Search - Stranglers :: Singles Box Set V.2

Excellent Collection from a great time for the Stranglers...

David O. Shantz | Marin, CA | 10/08/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In a time of punk revivals and new wave wannabes, it's appropriate that the Stranglers should release the second half of their singles box set, covering their output from 1979 to 1982.



Donning its leather jacket and heading for the streets, the collection takes a journey from the straight forward strange punk of Nuclear Device to the excellence of Strange Little Girl, popping over to Sweden and France for home language versions of, erm, Sweden and Don't Bring Harry along the way.

The quality of the collection says a great deal about the quality of the Stranglers at the time. This is post No More Heroes territory, the sound of a band growing and experimenting, sometimes with glorious results and other times with less than brilliant consequences.

For the most part, they fall into the former category. Nuclear Device has a ramshackle ridiculous charm, Don't Bring Harry is a dark brooder (as is its French cousin N'emmenes Pas Harry), Golden Brown remains one of the finest and unmistakably original tunes written, and Strange Little Girl is every bit as brilliantly ethereal and twisted today as the day it first rose from the crackling vinyl.

The downsides are fewer but there's enough here to show this wasn't the band's strongest period. Bear Cage at its best can only be described as a dull tune, Who Wants The World? loses itself in the beginnings of 80s pomp pop, and Sverige (Sweden in Swedish!) is one for the collector nerds amongst us only (though, that is who buy the most box sets so it probably justifies its inclusion).

Is this as good as the first half of the singles collection? Does Golden Brown beat No More Heroes? Its a question to be debated long into the night as you enjoy this selection, but one thing's for sure. This set proves the band were mainly good, but only occasionally excellent. That in itself, though, is an achievement. Who will be able to say that about the majority of today's pretenders?"