East Side Story

"A beat group," occasional Squeeze keyboardist Paul Carrack once described them. East Side Story took their post-British Invasion sensibility down eclectic paths that led them, if not to their own Revolver, at least something like their Imperial Bedroom. (Pal Elvis Costello produced all but one of the 14 tracks here.) The most famous song would be "Tempted," which musically puns on the Motown heroes by way of lines traded among Carrack, guitarist Glenn Tilbrook and Costello himself. Elsewhere, Tilbrook matches lyricist Chris Difford's trademark home-sour-home stories with evocations of the Zombies, rockabilly, Booker T. and the MGs and anything else that tickles his fancy. "Every hook she catches," Tilbrook sings of a radio-tuned housewife in "Woman's World." She would like this album, too.