THE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK

This is a worthy followup to "Sheet Music" in fact it feels like they have become even more adventerous even though I still prefer "Sheet Music". "The Original Soundtrack" was released in 1975 and featured maybe my favourite ballad called "I'm Not In Love". This is a band who could write great lyrics and this song can certainly boast about that. The atmosphere, electric piano but those words. Nothing else the band did sounds like this and certainly not on this record.

Two of my biggest "take aways" in checking out 10CC's music was one, just how much humour there is in it. I mean I thought of Zappa a lot when I checked out "Sheet Music" but there's less of that Zappa sound here. The other thing that surprised me was how much the vocals and arrangements screamed QUEEN. Contemporaries all the way so it's interesting. That QUEEN flavour that was on "Sheet Music" is blown up here, it's all over "The Original Soundtrack". They are an interesting parallel QUEEN and 10CC with of course one being more Rock and the other more Pop, but I'm betting if you were a fan of one, you were a fan of the other.

"I'm Not In Love" is the outstanding track on here, I'm not huge on anything else including the opener that sounds so much like QUEEN and I've just never been the biggest QUEEN fan. The piano and harmonies bring them to mind and this does get theatrical including some silliness. Oh man disco came to mind with "Blackmail" no thanks, and while I like track four, the lyrics not so much. Sugary vocals on "Brand New Day" and QUEEN-like harmonies. "Life Is A Minestrone" is fun and the closer "The Film Of My Love" is all about the nostalgia. My parents might have liked this one.

I'm already looking forward to spending time with their next record to see how they developed or changed. Such a talented band.