The Stranglers- Rattus Norvegicus (1977)

 

The Stranglers are a bit of an odd band, in hindsight. They’re usually lumped in broadly with the punk scene despite not being part of it: they feel more like a kind of keyboard-driven pub rock, which makes sense given that they’d already been together since 1974. Their sound, fully-formed on this debut album, owes a lot to the Doors, who in turn don’t really sound like their own era, except with laddish vocals. Sometimes very laddish vocals, as we shall see.

This album is astounding, and must have been even more so at the time when it must have sounded incredibly fresh. It’s not just “Hanging Around” or “Get a Grip (on Yourself”, both justifiably well-loved songs although I personally hate the 70s rock fashion for brackets in song titles. No; every song is superb, with killer keyboard riffs and menacing vocals. It’s a classic, and arguably underrated.

It’s just a shame about “Peaches”. Such a great song, such unambiguously and nastily misogynistic lyrics. Then there’s “I can think of a lot worse places to be/ like down in the streets/ or down in the sewer/ or even on the end of a skewer”, which... yeah. But this album, if you pretend it’s 1977, is astounding.