The Original Soundtrack (studio album)
by 10cc

From CaptainPain 12/22/2025 17:21 | #312254

On their third album, the band honed their style (a bizarre "symbiosis" of progressive and pop-rock elements) almost to perfection.
The album starts with a parody three-part mini-opera "Une Nuit A Paris" ("A Night in Paris"), about the adventures of an American tourist who is "looking for love" in the red light district. It's an amazing mix of music hall, Edith Piaf impersonations, goofy French accents, Gershwin, and God knows what else. It is impossible not to mention the abundance of musical ideas, magnificent piano work and filigree vocal harmonies.
This is followed by "I'm Not in Love", without a doubt one of the band's most famous songs, which at one time blew up the charts in many countries and brought the band unprecedented popularity. The theme for this song was unexpectedly suggested by Stewart's wife, who, after eight years of marriage, began to reproach her husband for rarely confessing his love to her. To which Eric philosophically excused himself, saying that if I constantly say "I love you, darling, blah, blah, blah..." then these words will lose all meaning.
The contagiously rhythmic, almost hard-rock The Second Sitting For The Last Supper is a sarcastic rebuke to Christianity (in particular, its inability to put an end to suffering from poverty and hunger), a composition with excellent piano and organ work by Lola Krim.
Life Is a Minestrone, a sarcastic parody of songs about the meaning of life. "Life is minestrone (an Italian dish, soup) mixed with parmesan cheese, death is cold lasagna, from the refrigerator..." The retro-styled composition, The Film Of My Love, is also good, which is filled to the brim with metaphors and references to cinema ("The Magnificent Seven", "Murder on the Orient Express", "Gone with the Wind", "Pathe" — the legendary French film studio, etc.)

From Jboy56 07/17/2023 12:08 | #298176

Not my cup

Much better than A Night At The Opera released in the same year. Une Nuit A Paris (Part 1) / The Same Night In Paris (Part 2) / Later The Same Night In Paris (Part 3) is as good if not better than Bohemian Rhapsody.

From nitomano 07/07/2018 21:23 | #217888

Wow, de verdad no esperaba que este disco me gustara tanto, me agrada tanto la variedad y la creatividad que se despliega a lo largo de sus canciones, las cuales todas me parecieron bastante buenas. Una muy grata sorpresa

One of their, if not their best album. Inventive pop from a band that featured four songwriters who complemented each other perfectly. I'm not in love, is of course a classic and a highlight but, Blackmail, and, Life is a minestrone, are also two strong cuts on album full of them. Good stuff.

From Bork 06/07/2013 03:13 | #78268

A very good A side and a fantastic opening after flipping the record over. Then it dies.

The recording of Sheet Music is reputed to be the highlight for the four members of 10cc. However, it is The Original Soundtrack that portrays the clever lyrics with catchy music and melodies. Une nuit in Paris is by far the wittiest song ever written. It is followed by the moving I'm Not in Love, with some great lyrics about denial. The first side closes with Blackmail - a funny story of a crime gone wrong. The second side starts of brilliantly with the cleverly worded The Second Sitting for the Last Supper. The rest of the albums tails of a little, but you still feel that you have listened to the funniest lyrics yet seriously great music album. Unfortunately this could not be repeated for How Dare You.