Description

So then, The Stranglers 10th (geddit?) album and their last one with Hugh Cornwell. Well not exactly their best, lets be honest, but let`s not write it off just yet.......For some reason the Stranglers seemed to be running out of ideas in the late 80`s. This album and it`s predecessor (the sublime "Dreamtime") took about 3 to 4 years each to record and release. This album was due for release in 1989 but problems with mixing/multi-tracking pushed it into the 90s (along with a mammoth planned UK tour).It could be said that the band weren`t working as a unit anymore in favour of the personal homemore… studio recording etc. To add to these problems it was decided to create an album for the American market. How can you have a band like The Stranglers with an eccentric English as they come lead singer and a very Euro musical feel becoming an overnight American sensation? Doesn`t happen does it?.....No!.Big American producer Roy Thomas Baker was drafted in to add a lot of unnecessary gloss to a collection of songs that if anything needed stripping down. Incidentally the demos (produced by Owen Morris who went on to produce Oasis) to this album are favoured greatly by the fans (and even some band members!) to the finished product we have here.The album does hint at some of The Stranglers past trademarks. The bass menace of opener "Sweet Smell Of Success", keyboard riffs a plenty "96 Tears" and "Someone Like You", lyrical genius "Out Of My Mind", the odd refreshing stint of Jean Jacques on vocal duties "Where I Live", "In This Place" and the reflective "Never To Look Back" (possibly the best track on the original album).Occasionally the album does have a kind of B52`s "Cosmic Thing" American sound to it. Check "Let's Celebrate" for a rather cheesy example. However, it failed miserably in America and one of the reasons for Hugh`s departure was that fact that they had recorded this album for the American market and they couldn't even get a U.S tour organised!.This release includes extra tracks, which were criminally left off the original album and would actually make a better album!. We're generously offered another 3 tracks that give JJ another vocal outing, "Something" a beautiful song about the recent birth of his son, "Motorbike" catchy piece about his erm..Motorbike (must be tongue in cheek?!), and "Instead Of This". "You" sounds like a solo Hugh Cornwell song that he's spent far too much time working on, the demo has a very nice keyboard solo from Dave but for some reason we don't have this on the finished version. The wonderful "Viva Vlad" carries on the Vladimir chronicles and could have been heard on Keith Floyds cookery programme as an incidental piece. The next two tracks shouldn`t really be on this album. "All Day And All Of The Night" belongs more to the live album that was released a couple of years prior and "Always The Sun" was re-released to mark the departure of Hugh and the Greatest Hits release following.However, we still don't see the unreleased track from this session "Things Are Getting Better" which would have probably raised the profile of this album considerably.

Tracks

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Info:

Category:

Music > Albums

Case Type:

CD

Release Type:

Retail

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Cover Info:

Title:

Stranglers - 10 (2001) Retail CD

Part:

Front

Dimensions:

800 x 800 px

Size:

101 KB

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Report a Problem Wrong Cover Duplicate Image Bad Quality Wrong Info

07/05/07 by allcdcovers

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