Album Club, February 2018: The Stranglers - 'Black and White'

[Ian7633]

Dave Greenfield's morse code keyboard on Enough Time spells out "Mother Earth We Are Fucked". Probably very true

I only gave it a 7, which is a bit mean, but it has a few duff tracks. The keyboard/synth on Sleazy gets 11/10 - what a fantastic sound played at 11.

I think their best album was Rattus, and that like the Clash, they were never able to beat their first effort.

Love the Morse fact, I'm glad the BBC didn't suss that out or they would never have played any of it.
Rattus and No more heroes are really hard acts to follow, I think I wore out my first Heroes. I really like The Raven too, again one or two duffers but a great listen all the same and I've still got my 3D sleeve first press, although it's rather beyond playing now, surfaces like Olympic skating rinks

[Jimbo]

I would say about 8/10. Not their best. Raven and then the MIB stuff accelerated them to higher level. I saw this band so many times but really only thought they were at their best with Hugh at the helm.

[Ian7633]

I would say about 8/10. Not their best. Raven and then the MIB stuff accelerated them to higher level. I saw this band so many times but really only thought they were at their best with Hugh at the helm.

Agree that the Hugh era was the best. Another interesting listen is the Hugh Cornwall/Robert Williams album Nosferatu, way ahead of it's time IMHO.

[Pete The Cat]

Catching up here.

I've known the album since the cassette was on heavy rotation at school. Although I have the record and CD I've probably only listened to it a handful of times since, though. Having had a recent listen it still feels very transitional. To their credit they were trying to move on from punk and the consistently aggressive edge of the first two (excellent) albums, eg Outside Tokyo has a delicacy that the lads in the common room used to fast forward past. However it doesn't have a coherent identity so IMHO it's a blend of decent and meh. Nice & Sleazy still sounds gorgeously dirty though.

Since it wasn't on the original release I won't count the cover of Walk On By but it's quite fabulous and probably as good an indication as any of where they'd head in the medium term.

Good choice for an Album Club in prompting me to revisit it. 6/10 this time.

Pete

[Vinyl turner]

Well, too late to the show again !

I happened to be trawling through the posts and this album stood out. I wasn't a huge Stranglers fan but kinda liked them but had never bought a record of theirs.

All your comments caught my attention so I thought it would be worth a listen as I like to try new material.
I tracked down a copy at a local shop and gave both sides a spin.

I immediately liked it and obviously need some in-depth listening now to appreciate it more.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention and it will lead to a few more of their albums being bought.

PS - my best impulse buy (for a band I'd never heard previously) was Pat Metheney's ' American Garage' - I was in the 6th form and called in to HMV on my way way home. Heard one track and bought the album. For every success I often have many 'flops' but played that album to death