The Stranglers - Rattus Norvegicus AND No More Heroes [1977]

Life is a large turd, halfway down the pipe but sort of stuck in the U-Bend.
You are forever trying to prod it with a stick to get some clarity but you will never quite scrape the shit off until you really put some effort into it.

The new drug sucks.
I'm not going to dwell on it but take it from me, this is no way to get better!





The Stranglers! So I went off and I stood by my word. I listened to them. I listened and listened and then I watched a concert. Then another. Then another and another. I even watched them Live at the Royal Albert Hall, without the great lead singer of old though, playing with a ladies Orchestra wearing combats!
I found some great and rare stuff on the way and I think I can now truly say I KNOW The stranglers. I know how they have disbanded and evolved and changed over the years.
I know that after the second (third in some peoples' opinions...Hmm I'm undecided, it has some great tracks and some mush) they just ...went shit.
They did.

I can hardly listen to some of the shite that they have churned out over the years. I especially dislike their recent stuff.
If I could draw a line across their discography history and say when the best stuff was and when the worst was, I am afraid it wouldn't be very original and it does seem to be the most popular opinion: I would draw the line from now (shite) to their very first album (great!). It goes like a direct line from great to shit with no real turns or twists on the way.

I don't know how it can be.
They are a strange breed.
Not many bands do what they have done.
Most bands, with the talent they had/have would have made better and more solid tunes after such a start. I only say this as their first album is such a piece of creative expression, to me it's a work of art.
I'm being serious. I do think it's really that good. So it just seems ridiculous when I hear their fourth or their sixth album for instance...poor.
They got worse it seems.
Any ideas...?
I bring you then, in order of goodness, the two best Stranglers albums ever to exist and, sadly, ever likely to exist. there will be no more.
They will keep releasing stuff but, you will know what I mean after you listen..
Their first, a work of obvious Prog-Rock to my ears!
Who labelled this band 'punk'?
That is so off the mark as to be almost comical!!!
I mean, they don't even look the part of the punk bands that were around in the day they were walking about in their leather and suffering from weird gothic photo shoots that the likes of John Lydon would never have been seen in!

Gothic Photo Shoot not like anything The stranglers ever did...

The music is way off the scale of both ability and talent, as well as not being 'punk music' so I fail to see why or how they got such a genre shoved onto them when it just doesn't seem to fit well at all...
I always think of them as worthy of Prog rock as the likes of Caravan and Camel.. the real magicians at their craft.
When you listen to such tracks as 'Down in The Sewer' and when your ears hear, for the very first time, the grumbling bass-line introducing 'Goodbye Toulouse', you know you are witnessing something a bit special.
Something that amazes you.
Feel it.
It works.

The whole of the first album hits me that way. There are moments where it dips of course. I'm not saying it is a perfect record but it's about as close as it gets if you really let their music wash over you.
I am still only truly in love with this album. I am also posting the second but if I never got to hear it again and could only choose the first I would be very happy. :)
Here is their second which I hope you'll find to be a blaast. It isn't quite as much of a prog-rock sound, like Rattus Norvegicus was but still that magic is in there and you can hear it ;)
(Like that joint I just smoked...)



By the way this is 320K MP3 and it's the double CD Deluxe Version remastered (2009).
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No password.

LINKS:
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Rar Archives]
Album No 1 (No More Heroes)

mediafireAlbum No 2 (Rattus Norvegicus)
mediafire

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