The Stranglers

https://www.discogs.com/Stranglers-Coup-De-Grace/release/6713003

Strange choice, isn't it? Why "Coup De Grace"?

 

Let Them Eat Vinyl, hum. I thought they specialised in "gray market" releases (radio shows...).
They also reissued Written in Red, the live Friday the Thirteenth, and About Time, which is a superior album if memory serves (it's been a while since I listened to them).

 

Found a gold stamped UK promo of "Feline" today. Complete with "Aural Sculpture" 7" and insert. Was totally not aware that panther and bandlogo are embossed on this version which looks terrific. I also have a gold stamped (what is it about this album and promos???) US lp which adds "Golden Brown" to the tracklist and fangs (!) to the feline on the sleeve.

"Feline" is certainly a strange, dark and mellow album. I still don't know anything that sounds similar. And I wouldn't know how to describe it either. Always reminded me of a..... errrrr... a Mars bar.

 

Yeah all the old UK copies I've seen over the years had embossed sleeves, not sure when it was stopped. Interesting and weird about the fangs!

 

Yes that is weird. Even weirder having Golden Brown from the previous album added onto it. In the UK Golden Brown/La Folie was on the Liberty label and Feline was on their new label Epic. I guess in the USA there was different licensing/ labels?

The embossed UK sleeve is really nice. It is a strangely mellow album which I have always found a little hard to really love. It just seems to drift away into a listless Midnight Summer Dream! I much prefer the follow up Epic albums, Aural Sculpture and Dreamtime.

 

Listless is a good description. It's hard to tell if they're trying to get it together and semi-failing or if that washy feel is intentional. Some of the lyrics suggests the latter... ships passing in the night.... paradise is based on lies... we were ruins... glamour and despair.. etc etc.

Or maybe they were just very, very stoned

I adore Aural Sculpture... Ice Queen, Skin Deep, Uptown, Northwinds... fabulous stuff. I haven't heard Dreamtime since the 80s, maybe I should re-buy it, I don't know what happened to my copy.

 

Maybe the US promoters wanted to give this album some teeth at last

The 7" is hilarious in its smugness. I know that little pamphlet fromsomewhere. Did it possibly end up on the cover of "Aural Sculpture"?

That's the one I should rebuy. Haven't heard it in ages. Not sure how it has aged but....hey.... an expensive copy will set me back 5€.

 

La Folie hadn't been released in the US, so Feline was really its debut.

 

"La Folie" and "The Collection" didn't have US releases. The "Feline" album itself lists ASCAP for all titles so maybe the US publisher was the same for Liberty and CBS so Epic could use "Golden Brown".

I have always liked the artwork, when I saw it first early 1983 in one of my dad's music mags I knew I needed to have a copy of that "Panther record". Didn't know anything about Norwegian rats back then

 

Yeah, cheaper even than that maybe for a CD and vinyl is IMO pointless for that one as it's quite digital-sounding anyway. I have an old USA CD of it which sounds about as good as anyone could need. It's a bit dated in places like a like a lot of 80s pop/rock, but the great songs shine through.

 

I always wondered why a tune "Golden Brown" didn't crack North America (USA and Canada).

 

Crack? Because it's about heroin?!

Seriously, I found "Written In Red" dirt cheap on vinyl and since I only know "About Time" and "Giants" I'm curious what to expect.

 

Probably because it never got any airplay, except for maybe College Radio and in L.A. or New York or somewhere on a good "alternative" station. There actually was a few of them back in the day.

MTV did occasionally play the video clip as I recall, but at midnight on Sundays on the "120 Minutes" show.

 

Did anyone ever get a definitive answer on which masterings these were [40th anniversary 11 album set]?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00I614CN6?tag=shtv.uk-21

 

The standard remasters IIRC.

 

Funny that they don't have the bonus tracks the reissues had, though. At least for the early Hugh albums...

 

My all-time favourite track of theirs:

"Walk On By" - The Stranglers.
I wonder what Messrs Bacharach and David thought about this version.

 

Never liked them in the punk years.
Early eighties ..yeah.
Saying that I like their 1977 period now
What's their best album, debut?

 

"Rattus Norwegicus", "Black & White" and "The Raven".

 

What's the fatboy singles CDs like?

 

No idea what you are talking about....

 

Uk singles 1977/82

 

I only know "Golden Brown" because it is on a compilation I own: "Soft Metal - It ain't heavy". I've always like the tune though.

Various - Soft Metal - It Ain't Heavy...

 

Great but not great enough. First five albums are all classics. Yes, that includes TGATTMIB. And, Dave was from out of town!

 

I'd include the 2nd album <recorded mostly along with the 1st album sessions>, "No More Heroes".