Customer Reviews

Feline

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is no doubt one of Stranglers greatest CDs! Listen to "Midnight Summer Dream", one of the best all-time, new wave song of the 80s! In addition, this CD contains the hit "Golden Brown" which is not available on the European version! AWESOME!

Each time i listen to this cd, i get more and more amazed of how the Stranglers were able to combine great melodic knowledge with very inspired lyrics, plus a notion of elegance which no other punk (or ex-punk) band could ever achieve. You could still surprise people in any electro-clash or in-crowd club with All Roads Lead To Rome (super-classy electro pop song!) or Permission. One of their artistic highs!

If you look at most of the punk bands from the mid to late 70's, they had pretty much rode their one trick pony into the ground and were the stuff of historians by the time this album came out. I rank this album up there with the best stuff the Stranglers ever created. Why? They were able to re-create themselves into a terrific sounding New Wave band. So few groups are able to do that. I mean, look at the Stones -- they haven't written anything new since "Tatoo You"!!

OK, I'm biased because this was the album that introduced me to the Stranglers and now I love everything by them up until Hugh left. Still, "European Female" is one of the best songs ever!

This is by far the best albumn in my collection of over 2000 and having worked at a music store in the early 80's....I heard it all. If you think you are buying a Stranglers CD you might be disapointed. I saw this band do this albumn live and it blew me away! They have never done anything close to it before or since. It is in a class of its own. Great albumn to drive with late at night....every song flows perfectly. You gotta hear it. If you like simple driving melodies with a beat you can count on...this it it. Ok maybe Shriekback (My Spine is the bass line) is good to accompany it. I highly reccomend this timeless CD and I only wish there were more like it somewhere...

Imagine my surprise many years ago when I first bought this album on a cassette expecting more tunes in the vein of "Rattus Norvegicus" and got instead a set that was so radically different it was hard to believe it was the same Stranglers, had it not been for the unmistakable voice of Hugh Cornwall and Dave Greenfield's keyboards, which now featured much more synth and much less Hammond organ.
"Feline" is a superb ethereal CD that might conjure up images of the Doors without the pretension at times, but primarily excelling in Euro-pop style. "Midsummer Night's Dream", with its cascading synthesizer opening and spoken word lyrics tells the listener that this time around, it's time to chill.
"Ships That Pass In The Night", with its flamenco guitar and beat and "Golden Brown" probably evoke the quieter Doors moments best, ala "Moonlight Drive", "I Can't See Your Face In My Mind", or most of their second album "Strange Days", for that matter.
The outstanding cut, the title track, is both dreamy and languid, the hooks taking one to a moonlight river bank and stars overhead. It's a moment you don't want to end. "All Roads Lead To Rome" is Euro-pop personified, with a bouncing hook and soft spoken lyrics. All in all, the Stranglers prove with this CD that they were, and are, by far the best musicians of the whole punk scene, and were resolute to show that at least some of the hairpin and mohawk crowd knew how to play. Hence, they are still with us, three decades later. A must have.

okay, so this isn't the best Stranglers album. We've established that, but for now, lets concentrate on the fact that this is one of the best new wave albums to be released. Ever. Who else could've blended electronica with the warmth of flemenco guitars? To be honest, I hated this when I got it. I mean, im 16 years old, and im a bit more of a hard music fan (what brought me into the Stranglers in the first place) but I listened to it while travelling through France with my mates, an since then, its probably been my favourate album I own. Considering I have over 300 albums, this one must be good. At the end of the day, it wont be everyones cup of tea, but if you open your ears and dont expect the older Stranglers sound, you wont be dissapointed.

When this was released in the UK a lot of original Stranglers' fans deserted the group. They had lost the power and aggressivity of their earlier offerings and were shortly to become a very bland outfit indeed. A bit like when U2 started to phase out the Edge's guitar, the Stranglers were never sure where to take their sound once they toned down JJ Burnel's booming bass and replaced their early keyboard sound with a more synthesised one. This album though does still offer something. It is the first to include acoustic guitars which many former punk bands were turning to at the time and the sound is not a disaster by any means. The bass-lines have become less booming and more lilting but they still form an interesting back-drop. The ideas had not yet entirely dried up for the song writing. If you want a punk album, you had better go for one of their superb earlier efforts. If you accept the need for groups to evolve and fancy something more mellow this album will be of interest to you, although it will not be the album they are remembered for.

A new record label, a new direction for the Stranglers. "Feline" is a much more laid-back album than anything before (or since, for that matter), and as such it stands out with "The Meninblack" as sonically the most distinctive. Here, the bass is less grumbly, the guitar is mostly acoustic, and Dave Greenfield's fairground organ has been replaced with a synth sound perhaps more typical of other bands of the time. It's a combination that allows the songs more time to breathe; only the fluttery "Let's Tango in Paris", a sort of electronic reprise of "Golden Brown" comes in well below four minutes. Overall, this is a much more polished sound than before. Fans of the earlier Stranglers may well say it's dull, but I think mellower is a better term.

Feline shows a softer side of The Stranglers, one many people are probably not aware of. Unlike other hard/punk bands however, they show their musicianship to best advantage. They know that sometimes not playing a note is even better than playing it. The waltzesque "Golden Brown" was a hit and shows that your stereo can be on two and still rock. Put this CD, along with, say, a Johnny Mathis and a This Mortal Coil CD's in the player, no one can deny you and your charms.

KINDA stripped DOWn their sound again,THIS BEING the dead NADIR YEARS MUSIC IN GENERAL,a switch to the MAJORS,hey even a record released over here AGAIN after black and whitea couple years black,FELINE IS saved despite its DRIBBLE into MIDDLE OF RADIO VILE,dial NON AGGRESSIVE PUNK VILE,NESS by its VERY fine,[suites me fine] FINE REFINENESS THE SONGS SWIM, headphone seventy HEADY STONE classic,better than pink flyod could do, VACANCY BUT WITH IN BOIL INTENSITY and LAST BUT NOT LEAST, the boys get serious with their no nosence sheer ensemble playing chops GORGEOUS,ear defining a bad era NOSE BLEEDIN,sub atomics DEFINING acoustics, explorations into kinda like RAVEN UNCHARTED TERRITORYS,TURN UP THE bass and PREPARE TO RUMBLE, gladiator MUSIC for the ARENAS of mind,