For the second straight
time I’ve rolled an album from 1977. This will be my 26th album
reviewed that was released in that year, which is interesting if you like
statistics. I think statistics are alright, but I like music better.
Disc 1344 is…Deceptive
Bends
Artist:
10cc
Year of Release: 1977
What’s up with the
Cover?
If these guys needed deep-sea diving suits to retrieve this woman, I don’t
like her chances because she is not dressed to survive the pressure down
there.
Conversely, if these two are going to a night of hot salsa dancing, it’s
the guy in the diving suit that’s going to have a difficult time of it.
How I Came to Know
It: My wife’s friend Aly
introduced me to 10cc through their 1975 record, “The Original Soundtrack”. I
liked what I heard and explored their discography from there. “Deceptive Bends”
is one of the records that made the grade.
How It Stacks Up: 10cc had 11 studio
albums, but only three made the aforementioned “grade” (which is just fancy
talk for “I liked them”). Of those three, one didn’t make the grade after all;
but I gave up on “How Dare You!” after reviewing it back at Disc 1268.
This leaves me with two records, this one and the also-aforementioned “Original
Soundtrack”. Of those two, I’m going to say “Deceptive Bends” wins by a hair to
take #1.
Ratings: 4 stars
I’m not a fan of musicals, but I think if “Deceptive
Bends” were turned into a musical I’d go, if only to see what kind of story you
would build around a record this weird and wonderful.
If anything, “Deceptive Bends” is a new era of
radio friendly pop for 10cc. It is the first record following the departure of
Godley and Crème and the remaining band members take the opportunity to take a
turn toward the mainstream…kind of.
When they want to, 10cc can write as pretty,
straightforward and memorable an AM radio earworm as you could wish for. On “Deceptive
Bends” that song is “The Things We Do for Love” which is pure sugar to
the veins. It is one catchy track. Actually, it is at least two catchy tracks.
The hook when the boys sing “the things we do for love!” is one
brilliant hook, and it is counterbalanced against a second hook where the band sings
“I’m walking in the rain and the snow/and there’s…nowhere to go.” That part
sounds totally different, but somehow connected and just as wonderful.
You can pooh pooh “The Things We Do For
Love,” and dismiss it for being saccharine radio fare (which of course it
is). Just don’t tell me you don’t like it, or that you don’t want to sing along
at the mere hint of a few bars of the chorus. That would make you a liar.
For all that, my favourite song on the record
is “Marriage Bureau Rendezvous.” It features some of 10cc’s signature
silliness, in this case revolving around a man who goes to a “marriage bureau”
to find his ideal mate. He fills out some forms and expresses a few preferences
but who ends up finding love all on his own – apparently with the civil servant
at the bureau. It is catchy and like a lot of 10cc; filled with lighthearted
romance.
Whatever songs these guys are pumping out,
they like a healthy does of prog in their pop. Most of the songs shift tempos
and tunes at least once, and often two or three times. The eleven-and-a-half-minute
epic, “Feel the Benefit” honestly advertises itself as “Parts 1, 2
and 3” but you can expect the same short musical attention span on most of
these songs.
Every hook on these songs will hold your
attention, but it won’t hold 10cc’s attention for long. They’re going to get
fidgety and move onto something else long before the song is over. It should be
annoying – occasionally it is – but mostly they’re so brilliant at their craft
that the whole Frankenstein’s monster they create ends up as a beauty. A
lumbering beauty that risks being misunderstood at every turn, but a beauty all
the same.
My biggest gripe with this record is that there
are too many kitschy songs about ordinary subjects. “You’ve Got a Cold”
is literally about having a cold. The song is about as fun as the experience it
describes. It features some killer guitar riffs but not so killer to have me
forget this is a song about blowing your nose.
“Don’t Squeeze Me Like Toothpaste” is at
least just a metaphor, but it’s a strained metaphor, not an insightful one.
The aforementioned “Feel the Benefit”
is the best and worst of 10cc. It is bloated, and it changes its mind too
often, but it is also filled with anthemic pop hooks, string flourishes that
sweep you off your feet and a message of hope and love that is hard to get
angry at. This is the big number at the end of the show where every actor comes
out and does a grand dance. Even the villains vanquished back in Act IV return,
to take a bow and twirl the heroine, as all is forgiven.
In the end I also forgave this record most of its
excesses. Even as those excesses made me roll my eyes, these pop hooks entice me
to get up and dance. Add to that some top tier musicianship and a talent for turning
the impossibly complicated into the simply pleasurable, and you end up with a record
that is sneaky good.
Best tracks: The Things We Do For Love, Marriage Bureau
Rendezvous, People in Love, Feel the Benefit
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