While it’s hardly unusual for a songwriter, or songwriters in this case, to revisit songs that were semi-forgotten or seemingly doomed to live forever in a dusty notebook or on some long-since obsolete hard drive (Chris and Glenn strike me as very much old school ruled notebook types). I’m sure you never know when or how inspiration will strike, and there’ll be the odd gem ripe for rediscovery. With ‘Trixies’, Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook have taken this idea to its extreme, bringing a complete album - a concept album or rock opera, if you will - written while they were in their teens, back to life. The result is a record sure to please Squeeze fans old and new.

In the years before the debut Squeeze album, the fledgling duo of Difford and Tilbrook were beavering away writing numerous songs “For the first couple of years that we were writing together, we hardly did any gigs. We were legendary amongst our friends, though. That carried us along,” Glenn remembers. As it turned out, although the songs were undeniably impressive – especially listening back now in 2026 – Chris and Glenn had to tell themselves a few home truths. As Chris puts it in the press release accompanying the album, “We rehearsed it and then recorded some demos. In doing so, we discovered it was too complicated for us to play, so we shelved it and moved on”. Moving on would result in a string of chart hits, and ‘Trixies’ would languish forgotten until 2023, when a decent version of the original tape turned up.

“These are very much the same songs that we wrote then. 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!”

— Glenn Tilbrook

Inspired by the short stories of Damon Runyon but set in a 1960s nightclub in London’s Soho (I’m picturing the Kemp brothers as the Krays), the songs don’t follow a specific narrative arc, but stay lyrically rooted in said nightclub with performers, bouncers and various punters all featured. Chris and Glenn firmly credit producer and Squeeze bassist Owen Biddle with the way the album turned out, as a member of the band who also provided an outsider's perspective on the songs and the overall theme.

And what of the actual music, you ask? Well, it’s uniformly excellent. ‘Trixies’ is guaranteed to please longstanding fans of the band. The songs and the album feel firmly rooted in the early 70s time period in which they were penned by the then teenage duo (Difford was nineteen, Tilbrook three years younger) and are in places reminiscent of the hits that would follow, a case in point is the tango-infused ‘Why Don’t You’ sounding like a precursor to future hit ‘Take Me, I’m Yours’ while ‘The Place We Call Mars’ nods at Bowie (could just be the title haha) and benefits from spiralling guitars and those trademark Difford/Tilbrook vocal harmonies. The blend of Tilbrook's clear vocals and Difford's raspy grit has always been integral to the Squeeze sound.

Chris Difford & Glenn Tilbrook (Credit Dean Chalkley)

In keeping with the 60s nightclub theme and an undercurrent of crime, a trio of tracks emphasise the dark side of relationships in and around the club with ‘Don’t Go Out In The Dark’ all swirling keys and snarling guitars and ‘Anything But Me’, a tale of crime, gambling and paying back your debts the hard way, sitting alongside the aforementioned ‘Mars’ and that’s before I even mention ‘The Dancer’ which is just so beautifully constructed musically and has a cool lyrical twist.

It’s not all dark, though, as the quite lovely melody of the opening track ‘What More Can I Say’ and the even more impressive slow build of ‘You Get The Feeling’ is an impressive one-two introduction to the record and quintessential Squeeze.

Elsewhere, we’re treated to the hardclap-driven rock n’ roll of ‘The Jaguars’ which harks back to the glam rock of Bolan and Mud, the wonderfully melancholic ‘It’s Over’ and the kitchen sink production of ‘Hell On Earth’, all stabbing keys and to die for backing vocals.

‘Trixies’ is a gem of a record, fifty years in the making. And to think that alongside this record, Chris and Glenn have an album of new material in the can, ready for release somewhere down the road. It’s shaping up to be a great time to be a fan of one of the UK's most cherished bands.