POP : Squeeze Embraces Romantic Perspective

After 15 years, Squeeze has been around the block a few too many times to worry about new trends.

Grunge may be in, but the British band’s 10th studio album, “Some Fantastic Place,” hews to the same approach Squeeze has been taking all along.

You get a dollop of Beatle-esque melody, courtesy of singer-tunesmith Glenn Tilbrook, the man best qualified to impersonate Paul McCartney should such a need ever arise. You get wry, detailed lyrics from Chris Difford, who has a knack for writing about the intimate sparring that goes on between men and women after love has dissolved into recrimination.

Few bands offer a more grown-up perspective on romance and its pitfalls.

There are a few new/old developments. Squeeze is back on A&M; Records, where it had resided from 1978 to 1989. And old associate Paul Carrack is back on board, playing excellent piano and organ and doing a mean Al Green imitation on one track, “Loving You Tonight.” Carrack last played in Squeeze in 1981, when he sang one of the band’s biggest hits, “Tempted”--a song that “Loving You Tonight” deliberately echoes.

Longtime bassist Keith Wilkinson finally gets a chance to step out as singer and songwriter on one track, capably handling the gentle, reggae-accented “True Colours.” In concert, where Squeeze has often excelled, new arrival Pete Thomas, an alumnus of Elvis Costello’s Attractions, should bring the required punch to some of the harder-rocking catalogue numbers.

Who: Squeeze.

When: Sunday, Nov. 21, at 8 p.m., with Over the Rhine.

Where: Celebrity Theatre, 201 E. Broadway, Anaheim.

Whereabouts: Take Harbor Boulevard south from the Riverside (91) Freeway or north from the Santa Ana (5) Freeway and head east on Broadway. The Celebrity is on the left, just past Anaheim Boulevard.

Wherewithal: $22.

Where to call: (714) 999-9536.