10cc
Ten Out Of 10

THE REVIEW

With this album from 1981, the good and inspired season for this ingenious and very unique British pop formation came to an end. They started in the early '70s with a mix of progressive/eclectic trends and contemporary song stylings, then unexpectedly split into two distinct entities, on one side the "artists" Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, on the other the "popsters" Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart, the latter having the right to maintain the original name.

The late seventies and early eighties saw the duo of composers, singers, and multi-instrumentalists dealing with much less experimental songs, seemingly light but are only banal to a superficial listen. In reality, they are clever and very refined, in a style full of distinct personality and artisanal passion, often injected with "white" reggae (very trendy at the time, Bob Marley was dominating... Police and Madness, and many others were heavily inspired by it). After this release, there followed only three other works under the 10cc name (two in the nineties), all rather weak and below their standard: chronologically, this should be considered their last production measuring up to their talent, except of course for possible differing viewpoints.

Stewart, the one on the cover not suffering from vertigo and calmly reading the newspaper on the skyscraper ledge, is essentially a guitarist... a good, fluid, and precise soloist, although when he composes he prefers to sit at the piano, preferably electric. His voice is smooth and soft, his inspiration decidedly Beatlesque, in search of unusual and whimsical harmonic progressions. He is the Paul McCartney of the duo, to evoke the main source of inspiration (for 10cc as well as for thousands of other established realities, to be clear).

Gouldman, on the other hand, the one who doesn’t take it very well being up there on the ledge and looks down worriedly, could be considered the Lennon of the situation, despite the fact that his main instrument is the bass. He composes on the guitar, has a more ironic and distinctive voice, uses fewer chords but focuses more on the originality of the lyrics and is less syrupy, more acidic and rhythmic. For those who didn’t know, he's an old ace of English pop, having started very young to write hits for the Yardbirds, Hollies, Herman's Hermits, Cher, Jeff Beck, and other great artists from the London beat scene of the sixties.

All ten songs are exquisite little gems in terms of arrangement, rich in percussion, vocal overdubs, guitars, and keyboards creating pads of clear pop inspiration. Not that the album is a masterpiece not to be missed... there are several minor, not very incisive episodes; 10cc had managed to do better in the past, especially when there were four "creatives" boosting the project. To appreciate them properly, you need to have a taste for the 'canzonetta', understood in its best meaning..., in the sense that even "Hey Jude" is a 'canzonetta', even "Whiter Shade Of Pale", but no one would dream of dismissing them as such!

The best on the album appear to me to be "Don't Turn Me Away", composed entirely by Stewart and interpreted by him, enveloped in a warm and bell-like carpet of Fender Rhodes electric piano. Then "Les Nouveaux Riches", again by Stewart, a deadly, communicative, and very cheerful white reggae, energized by a competent Caribbean percussion festival, highly reminiscent of the previous, great success "Dreadlock Holidays" from a 1978 album of theirs. Gouldman’s best are "Action Man In A Motown Suit" with a funny descending chorus, and especially the gripping final mini-suite "Survivor", a collage of very different melodies and atmospheres a bit, or rather a lot in the manner of the medley on "Abbey Road" (but much more contained... we’re talking about less than six minutes overall and three main themes, not a dozen as in the case of the famous exploit of the dying Beatles).