All Live And All Of The Night [Remastered] - Stranglers (The)

Advantages: Sumptuous sound, great production, typically offbeat
Disadvantages: An overdone electro beat, corny in places

...new sound it was. The last vestiges of the thundering 70s had been shed by La Folie and now the band was immersing itself in mellow electronica and moody posturing. Where once the Stranglers had spat furious contempt from the front of the stage, they now turned up their collars and smouldered haughtily in the ultra-chic Parisienne shadows (happily, they were still very much their old abrasive selves during live performances). Feline was all about synthesizers and more synthesizers, breathy vocals, Spanish-style guitars and electronic drums. It was a very European album, a very un-Stranglers album. It was also, for the most part, a very good album. The Tracks 1) Midnight Summer Dream - The album starts as it means to go on with a song that highlights all the main instrumental players: sumptuous multi-layered synth, raspy... Read review

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Advantages: Original, ambitious, lyrical, dark
Disadvantages: Original, ambitious, lyrical, dark (many dislike such traits)

...It could be argued that people like me - a former diehard Stranglers fan that has since greyed round the temples and drifted reluctantly into middle age - cannot be relied upon to discuss our former musical loves in any objective way. We have a habit of insisting that "music was far better in my day" and that "modern music has no originality whatsoever". We might shake our heads ruefully and snort contemptuously at our youngsters when they plague our more cultured (and more hairy) ear with their modern noise. That would be a nonsense, of course, and I like to think I'm above such things. Popular music nowadays is neither better nor worse than it was in times gone by; it's just different, and a good thing too. Which I hope will go to show that when I describe the Stranglers' fourth album, The Raven, as one of the best albums... Read review

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Advantages: Some of the Stranglers best songwriting
Disadvantages: Meninblack - a taste of awful music to come

...Released in 1979 after the hyperkinetic first three albums, "TheRaven" sees the Stranglers become a much better group of musicians and songwriters, yet still retains the dark menace and a more focused anger. Years later, the band members all seem to agree it be their best work. Recorded in France, it does have a more sophisticated European air than it's very British new wave predecessors. Quite simply, it does not sound like any other band or album. Opening with an instrumental "Longships" this sets the mood nicely to introduce the title track. JJ Burnel's chugging bass lines, so integral to the Strangler's sound, are not as prominent as they are on earlier albums, but they are still very much in evidence. The guitars of Hugh Cornwell and Dave Greenfield's keyboards take a more forward position andJet Blacks drumming suddenly... Read review

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