HOW DARE YOU!

How Dare You is the fourth album from 10CC. After The Original Soundtrack which proved to be a commercial breakthrough, because of the single I´m not in Love, 10CC were eager to follow up the succes and How Dare You proves to be a worthy follow up to The Original Soundtrack. In fact I think How Dare You is a better and much more entertaining album than The Original Soundtrack.

The album starts with the instrumental title track which is actually very enjoyable. It´s not because it´s complex or challenging, but more because of the melodic qualities and the superb production. Other great tracks would be I Wanna Rule the World, I'm Mandy, Fly Me, Iceberg and Art for Art's Sake. The latter with an actual hard rock riff. I´ll make sure not to forget the intricate and beautifully crafted Don't Hang Up. The feature I enjoy the most about 10CC´s music is there vocals though. Beautiful mulitlayered vocals and intricate vocal lines means that every song is quite the experience even though the basic formula is vers chorus. Commercial music like this couldn´t have survived on a prog site without intricate instrumentation though and there are lots of exciting instrumental parts. They don´t stand alone most of the time though but are generally played while the vocals dominate. One thing I shouldn´t forget when reviewing this album is the great humour that 10CC is known for. These lyrics are very cleverly written and sometimes reminds me of the biting sarcasm of Frank Zappa.

The musicianship is outstanding. Everything flows easily even though 10CC play some pretty challenging things underneath the commercial exteriour of the songs.

The production is otherworldly. 10CC simply had some of the best productions of the seventies.

How Dare You is a very good album and it actually reminds me a bit about my favorite 10CC album Sheet Music. At least it sounds closer to that one than to The Original Soundtrack IMO. I think How Dare You is an above average album and I´ll rate it 4 small stars. Recommendable to people into commercial music with a twist.