The Stranglers
are an English rock band who emerged via the punk rock scene. Scoring some 23 UK Top 40 singles and 17 UK Top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are one of the longest-surviving bands to have originated in the UK punk scene.
Formed as the Guildford Stranglers in Guildford, Surrey, in early 1974, they originally built a following within the mid-1970s pub rock scene. While their aggressive, no-compromise attitude had them identified by the media with the emerging UK punk rock scene that followed, their idiosyncratic approach rarely followed any single musical genre, and the group went on to explore a variety of musical styles, from new wave, art rock and gothic rock through the sophisti-pop of some of their 1980s output.
They had major mainstream success with their 1982 single "Golden Brown". Their other hits include "No More Heroes", "Peaches", "Always the Sun" and "Skin Deep" and the 2004 Top 40 hit "Big Thing Coming".
The Stranglers' early sound was driven by Jean-Jacques Burnel's melodic bass, but also gave prominence to Dave Greenfield's keyboards. Their early music was also characterised by the growling vocals and sometimes misanthropic lyrics of both Burnel and Hugh Cornwell. Over time, their output gradually grew more refined and sophisticated. Summing up their contribution to popular music, critic Dave Thompson later wrote: "From bad-mannered yobs to purveyors of supreme pop delicacies, the group was responsible for music that may have been ugly and might have been crude – but it was never, ever boring."
Keyboard player Dave Greenfield died on 3 May 2020 after contracting COVID-19 while receiving treatment for a heart ailment. The remaining band members completed a new album recorded with Greenfield, Dark Matters following his death and intend to proceed with their "Final Full UK Tour", initially announced in January 2020, in his honour.
As with The Stranglers' first two albums, Black and White was produced by Martin Rushent. The album sees The Stranglers adopting a more experimental approach to song structures and time signatures (for example, "Curfew" features 7/4 time).[citation needed]
The band recorded a version of "Sweden" sung in Swedish, called "Sverige", and released it in Sweden. The song was partly inspired by Cornwell's PhD placement at Lund University in the mid-1970s. In an anecdote related in the Swedish online magazine Blaskan, it is stated that the song was inspired by a disastrous visit to Sweden during a European tour, when a gig was violently interrupted by a gang of "raggare" (greasers).
The song title "Death and Night and Blood" is taken from a line from Yukio Mishima's novel Confessions of a Mask.
The song "In the Shadows" had previously been released as the B-side to the band's 1977 single "No More Heroes".
UK repackaged reissue of 1978 album, includes new artwork with extensive sleeve notes and previously unseen photos. 18 tracks including six bonus cuts, 'Mean To Me', 'Walk On By', 'Shut Up', 'Sveridge', 'Old Codger' and 'Tits'. The original album itself features such Stranglers classics as 'Nice 'N Sleazy', 'Hey! (Rise Of The Robots)', 'Toiler On The Sea' and more. EMI.
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