He told me of the beauty hidden in our foreheads

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

23/01/83 : Feline - The Stranglers

I'm aware of some of The Stranglers output and seem to recall it is, to put it mildly, inconsistent.  So I've got absolutely no idea what to expect of this - but before we get there, we have another compilation album to consider...

...which is the appallingly titled Raiders Of The Pop Charts.  Complete with album cover featuring a man who looks nothing like Harrison Ford wearing an Indiana Jones hat.  Oh dear.  Yes, it's a Ronco special - amusingly not to be confusing with Australian K-tel version with exactly the same title.  It does have some decent tracks on there though - I'm feeling generous so I'd put the DTR at something like 70%, although there's some prime cheese in there including tracks from Toni Basil and Toto Coelo (you can probably guess which ones!).  It has some absolute dross on there as well though from Shakey, Tight Fit and Modern Romance.  And, obviously, it spent two weeks at #1 - I'd blame Christmas, but it happened in the middle of January.  But, move on we must, with The Stranglers.

And, oh lordy, this is a strange one.  I imagine it must have resulted in quite a few apoplectic fits from their original punk fans - I mean, they didn't like "Golden Brown" but at least that's a fine track with decent lyrics and an actual tune and stuff.  Whereas this album contains no such things - it's just odd.  At times I was reminded of Kraftwerk or early Spandau Ballet, but without either the skill (from the former) or enthusiasm (from the latter).  I'm struggling to understand why anyone would choose to listen to this - more than once, anyway!  And no, we certainly have never owned this - 13/50.

We're at #4 in the charts this week on their second of a ten week run - amazingly, it actually managed to climb in the charts this week.  Hadn't people heard the groans?  Above it in the charts were Men At Work, ROTPC and Phil Collins - the highest new entry was all the way down at #50 this week.  And it was, somewhat surprisingly The Very Best Of Cilla Black - I've looked and it does actually have more than "Anyone Who Had A Heart" on it.  The only other new entry in the entire top 100 was Jane Fonda's Workout at #77 - on the start of a 32 week run.

Wikipedia tells me this is their seventh album and they released their nineteenth last year - I had no idea they were still going!  Apparently the reaction from critics and fans for this album was mixed, although the quoted critics don't seem that mixed - "lackluster" and "boring" are both used twice.  It also didn't exactly set the world alight commercially - #16 in Norway is the best performance elsewhere.

"Customers also listened to" Ultravox. Magazine, The Teardrop Explodes and Blancmange - all of whom have produced far better work than this.  As, to be fair, have The Stranglers - their early stuff, despite not being my cup of tea, has bags of energy and anger, whereas this has, well, nothing.

16/01/83 - One I didn't mind at all
30/01/83 - An astonishing album, probably