DECEPTIVE BENDS

"Deceptive Bends" is the 5th full-length studio album by UK art pop/rock act 10cc. The album was released through Mercury Records in May 1977. There´s been a major lineup change since "How Dare You (1976)" as Lol Creme and Kevin Godley have jumped ship to pursue other interests (one of them was the invention of the Gizmo guitar device. Another was the Godley & Creme project). The remaining members Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman opted to continue with the band and recruited studio musicians to fill out the roles they couldn´t do themselves (most notably the drums). So this is a defining moment in the band´s history with now only half of the original lineup left.

The music on the album is unmistakably the sound of 10cc though. Lineup changes or not. High quality art pop/rock with lots of clever musical twists and great tongue in cheek humour. To my ears very little has changed and the two remaining members easily fill the roles of the two that left. The vocals are skillfully performed as always (with great harmonies and choirs) and the sound production is nothing short of fantastic. "Deceptive Bends" is an organic, detailed, and overall very well sounding album.

As mentioned above the material are generally of high quality and tracks like the opening "Good Morning Judge", the funny "Marriage Bureau Rendezvous", the even more amusing "Honeymoon With B Troop", the slightly progressive 11:31 minutes long "Feel the Benefit, Pt. 1-3" (where part 1 and 3 remind me very much of Barclay James Harvest) and of course the pop hit tunes "The Things We Do for Love" and "People in Love", are among the highlights on the album. The two latter mentioned are obviously written to have mainstream appeal but as always 10cc manage to arrange and perform tracks in that vein in such a clever and professional manner, that people listening to music a bit more closely than the all consuming mainstream radio listener, should also be able to find intriguing details here.

10cc have overall produced another high quality release with "Deceptive Bends". One of their greatest assets in addition to their high level musicianship and production skills, is their clever and sometimes rather naughty tongue in cheek humour (which is at times comparable to the Frank Zappa ditto), and that side of their style works really well on this album. Put into a commercial pop/rock formula it´s extremely charming. While "Deceptive Bends" is probably their last really great album, it often isn´t as lauded as their four preceeding releases, which is a real shame, because to my ears it´s as high class as anything released before it. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.