Play by Squeeze

Play, the ninth Squeeze album and the only one they made for Reprise, came out in 1991 with Tony Berg producing. It's a leaner band than before: for the first time the lineup was down to four official members, with Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook still writing the songs, Gilson Lavis on drums, and Steve Nieve sitting in on much of the keyboard work that Jools Holland used to handle.

The Difford-Tilbrook partnership is still the draw, Difford's wry, wordy, kitchen-sink lyrics riding Tilbrook's melodies, and "Satisfied" is the song that stuck with radio listeners. Tilbrook later pointed to Play as the start of the band's "renaissance period." Even the sleeve is clever: the liner notes are written as a script, stitching the lyrics into a little drama that tips its hat to Our Town and Waiting for Godot.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.