Squeeze - Piccadilly Collection (1996)

It bills itself as a greatest hits compilation, but Piccadilly Collection doesn't quite fit that description. Granted, the 18-track disc features some of Squeeze's biggest hits -- including "Tempted," "Black Coffee In Bed," "Pulling Mussels (From a Shell)," and "Hourglass" -- but the majority of the album consists of songs that will be totally unfamiliar to casual fans. Aside from that handful of hits, Piccadilly Collection alternates between album tracks from latter-day Squeeze albums like Frank and Some Fantastic Place, and B-sides that have never before appeared on compact disc. Certainly, dedicated fans will be delighted to have the B-sides on CD, but they would have been better served by a full-fledged rarities collection. Similarly, casual fans would have been better served by a straight singles collection, or a more thorough retrospective -- even though this features 18 tracks, it short-changes all of the group's early records, including such classic new wave albums as Cool for Cats, Argybargy and East Side Story, in favor of the interminable medley "Squabs on Forty Fab." That said, apart from "Squabs on Forty Fab," there's no weak tracks here, and it all adds up to an entertaining listen, even if its very existence is a little puzzling.