Customer Reviews

Rattus Norvegicus

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More often than not in magazine articles, books and television documentaries about UK Punk Rock, The Stranglers are ignored or at best written off as `not really Punk'. The reality back in 1977 when `Stranglers IV (Rattus Norvegicus)' was released was that the band were the Punk Rock group of choice for the majority of the original UK punk rock kids (both cognoscenti and latecomers) alongside the Sex Pistols. While the latter bands' musical brilliance was often overwhelmed by the Jubilee year media circus their manager Malcom McLaren exploited, The Stranglers relied on their multicoloured, malevolent music and their own eldritch personas.
For original punks like myself, who could relate to the youthfulness of The Sex Pistols, The Stranglers were not boys but mature men - and all the scarier and more significant for it. The Stranglers summoned up the feeling of walking around British towns at night in the late seventies for young men, full of fear, unrequited lust, misanthropic romanticism, sick of the violence and sex we saw everywhere, the former so close, the latter often frustratingly beyond our youthful reach. Branded as sexist bullies by the music press, the band were merely honest: young men often are aggressive and lustful. Their music is misanthropic, but it has a shadowy existential beauty, heartrending melodic sentiments reminiscent of The Doors often pouring out of a scree of uptempo noise like that of The Velvet Underground, but always uniquely The Stranglers. To lay one myth to rest, their music was never a problem for women either - there were (and still are) plenty of girls at their gigs.
Containing two hit singles (the corcuscating `Grip', whose tumbling psychedelic organ riffs are counterpointed by the Coltranesque sax motif played by Welsh coalminer session man Eric Clarke and the top ten smash `Peaches', whose killer cod-reggae moog and bass groove provides perfect backing for this unashamed and refreshing admission of male lust for the opposite sex), `Rattus' peaked in the UK at number 2 and helped the band become the top selling band in Britain in 1977 with the exception of Abba and The Eagles: of course, they also sold more records than all the UK Punk groups put together for the first few years of their existence - even now it is uncertain if The Clash & The Pistols have ever outsold them cumulatively.
`Goodbye Toulouse' is a romantic stomper, a kind of Punk `Song For Europe' while the mammoth `Down In The Sewer' is gritty science fiction with a Ray Bradbury `something wicked this way comes' carnival organ, vertiginously melodic guitar and a prog-rock coda that kicked the ass of proficiency somewhat. `Ugly' , one of the most vicious sounding pieces of music in history (including `Sister Ray') references Shelley and Burnel's shouted line in the middle of the song when the music stops still shocks. `Sometimes', `Princess of the Street' and `Hanging Around' remain the definitive portraits of the cold, wet, dark, dreary but horribly exciting British street nightlife of the Punk era.
This album showcases the band at their first peak: recorded live in the studio, with equal weight given to keyboards and bass as the guitar in a production that reveals them as stylists both technically proficient and quirkily unique: J.J. Burnel, whose savage sound confirms the bass as a lead instrument in rock, up there with Eberhardt Weber, Barry Adamson, Mick Karn, John Cale and Chris Hillman. Dave Greenfield, the Hendrix of rock keyboards, whose technical ability would within a year outstrip that of Wakeman, Lord, Banks or Emerson already had a better grasp of melody and structure than any of them, his riffs as complex as solos, his lightning solos out of this world. Hugh Cornwell, whose Robbie Kreiger via VU guitar alternately grated like bells struck with sandpapered hammers before pulling off solos of unparalleled lyrical angst. Finally, I must mention Jet Black, the solid, evocative drummer, whose cymbal crashes on `Princess of the Streets' are a perfect example of affect in simplicity. The vocals, shared between Burnel and Cornwell are full of both ire and longing. The ultimate strength of the Stranglers is that nothing is wasted, no instrument or voice is `lead' or overly foregrounded - this is a band, not a frontman with a guitar backed by bass and keyboards you cannot distinctly hear. Kudos to the brilliant Martin Rushent, better known for producing the Human League, whose finest moment this is rather than those he enjoyed with the Sheffield synthesists.
So that was true Punk Rock in 1977, not the political claptrap you've been told - The Stranglers formed at much the same time as The Sex Pistols and sold more records and never compromised- they even had a keyboard player, a true mark of real Punk Rock authenticity/audacity before the Stalinist formula of Clash-esque politically correct protest (leave it to Bob Dylan, Strummer!) and the uniform punk look drove the artists out of the scene. There are few records as angry, as lysergically colourful and as decadently lyrical as Rattus Norvegicus. Hear it and live the reality of UK Punk Rock 1977 while marvelling at how few bands can play this dynamically now.

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.

Yep, I was punk back then. I had the leather jacket and the hair to prove it. Did we regard the Stranglers as Punk? To be honest I don't recall but what I can tell you is that we loved the Stranglers, really loved them. They looked and sounded so damned good on stage but spit or jeer at your peril. This is a band who have been known to pick a fight with the entire audience - and win.

This is one of those album that will stay with you from the first time you hear it. The keyboards are fantastic, the drumming solid and Cornwall's vocals are perfect but its JJ Burnel's bass that gives it that unforgettable sound. I have read so many band interviews where the bass player names Burnel as a major influence and its not hard to see why - he is better than Entwistle was with the Who.

If I were to name favourites it would be hard but the tracks I tend to replay are Goodbye Toulouse and Hanging Around .

No go get `Black and White'.

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.

It's hard to say if this is a classic or not. Some will hate it and even those who love it can find a bit of fault. Despite the imperfections, this is still a great listen when you're in the mood for some impeccably played bile. The Stranglers may have actually been more punk than the media acknowleged punks. They were aging, lecherous working class pub rockers and owned that image to the hilt. Their sound is a melange of Doors, Seeds, Zappa and red light district sleaze.

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...

I'll never forget when my little brother first brought this album home and we listened to it. I knew the Stranglers were good because I had snagged a single of theirs, but "Rattus Norvegicus" just blew our minds. Hugh Cornwell's snarling vocals, Jean-Jacque Burnel's incredibly muscular bass, the swirling keyboards, the slashing guitars, the dark and poetic imagery of the lyrics.

They were unlike any other punk band of the time. Just as mean and dangerous, but following their own muse, adding their own influences to the pot. The use of keyboards alone made them iconoclasts. I always figured that they were big Doors fans, which is something other punk bands of the time would probably have sneered at.

I consider "Rattus Norvegicus" to be their finest and most cohesive album. They have other excellent albums, like "No More Heroes" and "The Raven", but for my money, this is the one to get.

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.

I got hooked on this album in Jordan. Two American punk rock fans listened to this album and The Clash all the time. While I really liked The Clash, too, Rattus Norvegicus was simply the bomb. It grows on you fast.

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.