You can sum up the average rock fan’s opinion on re-recordings in seven words: “Don’t Stand So Close to Me ’86.” The last single released by The Police saw the biggest band in the world reduced to rubble, adrift in synth chords and Stewart Copeland angrily programming a drum machine instead of beating real skins. It’s even more cringe-worthy when one considers that Sting felt the recording should reflect their growth as musicians.

On the other side of the coin, Squeeze’s Spot the Difference - their first studio work in 12 years - is intended to show the listener just how consistent the band has stayed in their on-again, off-again career over the past three decades. No stranger to re-recordings themselves (a do-over on signature track “Tempted” was the oddest song on the Reality Bites soundtrack in 1994), singers/songwriters/guitarists Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook take the newest line-up of Squeeze - early-‘80s bassist John Bentley with Lord Stephen Large on keyboards and Simon Hanson on drums - and run through 14 painstaking recreations of their biggest hits.

After repeated listenings, I can’t be sure if the results skew more toward impressive or disturbing. These songs were originally cut between 1978 and 1993, in various studios with various producers. For the older Difford and Tilbrook to get a vast majority of the details right is kind of stunning; the earliest songs, including “Take Me I’m Yours,” “Slap and Tickle” and “Pulling Mussels (from the Shell),” are almost too faithful to the originals.

Other cuts are less successful. While former keyboardist/vocalist Paul Carrack returns to sing lead on “Tempted,” he’s vocally aged more than Difford or Tilbrook have, and the song lacks the smoky, spontaneous charm of the original. “Hourglass,” the group’s biggest U.S. hit, suffers the exact opposite problem; no re-recording would ever capture the over-polished sheen of the original take, recorded at the ultra-trendy Hit Factory in New York City.

While the songs are as strong as they ever were (and the band is well-oiled from two years of touring), it’s hard to call Spot the Difference an essential entry in the Squeeze canon. The band has been public about its desire to have more control over their back catalogue (prompting this album), but it’ll be much more satisfying when Difford and Tilbrook - one of the most underrated songwriting duos in rock - put pen to paper on a new set of tunes. Like the puzzles that give the set its name, Spot the Difference is fun only until you’ve finished it.