It hasn’t, as even their most ardent supporters will concede, been the easiest of tasks to stick up for THE STRANGLERS in recent years. For the band that gave us some of the greatest records in the rock canon, it has been a gradual sputtering fade to grey ever since 1981’s "La Folie." The diminishing interest and eventual departure of singer Hugh Cornwell in the late ‘80s merely led to a fresh period of curmudgeonly fan disgruntlement with his successor Paul Roberts.
Nevertheless, the band carried on touring to great effect despite further middlingly received records. Now, as they release their first album for five years, what should have been the latest exercise in musical water-treading turns out to be something altogether more exciting.
The title track swirls in with a psychedelic spiral of keyboards, then a gloriously cantankerous Burnel bass line crashes in like wrecking ball, and as Jet Black’s drums pound in memories of "The Raven" begin to stir and the somewhat startling thought occurs that, well into their fifties and sixties, The Stranglers are back and reconnecting with the musical elements that made them great in the first place.
The single "Big Thing Coming" has a punky energy and tumbling Dave Greenfield keyboard arpeggios that immediately recall "(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)."
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"Into The Fire" has a wryly deadpan vocal and a spiky verse that wouldn’t sound out of place on the drug addled masterpiece "Gospel According to the Meninblack", while the gorgeous, acoustic "Dutch Moon" would have been the standout track on Feline.
While Paul Roberts has stoically borne much of the brunt of fans criticism – often merely for not being Cornwell - his assured and convincing performance here should finally lay the spectre of the erstwhile vocalist to rest, while the introduction of guitarist Baz Warne has evidently reintroduced the element of passion that has been curiously lacking from this once most belligerent of bands.
Disappointingly, the record closes with a couple of the less memorable efforts – no "Down In The Sewer" or "Genetix"–style epics this time - but so strong are the remainder that this barely registers.
It’s time to raise the head back above the parapet and hail the return to top form of one of Britain’s best bands. Ladies and gentlemen, the men in black are well and truly back.
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