How Dare You - 10CC*****

How Dare You/Lazy Ways/I Wanna Rule The World/I'm Mandy Fly Me/Iceberg/Art For Art's Sake/Rock & Roll Lullaby/Head Room/Don't Hang Up

How Dare You was the excellent final album with the full original line up of the art rock band 10cc. Unfortunately, the Godley/Crème partnership would leave the group thus diluting the songwriting diversity. Features the UK top ten hits Art For Art’s Sake and I’m Mandy Fly Me. (US:47 UK:5)

“This one just gets better and better with each listen. 10cc, I'm beginning to realize, really were great; pop mixed with some fairly sophisticated musicianship. There is a quality to their playing that tells you they are not taking this too seriously either.”

“The last 10cc album with the original band members, How Dare You is a breathtaking collection of quirky, surreal, daring and beautiful songs. It boasts excellent arrangements and complex movements which take in several different musical styles within the same song. This shows four musicians revelling in their collective abilities, and I can think of no other band were every member contributes equally to the output.”

“10cc had mastered the art of balancing the conflicting demands of big hit singles with fiendishly clever art-rock albums. As commercial as glam rock, but still cleverer than the vast majority of prog-rockers, their formula worked, but it never made them any less ambitious or experimental.”

“The ultimate 10cc; reasonably avant-garde, enjoyably poppy and occasionally hilarious. Plus, wisely constructed and impeccably produced.”

“It's long been a mystery to me why music this well conceived, written, performed, produced, intelligent and thought provoking has not found a more substantial following. Maybe people feel somewhat overawed by the level of sophistication, wit and flair evident in their music, maybe they came across a tad too quirky for some tastes. Whatever the reason in my opinion that is such a shame.”

“It's got everything: it's catchy, funny, clever, weird, beautiful, all at the same time. The combination of Godley/Creme and Stewart/Gouldman had something both duos couldn't bring on their own. Here they can be heard together for one final time. It is a gold mine of pop hooks, melodies, clever lyrics, and good music in the British tongue-in-cheek tradition. Everything is here from the wistful to the bizarre, and I can't think of a better representation of 70s art rock.”