Piledriver (album)
| Piledriver | ||||
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| Studio album by Status Quo | ||||
| Released | December 15, 1972 | |||
| Recorded | September - October 1972 at IBC Studios, Portland Place, London | |||
| Genre | Hard rock | |||
| Length | 39:52 | |||
| Label |
Vertigo (UK) A&M (USA) |
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| Producer | Status Quo | |||
| Status Quo chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Piledriver | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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| Robert Christgau | C+ |
Piledriver is the fifth studio album by the English rock band Status Quo, released in 1972. It was the first to be produced by the group themselves, and their first on the Vertigo label after their departure from Pye Records.
The album's only single, "Paper Plane" (by Francis Rossi and Bob Young), with the b-side "Softer Ride" (written by Rick Parfitt and Alan Lancaster), was to become the first in a sequence of thirty-three Top 40 hits on the UK Singles Chart when it peaked at #8 after its release in November 1972. The b-side would later be incorporated into the band's following album, Hello!, released the following year.
The album itself was released in December the same year, and reached the highest position of #5 in the UK charts, spending 37 weeks there.
In their retrospective review, AllMusic applauded the album as both crowd-pleasing and moderately ambitious, commenting that "Despite the name, most of the music on Piledriver is varied and subtle enough to be interesting." They particularly praised "A Year" and "Big Fat Mama".Robert Christgau asserted that the band had no decent singer or guitarist, and criticized their attempts at ballads and blues as "boring".
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