Customer Reviews

MEANWHILE

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Kevin Godley and Lol Creme of the original 10cc lineup left the band in 1976 after 4 albums, leaving Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman as the two remaining original members, and after 1983's "Windows In The Jungle", 10cc disbanded altogether.

With "...Meanwhile" from May of 1992, the full original 10cc lineup returned... sort of. Yes, all four of the original members are on here, but it's actually rather misleading to call it a full-blown reunion. It's more accurate to say that "Meanwhile" is a reunion of Stewart & Gouldman with Godley & Creme essentially playing the role of special guests opposed to fully integrated band members, because apart from an additional co-write from Paul McCartney on "Don't Break the Promises", all of the songwriting is credited to the Stewart/ Gouldman team, plus aside from Kevin Godley's lead vocal on "The Stars Didn't Show", Godley & Creme's performance credits are limited to background vocals, and there are 4 tracks on which neither of them even appear.

Interestingly, legendary drummer Jeff Porcaro, who died the same year this album was released, is on every track here, and his Toto bandmate David Paich also appears on 4 tracks.

Quite surprisingly, guitar god Eric Stewart plays keyboard on most of the tracks but does NOT play any guitar at all on 7 of the 10 tracks here. The lead guitar work is often from ace session guitarist Michael Landau, perhaps because the group was going for 'something different'.

"Meanwhile" was produced by Gary Katz, who had produced all of Steely Dan's albums up to that time, with additional production by 10cc, and the album does have a 'modernized' production gloss.

Ultimately though, like 1983's "Windows In the Jungle", "Meanwhile" feels more like Stewart's baby than anyone else's. Although you can certainly detect Gouldman's influence here and there, track upon track feels distinctly Stewart-ish, both musically & lyrically, and aside from the aforementioned "The Stars Didn't Show", he does all the lead vocals, and he's in glorious peak form vocally throughout. I wouldn't be surprised if on certain tracks Graham contributed extremely little, if anything, to the songwriting--for instance, "Don't Break The Promises" was intended to be on a 1987 album from Paul McCartney called "Return To Pepperland" which was never released, and the song was originally credited to just Stewart & McCartney.

Yes, I realize that Stewart has expressed his regret over having Gary Katz produce. Yes, I realize that this album has been accused of being way overproduced. And yes, I wouldn't doubt that Stewart and Gouldman's decision to record as 10cc again was largely persuaded by financial considerations.

Nevertheless, Stewart's sheer genius is in full force once again, resulting in a phenomenal 'comeback'.

I'll admit there are some problems here. The album has a somewhat awkward flow--it SORT OF feels as though Stewart was afraid of making an album that was too serious (with a capital 'S') because he didn't want people to criticise him for being too heavy-handed. This would help explain how "Something Special" ended up on the album--it's not BAD, and it does have excellent piano playing from Dr. John, but it's the weakest track here, with its jokey vibe & annoying lyrics.

Still, the album is generally terrific with a number of tracks that are so incredibly great, they alone make this a hands-down must have for any fan. The somewhat playful 6+ minute album opener "Woman In Love" is a blissful, elaborate, and brilliantly crafted pop-rocker additionally punctuated by Stewart's thrilling slide guitar playing, not to mention the incredibly witty, fun 'love' lyrics. Following this is the uplifting "Wonderland" which is gorgeously tuneful and supremely bittersweet. There's also the wonderfully melodic, reggae-fied "Welcome To Paradise", a powerful cautionary tale warning us never to be too greedy. And the ideal album closing ballad "Don't Break The Promises" is absolutely spellbinding--it's got masterful chord changes including a breathtaking modulation on the soaring bridge, a heavenly melody, a heart-wrenching Stewart vocal, absolutely brilliant note-perfect lead guitar work from Landau, sparkling acoustic guitar from Gouldman, and elegant lyrics about always sticking together through thick and thin--it's one of the most emotionally moving songs ever recorded.

There's more greatness to be found as well--"Green Eyed Monster" is captivatingly creepy with a terrific minor-keyed melody; and the uptempo confessional "Shine A Light In The Dark" has some haunting melodicism and a pleading, cathartic chorus.

"The Stars Didn't Show" is, once again, excellently melodic, and it's also tender & touching, though the version of it here is kind of overdone and isn't as effective as the one that later turned up on the bonus CD for Eric Stewart's 2003 album "Do Not Bend".

In addition to "Something Special", two other tracks feature Dr. John--"Fill Her Up", with its cartoonish lyrical imagery, is a fun, bluesy song that strongly recalls "Shock On the Tube" both melodically & with Stewart's from-the-gut vocals; and "Charity Begins At Home" has a surging sing-along chorus, plus social commentary that's right on the money.

