I wanna rule the world (10CC) (LP 4109 - 4112)

10CC  Sheet Music (Vinyl, UK Records, 1974) ****  

10CC  How Dare You (Vinyl, Mercury Records, 1976) ****  

10CC  Deceptive Bends (Vinyl, Mercury Records, 1977) ****  

10CC  Look Hear? (Vinyl, Mercury Records, 1980) ***

Genre: Pop

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Good Morning Judge (Deceptive Bends)

Gear costume: I'm Mandy Fly Me (How Dare You) 

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: In the early days, 10CC consisted of four brilliant individuals - Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, They were multi-instrumentalists, singers, writers and producers and almost too clever for their own good at times. I am also fascinated by them and their music. Not fascinated enough to be a completist though - there are quite a few gaps.

Sheet Music (great Hipgnosis cover) is their second album. It's the one with Wall Street Shuffle on it. Melody Maker described 10CC as "the Beach Boys of "Good Vibrations," the Beatles of "Penny Lane," they're the mischievous kid next door, they're the Marx Brothers, they're Jack and Jill, they're comic cuts characters, and they're sheer brilliance." Fair play - all of those influences are within the cover of Sheet Music.

How Dare You is an album that I knew well before buying. Art For Art's Sake and I'm Mandy Fly Me were huge hits in 1976, and I'd borrowed a copy from a friend at school. It's clearly a great combination of smart pop hooks, deft arrangements, zany humour and brilliant musicianship. Lazy Ways by Creme/Stewart is a great example, but so too is each track.

Their next album is Deceptive Bends. It appeared a year after How Dare You but in the meantime Lol and Kevin had departed for a duo career of their own. That left Eric and Graham as a second duo but continuing under the 10CC name. The two created an excellent set of catchy pop songs on Deceptive Bends. 

The Beatles influence was ever present in their back catalogue albums and The Things We Do For Love is a terrific Beatlesque tune - which was a massive hit. Go figure.

Look Hear? is the last album on my list (the album title is an example of their dark humour as Eric had a car accident that affected his hearing and his eyes). They deserve kudos for releasing anything given that and a marriage breakup for Graham. The pop smarts are intact but the songs are not as memorable as they'd been in the past.

Where do they all belong? I'll need to grab The Original Soundtrack and their first album (10CC) at some point.