STATUS QUO – Whatever You Want [Reissue]

Another year, another album. Status Quo has never been a band to take time off, recharge their batteries, spend some time with other than their band mates and so on …

So after touring, it was back into the studio to follow up If You Can’t Stand The Heat with the album with the quite familiar anthem Whatever You Want, and once again produced by Pip Williams.

As with Rockin’ All Over The World, the title track carried the album commercially, and even though both of these releases are uneven efforts, there are plenty of good songs to make them pretty decent albums. The main difference from the song “Rockin’ All Over The World” is that “Whatever You Want” actually is a song they have written by themselves, and it became their biggest hit ever –- and you still can’t walk home from a Quo-gig without having heard it.

So what about the rest of the album? “Shady Lady” is an average rocker Status Quo has written and recorded many times before, but further on, you have songs like “Rockin’ On” and “High Flyer,” which are above average. The last song on the album; “Breaking Away,” having some “Lady Madonna” influences, is also worth mentioning.

Status Quo took few risks in the 70s, but in 1979, they really did when choosing “Living On An Island” as their second single. It is truly a great track that shows a more mature and soft side of Status Quo, and it surprised the record buyers in a positive way.

Whatever You Want was in many ways the last album of the really great 70s era of Status Quo, and when Just Supposin’ was released the year after — some air had left the balloon for sure.