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Tilbrook's 'Ping Pong' Pop

CD cover of 'Transatlantic Ping Pong.'
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CD cover of 'Transatlantic Ping Pong.'

The 1980s British group Squeeze set a standard for pop music that still sounds fresh today. Former front man Glenn Tilbrook is now a one-man standard-bearer, and he's just released his third solo CD, Transatlantic Ping Pong.

The disc features a Squeeze reunion of sorts: Tilbrook's longtime lyricist Chris Difford wrote words for the Ping Pong track "Where Can I Be Your Friend." Setting aside past animosity, the two musicians recently reconciled and are again in regular contact.

The CD's title refers to the far-flung locations where Tilbrook wrote and recorded the material, including London, New Orleans, Austin and Nashville. The process reflected a wanderlust Tilbrook also exercised on his four cross-country solo tours in the United States in an RV over the last several years.

The first of those tours, in 2001 to support Tilbrook's debut solo effort, has been documented in the film Glenn Tilbrook: One for the Road, released in February 2004.

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NPR News' Brian Naylor is a correspondent on the Washington Desk. In this role, he covers politics and federal agencies.