Sheet Music

10cc co-leader Kevin Godley refers to Sheet Music when asked his favorite 10cc album. Speaking to an interviewer, Godley explained that the band had “really started to explode creatively and didn’t recognize any boundaries.” Sheet Music exudes that kind of effervescent creativity. The album is a mish-mash of tempos, songwriting styles, pastiche, and parody. The only comparison American audiences might be able to draw is to Frank Zappa, although where Zappa’s albums often felt dense and beleaguered, Sheet Music is swift and light on its feet. At just under 40 minutes it avoids the bloated excesses that plagued so many of 10cc’s prog-rock peers. Pillowed harmonies and mystifying guitar solos suddenly emerge in unexpected places on “Somewhere In Hollywood” and “Hotel.” Lurking in the corners of the self-deprecating farce “The Worst Band In the World” (“It's one thing to know it but another to admit,” admits the singer betweens admonishments to “Tune up!”) are sinister grooves, peculiar harmonies, and a guitar figure that will haunt you for days to come.