Mega Stranglers Part 3

From 1990, "10" was the final album the band released, prior to the departure of founding member Hugh Cornwell. People share mixed emotions on it, I am not that fond of it (they cover "96 Tears" and "All Day and All of the Night") both really fine efforts, but the band is sounding tired..... not a worthless record by any means, "Sweet Smell of Success" is a good one, and at least this is a loaded, bonus edition CD version with a lot of extra tracks.

New members Paul Roberts and John Ellis take over on "Stranglers in the Night".... I like it, personally, it hearkens back to their rough-edged, Music Machine influenced greatness....often a major participant leaving is a death knell, but in this case, it seemed to offer the band a bit of breathing room. "Heaven and Hell", "Sugar Bullets", and "Brainbox" all work fine for me, a surprisingly good and listenable album.

"About Time" came out in 1995, and, reminded me more of what I thought "Stranglers in the Night" may sound like.... the horns return, electric violins, is it "interesting"? well, no, not terrible, nor does it rock especially.... however, I'm sure it has its fans, here is is for any of you Strangler junkies!

"Written in Red", I think, is kind of a mess as well, it appears in several versions with live numbers and the like, this version doesn't have much to recommend it, save perhaps "In Heaven She Walks", which really IS a good one.

"Coup De Grace", also falls short, JJ Burrell really steps to the forefront with writing and singing a lot more material than in past, sorta sounds like maybe a solo effort for him..... as the band had been entertaining military troops in places such as the Falkland Islands and Bosnia, there are recurring 'war" themes throughout, nonetheless, I am not/was not terrible impressed........

ALL bands (well, NEARLY) Do reach this point at some time.... often, if I have the material, it's good that we can "document" the fall as well as the rise.

In 2004 (2004!) they resurfaced with a new strummer, Baz Warne, and released "Norfolk Coast", it's not NEARLY as awful as I thought it would be.... .the title track is really good, and "Tucker's Grave" is a winner as well..... the traditional Stranglers swirling keyboards are FINALLY back up front where they belong. No classic, but a good one, worth a download anyway.

I found on the bay something called "Suite XVI".... gotta say, never heard anything on it, and don't REALLY want to.... this ship has sailed. It's here for you though......and, apparently, they released another album, subsequently, "Giants", which was not available, I don't have, and I guess we will have to live without.....

No matter you have a full picture pretty much of the once-great Stranglers, this will wrap up the studio albums, but I have a LOT of other stuff coming from their glory days. Maybe some even later tonight.

Do you enjoy the Mega-post format? I do, as long as it doesn't become permanent.... would be too restrictive for me, you know I GOTTA be free form..... I've "done" many of the greats in "mega" format, but if there is someone else, please suggest.

10-01 Sweet Smell Of Success/02 Someone Like You/03 96 Tears/04 In this Place/05 Celebrate/06 Man of the Earth/07 Too Many Teardrops/08 Where I Live/09 Out of My Mind/10 Never Look Back/11 Instead of this (Bonus)/12 Poisonality (Bonus)/13 Motorbike (Bonus)/14 Something (Bonus)/14 Something (Bonus)/15 You (Bonus)/16 Viva Vlad(Bonus)/17 All Day and All of the Night (Bonus)/18 Always the Sun (Sunny Side Up Mix)

STRANGLERS IN THE NIGHT-01 Time To Die/02 Sugar Bullets/03 Heaven and Hell/04 Laughing in the Rain/05 This Town/06 Brainbox/07Southern Mountains/08 Gain Entry to Your Soul/09 Grand Canyon/10 Wet Afternoon/11 Never See/12 Leave it to the Dogs

ABOUT TIME-01 Golden Boy /02 Money/03 Face/04 Sinister/05 Little Blue Lies/06 Still Life/07 Paradise Row/08 She Gave It All/09 Lies and Deception/10 Lucky Fingers/11 And the Boat Sails By

WRITTEN IN RED-01 Valley of the Birds/02 In Heaven She Walks/03 In a While/04 Sliver Into Blue/05 Blue Song/06 Here/07 Joy de Vivre/08 Miss You/09 Daddy's Riding In the Range/10 Summer in the City/11 Wonderful Land

COUP DE GRACE-01 God Is Good/02 You Don't Think That What You've done Is Wrong/03 Tonight/04 Jump Over My Shadow/05 Miss You/06 Coup de Grace (SOS)/07 I the End/08 No Reason/09 Known Only Unto God/10 The Light

NORFOLK COAST-01 Norfolk Coast/02 Big Thing Coming/03 Long Black Veil/04 I've Been Wild/Dutch Moon/06 Lost Control/07 Into the Fire/08 Tucker's Grave/09 I Don't agree/10 Sanfte Kuss/11 Mine All Mine

SUITE XVI-01 Unbroken/02 Spectre of love/03 She's Slipping Away/04 Summat Outanowt/05 Anything Can Happen/06 See Me Coming/07 Bless You (Save You.. Spare You, Damn You)/08 A Soldiers Diary/09 Barbara (Shangri-La)/10 I Hate You/11 Relentless


This bout wraps up the Stranglers stuff, as per their studio efforts... don't despair, they were a fave of mine for quite a while, so I'm not gonna leave you hanging..... LOTS of more stuff any of you Stranglers-junkies will froth over..... BUT I am going to switch gears once again, REALLY quickly, from my buddy from Greece, Apantabapanta, who continually works on the "Encyclopedia of Disbanded Rock Bands".... might take him a while, and he could CERTAINLY use some help (Sorry, I WISH I had the time) , but he'd done a fine job up until now, and his posts are just phenomenal...... informative, and with the right links to get you SOLID background information. What Apanta does here is a little different than what others might do, and I salute him bug time, for being an ORIGINAL, as well as a great and knowledgeable guest-poster to this blog, one who is welcome here, ANY time he wishes, yes, a favorite contributor of mine (OK, you ALL are favorite contributors of mine!)