
• Chuck Beeson – cover design
• Cindy Marsh – illustrations
• Glenn Tilbrook – digital remastering
• Roger Wake – digital remastering

Charts

Chart performance for Cool for Cats!Chart (1979)!Peak
position

Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)^[7]	18
UK Albums (Official Charts Company)	45

External links

• Album summary

Notes and References

1. Book: Roberts, David . 2006 . . 19th . Guinness World Records Limited . London . 1-904994-10-5 . 522/3.
2. Web site: Argybargy – Squeeze . . 25 December 2015 . Erlewine . Stephen Thomas . Stephen Thomas Erlewine.
3. Squeeze: Cool for Cats . . 91 . 16 . 21 April 1979 . 30 October 2020 . 62.
4. Book: Christgau, Robert . S . https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=S&bk=70 . 13 March 2019 . robertchristgau.com . Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies . Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies . Robert Christgau . . 1981 . 0-89919-026-X.
5. Book: All Music Guide to Rock . Woodstra . Chris . Bogdanov . Vladimir . Erlewine . Stephen Thomas . Stephen Thomas Erlewine . Backbeat Books . 3rd illustrated . 2002 . 9780879306533 .
6. Web site: Squeeze (2) - Cool For Cats . discogs . 19 May 2018.
7. Book: Kent, David. David Kent (historian) . Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 . illustrated . Australian Chart Book . St Ives, N.S.W. . 1993 . 0-646-11917-6 . 316.