Thursday, March 19, 2015

We didn't have much idea of the kind of climate waiting (The Stranglers) #388 - 389

The Stranglers Nice 'N' Sleazy/ Shut Up (United Artists, K 7123, 1978)
The Stranglers Skin Deep/ Here And There (Epic, ES 1006, 1984)

Guilty pleasure? The Stranglers fit the bill. 

Nice 'N' Sleazy is almost a manifesto for the band who were often accused of sexism amongst other things (live versions of N'N'S often used strippers to make some sort of point).

Again, it's the stabbing guitars that I love here and the barking mad Moog solo. Remember this is in the aftermath of punk!

By 1984 the band had gone through a few musical changes; the mid tempo hit Skin Deep (like Golden Brown) could not have happened in the early Get A Grip days. At the time it secured a lot of airtime and made the top 20 in New Zealand.

Hidden gems:  Not really times two - Shut Up is a punk thrash which quite rightly didn't appear on the parent album (Black and White).

Here And Now is also rare in that it didn't appear on the parent album (Aural Sculpture) but has turned up as a (dubious) bonus track since then.

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