SHEET MUSIC

So we travel further to 1974, today fourty-one years ago, when the English art rock band 10cc released their second record which name was "Sheet music". As a Swedish listener my first thougth of the name was "skitmusik"(Crap music) but fortunately this is the totally opposition to that. This music is printed and to our amusement also recorded. The second album with the traditional formation: Eric Stewart, Graham Gouldman, Kevin Godley & Lol Creme implied a perfection and refining of their performances. Now 10cc had washed away the hint of parody in the music and the humour, still as present as before, could even more go along with the craftsmanship of 10cc.

The cover is yellow and has a great design but as a listener you of course want to get straight into the music. Sheet Music provides you a perfect mixture of songs. The harmony and the playfulness is so rich all the time. "Wall Street Shuffle"(10/10) is a perfect beginning and it was a hit song too. Almost the whole record is as good as it could be. "Hotel" (10/10) is a totally lovely piece which begins very soft and then hurries up to a really happy time. "Clockwork Creep"(10/10) is an artistic and very funny piece with a lot of styles mixed and different parts. Even if it's a short song it is arranged like an epic. Parts of it will return later in 10cc's discography. "Somewhere in Hollywood" which is the album's longest track (10/10) is also one of the best. It is a soft and very harmonic ballad. Along with these some other tracks are close to perfection: "Old Wild Men"(9/10), "Silly love"(9/10) and "Baron Samedi"(9/10) are marvelous tracks. The last of these just mentioned is a bit funny because I have recently seen "Live an let die"(Bond) where one of the evil guys was the character Baron Samedi. "The worst band in the world" and "The Sacro-Illiac"(8/10) are very fine pieces too.

This record, as even and perfected it is should be heard as a whole and not cut into pieces. It hosts some tracks that could be hits or chosen parts but it it best if you hear the full album at one occation. As early as with their second record 10cc was at their peak and made lovely music, accessible for usual radio listeners but also for people who want something more from music. My rating ends at 4.6 which makes it a five star record. Highly recommended!