Sweets From a Stranger
SQUEEZE
(A&M)

While East Side Story ('81) and Argybargy ('80) boast more cachet within the Squeeze canon, I have a special fondness for this one. It may not have as many home-run songs, but Sweets from a Stranger cuts a broad swath within the British band's infectious amalgam of power-pop, blue-eyed soul and New Wave. "Black Coffee in Bed" is the full-on grabber, but the LP also includes a smoldering torch ballad ("When the Hangover Strikes") and a rousing pop gem with Spector-esque production ("Tongue Like a Knife"). Glenn Tilbrook is one of the best singers of the era, and his interplay with low-voiced Chris Difford forms inimitable sweet-and-sour harmonies.

This article appears in Feb 20-26, 2008.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...