10cc – ‘The Dean And I’

20 September 1973

No rubber bullets this time, just the hint of a shotgun wedding. Still, ‘The Dean And I’ is also full of light-entertainment Americana such as proms, dollars, soda pop, and a backing vocal that sounds like a Hollywood western’s Native American war chant or rain dance. I think the soda pop is meant to be innuendo.

10cc’s bubblegum soft-rock is technically accomplished in a look-what-we-can-do-from-a-studio-in-little-ol’-Stockport way, but the airtight overproduction, smarmy songwriting and smug self-satisfaction are a genuine turn-off. Ten cubic centimetres doesn’t come close to this band’s almost infinite capacity for irritating me.