Artist: Status Quo
Label: Sanctuary Records
Release: 2005
Rating: 2.5/5
After the brilliant “Heavy Traffic” (2002), its follow-up was eagerly awaited. And “The Party Ain’t Over Yet is an album that’s pure Status Quo, too! It’s got all the typical Quo ingredients. The “Quo boogie drive” of the indestructible Parfitt/Rossi duo, the classic “Quo” approach to melody, the standard Parfitt/Rossi vocal duets, and in short an album that slips right into your ear and is easy to tap your fingers along to in “rock n’ roll” time.
So what are the reservations? “Heavy Traffic” boasted a solid, convincing flow from the first track to the last, and the album burst with life and rowdiness through red-hot “boogie riffing”. “The Party Ain’t Over Yet”, on the other hand, takes a few unpleasant turns compared to its predecessor, and they might catch the lover of “the Quo stuff” off guard. The first is that there are way too many songs on the album. From there it’s not hard to guess that they differ wildly in how deep they go. To the point that some can simply be written off as plain filler, with which the band pads out the album’s running time while offering the listener nothing. Sure, it delivers okay, but only for someone who’s never listened to Status Quo in their life. The new “Quo” album also feels softer, because it doesn’t have a single sharply carved rhythmic transition, and Matt Letley and Rhino Edwards simply don’t have material in front of them to sink their teeth into with the virtuosity they radiate on “Heavy Traffic”.
The title track is a very catchy opener and the right pick, Gotta Get Up And Go still holds that dynamic firmly, and All that Count is Love also develops very appealingly (adorned with gorgeous vocal multi-harmonies and a nicely carved Celtic motif laid over the “boogie” foundation), but then the album loses its punch and drive in the mediocrity of the tracks that follow. Hey, what the hell! We’re talking about a Status Quo album here! If anyone can get a listener on their feet, it’s Status Quo, but this time that “click” across the whole record is missing. The “click” that wakes you up and throws you upright! One of the main reasons is the production. The guitars have been pushed back a bit. That lets the acoustics and the natural sound come through more. And that’s probably where the unpleasant surprise hides. It’s precisely the punchy Parfitt/Rossi “riffing duet” that loses that demanded, sought-after grandeur, and with it Status Quo are neglecting their trademark this time. That by no means makes it a bad album, it’s just that the classic Status Quo attributes have been slyly sophisticated to the point where “The Party Ain’t Over Yet” can be described as one of the less pleasing albums of Status Quo’s career. This time something is simply missing. A bit more gas, the kind that adorned the forever-young “Heavy Traffic”. The track that got lost in production from “Heavy Traffic” is Kick Me When I’m Down. That’s track number 11. Between track three and track 11, believe it or not, nothing earth-shattering happened. WELL, and here at last the guitars finally plow in!!! As if Status Quo had heard me, they crank up the gas at the end of the record. So the second-to-last track, Cupid Stupid, is another song cut with the desired “quo” fury that lifts the album. But what really surprises is This Is Me – the closing track of the record! Going by the lyrics, it’s actually Parfitt’s personal autobiographical number, opening up as a ballad, and the rock n’ roll lever that later drives the song forward gets a breath of The Beatles blown into it. An excellent finish, a truly uncharacteristic Status Quo track that, with its structure, its (by Status Quo standards) “big melody” and the gradual build-up of atmosphere through the song (yes, the guitars get louder with every second), makes for a highly atmospheric ending to the album. Interesting, and totally without any of the punch I was crying about missing from most of the album’s songs, just with the simple feeling that seasoned old tomcats serve up
The “brothers” Francis and Rick even look split on the cover of the new album. One of them wants a rest and is calming down, gazing off into the distance, while the other is already tugging at his shoulder and reminding him to look back instead toward the slogan “The Party Ain’t Over Yet”.
Ultimately, the final verdict on how this album gets received belongs to the audience. Still, you expect more from Status Quo! Make the album 35 minutes long, give it nine tracks of three and a half minutes each, as long as they burn with a bit more red-hot “distortion” and adrenaline, which is exactly what Status Quo deliberately clipped the wings of this time. The beginning and the end are nicely wound up and inviting, but in between are eight songs that sort of sink one after another into mediocrity, because they don’t conjure up that signature adrenaline Status Quo magic we’re used to. And yet this is an album that’s absolutely worth adding to your collection and it rewards you, especially with repeated listens. It simply shocks with its greater calm and less cranked-up guitar production, but it disappoints, largely once again, because there are simply too many songs on it. And given the limited number of “little squares” Status Quo use on their Fender Telecaster guitars, you’re sick of the album before it’s even three-quarters through. The “indestructible” Parfitt/Rossi duo has nonetheless grown a little tired of harder “boogie” after (jubilee!) 40 years, which the band celebrated in 2005.
Lineup
Rick Parfitt – vocals, guitar
Francis Rossi – vocals, guitar
Andrew Bown – keyboards
“Rhino” Edwards – bass guitar
Matt Letley – drums
Production
Mike Paxman & Status Quo
Tracklist
1. The Party Ain’t Over Yet
2. Gotta Get Up and Go
3. All That Counts Is Love
4. Familiar Blues
5. The Bubble
6. Belavista Man
7. Nevashooda
8. Velvet Train
9. Goodbye Baby
10. You Never Stop
11. Kick Me When I’m Down
12. Cupid Stupid
13. This Is Me
Album length: 55:19
