Just as the
Squeeze reunion picked up steam,
Glenn Tilbrook issued
Pandemonium Ensues, a spirited pop album that stands in direct contrast to his former and future partner
Chris Difford's wry, low-key
The Last Temptation of Chris. The title's a giveaway:
Tilbrook is out to wreak a little havoc, perhaps not as lewdly as he did last time around, when his good times flirted with pornography and barrels of booze. No, this time things are a little more pulled together, if not exactly streamlined, reveling in their ragged loose ends and missed connections. At first, it doesn't seem like
Pandemonium is quite so loose as it opens with a bracing dose of pop, but things soon get a little odd, first as
Glenn turns the microphone over to Fluffer bassist Lucy Shaw to sing lead on the first of two songs, then later by bringing in
Vanessa Paradis for "Interest & Love" and then her husband Johnny Depp for the spacy
Joe Meek homage of the closer, "Too Close to the Sun." While this makes the album a little odd, even lopsided, it does give
Pandemonium Ensues considerable charm: it's not as woolly as his last album, but it's warmer and funnier, a party that wraps up at midnight instead of 3 A.M.. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine