Status Quo: Just Supposin' (Deluxe Edition)

Just Supposin' was lucky 13 for Status Quo, the frantic four of Rossi, Parfitt, Lancaster and Coghlan (joined as they had been for quite some time by the 'is he or isn't he' band member, keyboard player Andy Bown) hitting their baker's dozen. Famed for their twelve bar boogie rock n' roll, Quo had been – through the ever greater introduction of Bown and producer Pip Williams – flouting a 'modern' quirk to their classic sound, this album seeing the light of day in 1980. The use of production techniques and sounds from that era tempered by the signature Quo attack. Williams however wasn't behind the production desk this time, John Eden and the band themselves taking on that role and in many ways succeeding in merging past with present in a manner the band's more recent output of the day had failed to do.

Four songs from the album would be released as singles, but only across three 7-inchers, "Lies" and "Don't Drive My Car" making a mighty double a'side release, while the classic "What You're Proposing" shot all the way to number two in the UK singles chart under its own steam. The third single, the balladic and autobiographical "Rock n' Roll", was, unusually, released after the band's next album Never Too Late had hit the shelves a year later. All four are mid period Quo at their best, covering bases many still believe they never have and dropping along the way, choruses that instantly stick in the mind. However the deeper album cuts, such as the pulsating "Run To Mummy", grinding "Over The Edge" and punchy "Name Of The Game" prove just as memorable as the hits. The interesting spread of songwriters from both within and out-with the band providing an extremely cohesive end product and one the somehow both proves and dispels the notion that Quo were one trick ponies; every song sounding different but every one unable to have been crafted by anyone other than the boogie kings.

This deluxe remaster sounds excellent, which can also be said for the b'side track "A-B Blues", which is, as you'd expect, an interesting bluesy number, albeit, an instrumental. A further five bonus cuts appear alongside it on disc two, a drum machine led writing demo of "Coming And Going" interesting, if hardly indispensable, which is also a fitting description of the live from Le Mans 1981 cuts, where an enthusiastically delivered and received set is hampered by its bootleg quality – a theme of these otherwise excellent reissues, truth be told. Ironically the main reason that there isn't more archive material available is because the sessions this release came from were so fruitful that 1981's Never Too Late album also arrived featuring songs recorded at the same time.

Just Supposin' is an excellent album and along with Never Too Late makes an impressive swan-song for the frantic four line-up, drummer John Coghlan soon to leave the band after the latter's emergence. Quo would and still do, continue to thrive. In many ways they've still never changed, but in many others, they'd never be the same again...

Track Listing
CD ONE
1. What You're Proposing
2. Run to Mummy
3. Don't Drive My Car
4. Lies
5. Over the Edge
6. The Wild Ones
7. Name of The Game
8. Coming and Going
9. Rock 'N' Roll

CD TWO
1. AB Blues – B-Side
2. Coming and Going - Writing 1980
3. Don't Drive My Car - Live - Le Mans 1981
4. Over the Edge - Live - Le Mans 1981
5. Rock N Roll - Live - Le Mans 1981
6. Something 'bout You Baby I Like - Live - Le Mans 1981
7. What Your Proposing - Live - Le Mans 1981

Added: June 10th 2017
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Just Supposing' @ Status Quo online
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Language: english

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