Sheet Music (album)



Sheet Music is the second album by the English rock band 10cc. It was released in 1974 on UK records (No: UKAL 1007) and yielded the hit singles "The Wall Street Shuffle" and "Silly Love". The album reached No 9 in the UK and No 81 in the United States. It was produced by 10cc, engineered and mixed by Eric Stewart.

Kevin Godley nominated Sheet Music as his favourite 10cc album to record. Graham Gouldman has also expressed that he considers Sheet Music as the best 10cc album. On the 10cc world website he writes: "Our best album, epitomising what 10cc was all about. Unique songwriting and production."

Production
The album was produced by 10cc, engineered and mixed by Eric Stewart. In a 2006 interview ex-drummer Kevin Godley said: "We’d really started to explode creatively and didn’t recognise any boundaries. We were buzzing on each other and exploring our joint and individual capabilities. Lots of excitement and energy at those sessions and, more important, an innocence that was open to anything."

While 10cc were recording the album during the day, Paul McCartney was using the studio in the evenings to produce his brother Mike's album, McGear. Graham Gouldman remarked how the band used Paul's drum kit for their album, and how Paul's influence was certainly felt while making the record.

In the short and quirky "Clockwork Creep", which ends side one of the album, the subject of the song is a bomb describing its final minute in its countdown to detonation aboard a jumbo jet.

Reception
Charley Walters in his 1974 Rolling Stone review felt that the band had "concocted standard pop into their own inventive, even sophisticated, art", and that while not typical pop music it would be popular with AM-oriented DJs and their listeners. Billboard felt the band had a "certain zany feeling", but that "their songs are far from silly when carefully listened to" and they had "some of the most innovative vocal techniques and instrumental arrangements around".

Singles
Three singles were taken from the album and were all released in 1974. "The Worst Band in the World" failed to chart, while "The Wall Street Shuffle" made number 10 in the UK and number 1 in the Netherlands. "Silly Love" made number 24 in the UK.

Legacy
Dave Thompson in a summary of the album for Allmusic felt that it had staying power and that it was "perhaps the most widely adventurous album of what would become a wildly adventurous year". George Durbalau in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die felt it was "a piece of well-crafted, highly idiosyncratic pop" and was "in a word, inventive".

Side one

 * 1) "The Wall Street Shuffle" (Stewart, Gouldman) – 3:54
 * 2) * Lead vocal, lead guitar, piano, organ, mellotron by Eric Stewart
 * 3) "The Worst Band in the World" (Gouldman, Creme) – 2:49
 * 4) * Lead vocal, guitar, piano by Lol Creme
 * 5) * Lead guitar by Eric Stewart
 * 6) "Hotel" (Godley, Creme) – 4:54
 * 7) * Lead vocal by Kevin Godley
 * 8) * First lead guitar, synthesiser by Lol Creme
 * 9) * Second lead guitar by Eric Stewart
 * 10) "Old Wild Men" (Godley, Creme) – 3:21
 * 11) * First lead vocal, lead guitar, slide guitar by Eric Stewart
 * 12) * Second lead vocal by Kevin Godley
 * 13) * Guitar, Gizmotron, synthesisers by Lol Creme
 * 14) * Tambourine, autoharp by Graham Gouldman
 * 15) "Clockwork Creep" (Godley, Creme) – 2:46
 * 16) * Lead vocal, piano by Lol Creme
 * 17) * Second lead vocal by Kevin Godley
 * 18) * Third lead vocal by Eric Stewart

Side two

 * 1) "Silly Love" (Stewart, Creme) – 4:01
 * 2) * Lead vocal, guitar by Lol Creme
 * 3) * Lead guitar, piano, vocal by Eric Stewart
 * 4) "Somewhere in Hollywood" (Godley, Creme) – 6:39
 * 5) * Lead vocal by Kevin Godley
 * 6) * Lead guitar, piano, synthesisers, vocal by Lol Creme
 * 7) * Slide guitar by Eric Stewart
 * 8) "Baron Samedi" (Stewart, Gouldman) – 3:46
 * 9) * Lead vocal, lead guitar, electric piano, marimba by Eric Stewart
 * 10) * Second lead guitar, grand piano, mellotron, vocal by Lol Creme
 * 11) * Congas, bongos, vocal by Kevin Godley
 * 12) "The Sacro-Iliac" (Godley, Gouldman) – 2:33
 * 13) * Lead vocal by Graham Gouldman
 * 14) * Harmony vocal by Kevin Godley
 * 15) * Piano by Lol Creme
 * 16) * Guitar by Eric Stewart
 * 17) "Oh Effendi" (Stewart, Godley) – 2:49
 * 18) * Lead vocal by Kevin Godley
 * 19) * Second lead vocal, lead guitar by Eric Stewart

1993 CD release bonus track

 * 1) "Waterfall" (Creme, Godley, Gouldman, Stewart) – 3:43

2007 CD release bonus tracks

 * 1) "18 Carat Man of Means" – 3:27
 * 2) "Gismo My Way" (Instrumental) – 3:43
 * 3) "The Worst Band in the World" (Radio Version) – 2:49

Personnel
10cc
 * Eric Stewart – guitars, keyboards, vocals
 * Lol Creme – guitar, keyboards, percussion, vocals
 * Graham Gouldman – bass guitar, guitar, percussion, vocals
 * Kevin Godley – drums, percussion, vocals