Between bookending tracks Why Is The Lion?/Bride Of The Lion, reflections on modern fars both, (Everybody's Got A) Friend Named Joe and Vietnam Sunshine meditate gracefully and playfully on friendship and commitment. Spare settings offer breathing room, with strings, sax, flute and more colouring in the songs' fringes. [Mar 2026, p.103]
Sometimes predictably frustrating, sometimes pleasingly fresh, Make-up Is A Lie is a reminder that Morrissey probably couldn’t stop at this stage of the game, much less change. [Mar 2026, p.100]
Trixie’s bears many of the hallmarks the group would, a few years later, become celebrated for. Several hooks and melodies offer up the kind of earworms that helped establish Squeeze as one of the UK’s most dependable and radio-friendly singles bands, and there is already an astonishing maturity to Difford’s lyrics, often taking the form of poignant character studies. [Feb 2026, p.98]
These shoegaze lovers from Philadelphia pick up where they left off with their first record in five years. Nothing excel at dynamics. [Mar 2026, p.105]
