Disco de The Stranglers: “Rattus Norvegicus [Remaster]”

This album is an absolute classic, great for putting on if you've had a bad day!

Although the general tone is of unadulterated anger typical of the punk era, it is rich both musically and lyrically. A one-mega tone bass is perfectly offset by almost medieval keyboards in the typical early Strangler's style. The lyrics go from insane, offensive and hilarious to moody, lovesick and serious but always seem to hit the mark.

At the time the Stranglers had recently moved to London. The sewer is a thinly veiled metaphor for the big city, the people are rats - hence the name of the album.

This is by far the best Strangler's Album.

When I was growing up in London in the 70's punk hit like a smack in the mouth and where I was there were two albums you bought, forget the Sex Pistols, even then they smacked of all hype and no substance, you were either a Clash or a Stranglers man (boy more accurately). And I bought The Clash, and, well, I rue that decision to this day.

Don't get me wrong, The Clash was and is a great album, much more so than the horribly overrated London Calling, but Rattus contains a mature punk fully born, as it were, in 1977 just at the start of the genre. Hanging Around is as good as it gets and with the Buzzcocks' Ever Fallen In Love stands as one of the two best songs of the genre. Yes think about it, what Clash song would you actually place above those two, not 'the album' but actual song?

And I don't rate Peaches, but that aside, Hanging Around, Grip and Sometimes, well those were the soundtrack to my teenage years and nostalgia aside, they are some of the best things to have come out of rock and roll, never mind punk, in the last thirty years.

This album, along with No More Heroes, Black & White and a bit later The Raven had a profound impact among our group of friends. Let me explain.

Being young adolescents by the end of the seventies we were impressed by the sounds coming (specially) from the New York and UK punk scenes. Yes, endless listening sessions enjoying what we found to be the music and the approach to art that we felt was right on time. Suicide, Patty Smith, Television were kind of the arty side for for us while The Ramones,The Voidoids, The Damned, obviously The Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, Avengers among many others ensured the party. But The Stranglers were different.

They could be complex, smart, and so threatening and obscure, yet powerful, that in a way it proposed quite a trip.

And maybe the explanation was that all four had a musical training or background that was way beyond the normal DIY "You don't need to know how to play" of the time, they concocted a professional sound without sacrificing the harsh edge they wanted. The mixing was also different: having the bass (and what a bass!) on top of the mix, the swirling, virtuoso organ and synth sounds were some were between a progressive, psychedelic (a bit Doors sounding in this record) and the dreamy and surreal, an impeccable straight, dry sounding, yet inventive drumming and an ever busy chilling guitar mostly at the back that was opposed to the normal fat driven guitars that characterized the sound of punk rock.

To complete the unusual package here we had a band that brought a rat as symbol and if you look carefully at the albums cover you'll discover another future icon of them: a meninblack.

try it...this was my first introduction to them, the one that got us hooked and made us embraced The Stranglers as "our" band and seeded the strong desire to pick up and instrument and just be yourself, that youc could do whatever you wanted and destroy al preconceptions, a work that we felt it had to be followed, so I went out to look from were I could get a bass from...

But it sure has anger and attitude in spades, which is just as good. So its more of a punk experiment if you will. Burell's bass sounds like a buzzsaw, Black's beats are steady, probably the most normal thing on the album, Greenfield is a very good keyboard player and his giddy sounds inspired a bunch of new wave, but Cornwell sure sounds mad and you hardly even notice his guitar until it's sound kicks you in the head. Its also the best one they did. The closest it gets to a contemporary punk song is "London Lady", but if any true punk listens to "Ugly", "Hanging Around", or "Peaches" they should understand what they were getting at. More of a Frank Zappa if he was English and had deep rooted punk influence.

The Stranglers were actually really good musicians, unlike most of the punk crowd. You can tell they're dumbing it down for the kids, but with smirk. Actually very clever and biting, like a hard-edged, intellectual Doors that wants your wallet.