In the Seventies, they didn’t come any better than 10cc. Along with Electric Light Orchestra and Harry Nilsson, 10cc set the standard for ambitious studio pop in the post-Beatles landscape. From 1972 through 1978, 10cc was a top 10 hit machine: “Rubber Bullets,” “I’m Not In Love,” “The Things We Do For Love,” “Dreadlock Holiday.”…
A satiric sense of humor and a keen sense of melody collide on 10cc’s classic debut album.
Kronomyth 2.0: 10cc GETS THEIR SHEET TOGETHER. This might be the most perfect piece of plastic pop in the universe. It might also just be a brilliant record from a brilliant band; I suppose there’s some wiggle room there. Unfortunately, 10cc never released an album so good as Sheet Music again. Of course, Paul McCartney…
Kronomyth 3.0: ENNUI IN PARIS. One hour with 10cc is like a day with any other band. So many different avenues are taken on The Original Soundtrack: languid ballads, crank rock and loopy stories. The result is indigestion of the senses. “Une Nuit A Paris” and “Brand New Day” are the sort of wanky stuff…
A small snack between records as the band bites the hand that feeds them.
The last album from the fab foursome before Godley and Creme left to make art for its own sake.
I’ve always heard this as a pale successor to “The Things We Do For Love.” THAT song was a roller-coaster ride; this is more of a swan ride. Still it’s a lovely track, fit if not for a king than at least one PM I know. Like most of their singles, the B side is…
The last of the melodic money shots, if their next album is any indication. 10cc had swelled to a sextet following their last tour, though the focus remains the sharp songwriting of Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart. Bloody Tourists isn’t the adventurous 10cc of old, having settled into a kind of Kinks/Wings pop quirkiness since…
Kronomyth 7.1: DREADFULLY FUNNY. I read on the Internet (probably Songfacts) that this song was inspired by an incident that happened while Graham Gouldman and Justin Hayward (of The Moody Blues) were on holiday in Barbados. This would probably be considered racist today; ah, for the 70’s, when we all had longer hair and thicker…
Look Hear? is another unpredictable delight. Oh, wait, I must have fallen asleep face down on the Warner Bros. promotional insert again. Said insert also claims that this is the first album from the new lineup, a distinction that actually belongs to Bloody Tourists. And did you know that Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman wrote…
Kronomyth 9.1: INCONSEQUENCES. This soft, fluffy ballad was floated as the first single from Look Hear? and promptly disappeared from the airwaves. It’s not an awful song, in the same vein as “People In Love” and “For You And I,” both of which were a blanching of something that used to be so colorful. As…
Kronomyth 14.0: THE THINGS THEY DO FOR CASH. Shenanikanz the Klown and I are being shaken down for money by the Mercury agents while the LoveMeHateMe Dolls behind them coo “kiss me, cut me” like sirens and I’m reminded of how mercurial this gig can be sometimes, especially when the people who already spent what…
The soundtrack to the sequel to the sound of me pretending to sleep.