Two great Godley & Creme albums
Wayne Klein | My Little Blue Window, USA | 08/02/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"If Godley & Creme had never made another record after they spilt from 10cc, they'd still have made a huge impact. "Freeze Frame" is one of their best most consistent album mixing the melodic approach on "Consequences" with the unusual arrangements seen on "L". The title track along with "I Pity Inanimated Objects" percolating beat at the heart of "An Englishman in New York" and "Brazilia" (featuring Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera)are all stand out tracks. What's more important, though, is the inclusion of the bonus tracks here. Some of them are little more than an excuse to experiment while other such as "Submarine" and "Wideboy" could easily have been included on one of their albums. Both of these tracks along with the rest of the bonus tracks on disc one were only available on CD before as part of the "Images" best of compilation.
The album "Ismism" aka "Snack Attack" features one of the duo's best and most popular tracks (outside of "Cry"). "Wedding Bells" has a soulful and powerful vocal from Kevin Godley. Once again many of the bonus tracks compare to their best work including the underrated and witty "Power Behind the Throne". The remastering for both albums is very good. I just wish that the 10cc back catalog had been treated with as much care particularly the stuff remastered by Roger Wake for the reissued Polygram CDs. Unfortunately, some of these (such as "Bloody Tourists") were botched during the mastering process.
Just a warning, the last bonus track on "Ismism" is the single edit of "An Englishman in New York" and "Submarine" is the instrumental version of "The Power Behind the Throne.""
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1