The Last Temptation of Chris

"Difford is on peak form here" and "the best recordings in years out of a national treasure"

"Difford's eye for detail is as impressive as during Squeeze's golden years"

"Come On Down" boasts more monochrome detail than a Sillitoe novel"

"Never Coming Back, surely the finest Kinks song Ray Davies never wrote

One of the UK's most well loved and respected songwriters, Chris Difford, releases his first new studio album in five years, The Last Temptation Of Chris - through Stiff Records on Monday 7th April 2008.

Difford first came to prominence as founding member and one-half of the songwriting team behind Squeeze who were responsible for some of the most-loved music of the last thirty years, with songs such as Tempted, Up the Junction, Cool for Cats and Black Coffee in Bed.

The Last Temptation Of Chris is Difford's first album of new songs in five years and was co-written with renowned songwriter Boo Hewerdine. In true Difford style the songs tackle a wide array of subjects including being a good father, vasectomy reversal, and money - all subjects he knows very little about and was engineered by John Wood (Nick Drake / engineered the early Squeeze albums). The album sees Difford on top form, painting his trademark lyrical pictures in vivid detail. Expect elaborate, honest and evocative storytelling in a unique and deeply moving way.

`The Last Temptation Of Chris' is Difford's follow-up to his widely admired solo debut of late 2002, `I Didn't Get Where I Am.' It expands on that record's delightfully intimate writing style, this time in the company of another master craftsman, Boo Hewerdine, who co-wrote and produced the new album.

"It's an extension of the first album, which I did with Francis Dunnery," he says. "The idea was to carry on where I left off. Thankfully I met Boo and he guided me, he writes such beautiful melodies. He used to come to my house every day with a different batch of melodies, and before we knew where we were, we had an album. It's lovely to create something as intimate and warm as this with someone like Boo."

Recorded in Brighton and Eastbourne, the album also maintains a natural ambience. The first recordings weren't broken, so why fix them? "If you like what you're doing and what you're hearing, there's no reason to go back over it and keep turning it upside down," says Chris. "Writing in the same room as people gets the job done quicker. Most of these songs were written with Boo between 11 o'clock in the morning and 3 in the afternoon, they were done very spontaneously, and when we got to record them, the tracks captured that too."

The album's first single is `Fat As A Fiddle,' described by Difford as "just a fun song about putting on weight as you get older, and gravity taking over your body." It's typical of his ability to click the shutter and capture snapshots of his life that have a believable, everyman appeal just like that of Tony Hancock, on whom the album artwork is modelled.

"I think the songs are pretty honest. I don't think you really want to hide anything, because there are a lot of people out there who can see some kind of relevance in the lyrics and a reflection of their own lives. The best thing about making a record is that you can wear your heart on your sleeve and talk about your life.

"It's like writing a biography, you're telling people what's going on in your life at any point in time. if you go back through the Squeeze albums you'll see the same kind of thing, it was a reflection of where we were. If I go back to the `Cool For Cats' album, some of the juvenile lyrics on there very much sum up the kind of life I was living. If you head forward to the `East Side Story' stuff, you've got reflections on an early marriage. Now if you look at my solo albums, they're reflecting where I am now."

That said, Difford can still conjure an image like `My Mother's Handbag' and place himself, and us, right back in his childhood in Greenwich at the turn of the 1960s. "There's a lot of that on the first album, less of it on this one," he says. "But that's a very black-and-white world that I still venture into and it's a very comfortable place to be. It makes me feel warm when I think about those times."

There's room enough for more work with Squeeze in the months and years ahead, but Chris Difford didn't get where he is today without exploring and expanding his individuality. Now the road beckons, and more welcomingly than was once the case.

"I enjoy playing live when I'm in control of it. When you're young, you get chucked in the back of a transit van and you wake up somewhere else. Those times have changed and I'm really thankful they have."

We'll see him on the road. Meanwhile, `The Last Temptation Of Chris' is one we can all succumb to.

If you're a fan of British pop music, Chris Difford needs no introduction. But here's one anyway. As one-half of the songwriting team behind Squeeze, he's responsible for of some of the most-loved music of the early 80s: albums such as Cool For Cats, Argybargy, East Side Story were best sellers in the U.K. and were favourites in American too. Trouser Press lauded their finely etched pop music, notable for it's witty humour, variety and freshness, while the Rolling Stone Record Guide was impressed by the songs deft combination of melody and characterization.

He hasn't been resting on his laurels since those albums. A much sought after songwriter, he's collaborated on songs with stars such as Elton John and Bryan Ferry, legendary Motown songwriter/producer Lamont Dozier, Marti Pellow and Hi Records mastermind Willie Mitchell. His songwriting workshop sand web-casts have attracted a wide range of musicians, including Cathy Dennis, Turin Brakes and Jane Birkin. His writers workshops are now so popular he has to run two a year. Over 15 years he has married together so many great writers from all over the world. He wrote the lyrics for Still Crazy a 2002 musical comedy about the comeback of a 70s rock band, which was nominated for a Golden Globe and won Chris the prestigious Ivor Novello award. I Didn't Get Where I Am, his 2003 solo album, was well received, he was described a "quintessentially English pop lyricist...the link between Ray Davies and Jarvis Cocker". It was produced by Francis Dunnery, a man he recognizes as bringing his talents from under a bushel and into the light. "He taught me how to sing and how to write more deeply about myself, I will never forget the recording of this album, it is a sweet memory"