CD: Status Quo - Quid Pro Quo

reviews, news & interviews

After 29 studio albums, eight compilations, four live albums, amounting to a total of 41 at pretty much one for every year of their existence, the denimosaurus we know as Status Quo has issued a release the title of which is entirely, and for the first time ever, in Latin. Unless you count Quo (1974). Quid Pro Quo, one very much suspects, does not translate in Rossi-Parfitt speak as “this for that”. Indeed “quid” looks to be a reference to lucre, which the Quo have been raking in for what feels like centuries on an unvarying diet of three- and, when they can get away with it, two-chord stonewashed boogie. (And sometimes even one.) If it ain’t broke etc: Quo erat demonstrandum.

Listening to Quid Pro Quo is not an unpleasant experience. It's a bit like poring over the fossilised remains of mammoth vertrebrae or sifting through rubble for Stone Age flint tools. The archaeological evidence suggests that organic life was here once in the chugging Jurassic echoes of “Caroline” to be found in “Rock’n’Roll’n’You”, of “Rockin’ All Over the World” in “Let’s Rock”. Heard the lyrics “I like it, I like it” before? (If so, you are middle-aged, by the way. At the very least.) Here they are again. The Quo have even gone to the trouble of re-recording “In the Army Now”, a bit like Kate Bush only not. It plods along at military medium all over again, only with slightly more bombastic backing.

Who will give their quid for Quo, whose cupboard emptied of fresh ideas when the PM was Jim Callaghan, if not Ted Heath? Shoppers at Tesco is who. The band have entered into an exclusive deal with the supermarket chain, telling you a large proportion of what you need to know re contemporary Quo. Tesco ergo sum. Punters can lob the CD into the same shopping trolley as their incontinence pads and bunion kreem. Quid Pro Quo comes with a second, live disc entitled Official Bootleg Quo – Greatest Hits Live, in which the status quo would be restored were it not for the truth universally acknowledged that Status Quo never upset it in the first place.

Find Quid Pro Quo at Tesco

Listen to "Rock'n'Roll'n'You"

Comments

The Quo enter their Latin phase. I like it. Possible title for next album: Quo Vadis?

Typically blinkered and music-snob-esque review.

Unbelievable how a "reviewer" can get away with this rubbish. It looks very much like most if not all of this review was written before the album was taken out of it's packaging. I dare anyone to listen to this album and not see how fresh Quo sound on it. There are some tracks on here that any modern band would be delighted to have written, and very little that could be tarred (unfairly) with the 3 chord brush. This reviewer should listen to the album again (or for the first time) and have the open mind that one would expect a decent reviewer to have.

What a load of rubbish and what an idiotic review. I can't hear any shades of Caroline in the mentioned tracks. P.S. The name of that airport in Greenland is Kulusuk, not Kussuluk. Get your facts right before you take a pen. (referring to another article by the same author)

what an excellently scathing review. It's impressive how the die-hard/dullard quo fans are already surfacing. Status Quo are irrefutably a national joke. They're musically limited to the point of absurdity and about as exciting as the dust their records are gathering nationwide.

Look, I'm not going to get into an argument about taste. If you don't like quo, that's fine. I'm not biggoted enough (unlike you it seems) to be able to think for everyone else, and insist that they like quo just because I do. My point is merely about the review. It is an unfair reflection on the album. It portrays an opinion that could have been (and possibly was) written before the album was listened to by the reviewer. The opening track (which I'd imagine any decent reviewer would get as far as) is one of the freshest sounding tracks you could imagine. It's very modern, and dare i say it, doesn't even really sound like quo in the way you'd expect. This album is full of diversity, but of course you'd have to listen to know that. Again: nit trying to sway anyone's taste, merely saying the reviewer seems to have not listened to the album. I agree that in some ways quo has become a joke, I'm not as narrow minded as th reviewer not to realise that. But it's an unfair opinion (I can't bring myself to call it review any more) that has been written. If my reply seems very well written for a "dullard" excuse me for breaking your stereotype.

Seems to me Wayne and Mike are a pair of idiots who know nothing about Quo apart from the usual stereotypical crap that cheap shot journalists come out with. Anyway it doesn't matter in the end, because Quo and Quo fans have been dealing with the same kind of ignorance since the early 70's!!

Johns, I think we're on the same side. How have I given an impression that I know nothing about Quo? My point is exactly that the reviewer knows little or nothing about them (his opinion sounds like the usual Quo-bashing that we're used to reading). Read my first post, I'm all in favour of quo, unlike Mike. More to the point, I'm in favour of an honest review.

Sorry Wayne must have typed your name on automatic pilot

Sound JohnS, thanks for the apology...accepted. Rock on!

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