{"id":534,"date":"2011-06-10T05:08:29","date_gmt":"2011-06-10T10:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=534"},"modified":"2026-05-25T11:12:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T15:12:43","slug":"album-review-chris-difford-cashmere-if-you-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2011\/06\/10\/album-review-chris-difford-cashmere-if-you-can\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Chris Difford – Cashmere if You Can"},"content":{"rendered":"

While there is no evidence and not a single reason to think it true, Cashmere if You Can<\/em> from former Squeeze<\/strong> co-frontman Chris Difford<\/strong> feels like a songwriter\u2019s look back near the end of his life. The songs \u2013 all cowritten by Difford with either Boo Hewerdine<\/strong> or Leo Abrahams<\/strong> \u2013 all deal in one way or another — sometimes directly, other times obliquely — with life from the perspective of someone who\u2019s lived <\/em>it.<\/p>\n

There are looks back at wasted and\/or misspent youth, like \u201c1975\u201d and \u201cWrecked,\u201d but even when Difford sings about his formerly wicked ways, he does so with a smile. It\u2019s the smile of someone who\u2019s lived to tell the tale. The music is upbeat when it needs to be, as in \u201cLike I Did,\u201d which observes, \u201cIt\u2019s funny how your kids turn into you.\u201d When Difford sings of the wheels turning a few degrees, it\u2019s difficult to avoid thinking of another album that took a look at adult life: Double Fantasy<\/em>. Of course there\u2019s no musical Yoko Ono<\/strong> to Chris\u2019 John Lennon<\/strong> here (that would be Glenn Tilbrook<\/strong>, one guesses), but with tunes as sturdy as these, Difford needs no foil.<\/p>\n

The arrangements are intimate and expansive at once; the instrumentation is straightforward yet playfully inventive. But the showcase here is Difford\u2019s singing of his lyrics. The shimmering “The Still & the Sparkling\u201d is a gem among many. \u201cBack in the Day\u201d is a Brit-country shuffle with hints of Aztec Camera<\/strong>, and yet another winning lyric. On \u201cSidney Street\u201d Difford and his players strike a musical pose quite similar to The Milk & Honey Band<\/strong>, wedding it to a heartfelt lyric about Difford\u2019s dad going to war (and, thankfully, coming back).<\/p>\n

Difford rocks it out and revives his trademark gravelly vocal delivery for \u201cCottontops.\u201d A Duane Eddy<\/strong> buzzy twang is coupled with a subtle Merseybeat feel, a bit of psychedelic guitar and some modern grunge; he hits all the good points on this one. \u201cUpgrade Me\u201d mines a Parisian vibe (Difford currently resides in the City of Light, so he comes by the sound honestly).<\/p>\n

Disco-funk of a decidedly Flight of the Conchords<\/strong> bent is the chosen style on \u201cPassion Killer.\u201d This song tackles a situation familiar to couples of a certain age: finding \u201cadult time\u201d in a house populated with younger ones. It\u2019s clever songwriting in the very best sense of that term.<\/p>\n

A couple of lyrical themes crop up over and over on Cashmere If You Can<\/em>; more than a couple of times Difford worries about being ignored. Do him — and yourself — a favor and do not ignore this record. Cashmere if You Can<\/em> is pop music for adults. If you\u2019re one of those, get one of these.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While there is no evidence and not a single reason to think it true, Cashmere if You Can from former Squeeze co-frontman Chris Difford feels like a songwriter\u2019s look back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31585,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534\/revisions\/31585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}