Again in similar fashion to "Windows...", a great track from the "Meanwhile" period was left off the album--"Man With A Mission"--the b-side to vinyl and CD versions of the "Woman In Love" single. It's kind of a shame that "Something Special" made the album and yet not "...Mission".

In closing, with such staggering high points and such a high quality level overall, "...Meanwhile" is essential. Never even released in the US, it's yet another in a long line of criminally underrated/ overlooked albums from 10cc.

Just an update. This CD has been re-released by UK's 7T's Cherry Red label
With 5 bonus tracks. I got mine from Cd Imports in Irvine Ca. They cell on this site. So go get it.

With some simple hand gesturing and going through the motions, the band known as 10cc died with the release of this album.

This album was created out of contractual agreements, bad producing decisions and the least amount of contribution by one of it's original members since Sir Anthony Hopkins' 16 minute Oscar work for "Silence of The Lambs."

Listening to this album, which clocks in at a quick 54 minutes and 10 tracks, reminds me of a bit of Sting's 90's solo efforts with a touch of Phil Collins and a dash of Peter Gabriel. A few of the songs are a bit introspective, subtle, rich and will be a treat for your ears. The rest are horrible abortive projects that should have stayed in someone's writing satchel.

The shame of it is why the album was created and the what the results were.

Kevin Godley and Lol Creme had a contractual agreement with Polydor for one last album and they decided that they didn't need the albatross tied around their necks any longer. After contacting Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman, the album was begun in earnest in late 1991.

Sadly, a combination of the "band"'s usage of a new producer and utilizing many other artists to help create the sound for their album shows it's lack of cohesiveness.

Here's 10 songs, and here's my 10 second review of them:

1. "Woman in Love" - Six minutes of light radio filler - who decided this would be a hit of any sort? Even for 1992 this sounds overproduced.
2. "Wonderland" - A bit of light fun, once again a total 1992 experience, which says something here - ugh, I really did not like this song - it's like overcranked Jimmy Buffett lyrics and lite jazz flavored ice cream. Bleah.
3. "Fill Her Up" - A kind of rocker - still, it's so syrupy lite I'm getting a toothache!
4. "Something Special" - Despite the wonderful piano of Dr. John, it's boring, the lyrics right out of some amateur's songbook. There's no life in this song at all... yet it segues right into...
5. "Welcome to Paradise" - one of the stronger songs of the album, and it has a cool reggae-scented sound, and is one of the only songs I listened to a second time to be sure I liked it as much as I did when I heard it the first time - yup, it's decent.
6. "The Stars Didn't Show" - Kevin Godley has even publically noted that his vocals here (and backing tracks on two other songs) were the only contribution to this entire album, and sadly it shows... and I liked this song a bit, and I wonder who the mystery "man in black" is here they're crooning about, but it's a short balld of sorts that doesn't go beyond repeating the chorus more than the lyrics...
7. "Green Eyed Monster" - this is the closest that 10cc sounds like the 10cc of old - staccato harmoious lyrics firing over decent music... too bad too sad for them, though.
8. "Charity Begins at Home" - another small glimpse of 10cc breaks through the endless echoes and layering of music, but once again, too little too late.
9. "Shine a Light in the Dark" - The harmonies are wonderful, but what they're singing is stinky, and the music is dull and uninspiring, and it sounds EXACTLY like Chicago's late 80's/early 90's sound, with their middle of the road boring music so hypnotizing you could play it for your 18 month old child and they'd get a good nap in.
10. "Don't Break the Promises" - here's a interesting bit of trivia: this song was written by Paul McCartney & Eric Stewart (he'd been working with him for several years prior to this) and I think this was tacked on to appease Stewart and give the album a bit of A-list credibility - Graham Gouldman was also given a bit of writing credit, too - but it falls apart under the crushing weight of overproduction and moderate to extremely dull song performance - it's a shame, too, because I think this might have had a chance, somewhere.

So I listened to 10cc's album, and immediately gave it away to a friend. I'm just hopeful my friend doesn't hate me for giving them such painfully underperformed straight-from-the-songbook-by-the-numbers material.

I have to give it two stars only because I really don't want to give them one, yet this really shows me that the power of money can kill creativity in a heartbeat. I feel bad for these four guys, because they created one of the greatest songs ever off one of the great albums ever, but this?

This is an exercise in what not to do, especially when you all haven't been in a room together for the last 10 years and then decide to try and cohesively create something again that probably will never return once they left the room.

The result - like this album - will be sloppy overly-created garbage.

Do yourself a favor and pass on this one.

Please check out my other reviews of less painful music. Thanks for reading!