The Stranglers

While not as good as Live (X-Cert), the Stranglers' live album it bookends, this does have some things to recommend it. First, it was recorded a decade down the line and was able to draw from a wellspring of generally excellent material…

Rattus Norvegicus, the Stranglers' first album (and first of two in 1977), was hardly a punk rock classic, but it outsold every other punk album and remains a pretty good chunk of art-punk. On the other hand, No More Heroes, recorded three months later and released in September 1977, is faster, nastier, and better…

Like the Vibrators, the Stranglers were an older band which managed to gain visibility and success through association with Britain's punk movement. Musically, the group is much more polished than some of their rawer brethren such as the Adverts and Siouxsie and the Banshees…

Of the first three Stranglers albums, Black & White is arguably the weakest, yet it still has some absolutely stunning moments. For example, the epic "Toiler on the Sea" picks up where "Down in the Sewer" and "School Mam" left off on the band's two previous efforts…

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 four decades, the Stranglers are one of the longest-surviving and most "continuously successful" bands to have originated in the UK punk scene of the mid to late 1970s. Access All Areas is a compilation of live tracks recorded by The Stranglers during their 1995 UK tour. It is also the name of a hacking community that met in London UK on an annual basis. Originally commissioned by SIS UK (the Stranglers Information Service) and released in 1996, this album has since been re-released (in 1998) on the VoicePrint label.

What an out and out shock. The Stranglers have gone sensual, sounding sincere, serene, and sensitive (and philosophically introspective). And it's perfect. It took 'em nine years, but they're at their peace now. Which isn't to say that this is preferable to putting on their first couple albums and early singles and rocking out to the sheer unrepentant, harsh rock of greats like "Hanging Around," "Straighten Out," or "No More Heroes"; but it sure is OK to veg out and dream along with these lithe little pop songs, with Hugh Cornwell now cooing instead of growling the likes of "Let Me Down Easy" and "No Mercy," and especially "Skin Deep."…

Another Stranglers concept album, but a much lesser work than forerunner La Folie. While not an instant classic, it does repay repeated listening – especially the rustic English charms of "Midsummer Night's Dream" and the more Eurocentric "Last Tango in Paris" and "All Roads Lead to Rome." Instead of the belligerent tunefulness of yesteryear, the Stranglers were trying to expand their sound and reach…

The Stranglers worked better as a singles band than they did as album artists, but that doesn't mean that the double-disc, 43-track retrospective The Hit Men 1977-1991 is consistently engaging. Considerably older than their punk peers, the Stranglers nevertheless knocked out several terrific songs in their first records, including "(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)" and "Hanging Around," but by the mid-'80s they had become a little bland and predictable, as evidenced by covers of "96 Tears" and "All Day and All of the Night."…