Dark Matters - Initial Thoughts/Reviews

[toilerinblack]

I think Stan doesn't like it , everyone has their opinion fair enough , I am not keen on Giants but all albums rank 1 to 18 ..........one is always unfortunate enough to be 18th no matter how good , bad or indifferent.
Anyway ............
On first listen there are tracks that I like ......Water , NML , Payday , White Stallion , This Song and Moon , that's 3 more than I like on Giants .
Dave and If something I guess I will tire with over time ......
Lines , Down and Breathe just not for me , Lines seems like filler and Breathe could almost.......almost nearly become a jazz thing, the saving of it is it isn't quite jazz BUT all those are still better than the two worst on previous album.
Overall a very good , very different album .I do like this one overall , on par with Suite and Norfolk and far superior to Giants, sorry to those who don't like comparisons or ratings but you have to have something with which to draw comparisons .I guess next will be the "where does this one rank overall " thing , but I do think it should be given time for the euphoria to die down and see how time treats it . A release though worthy of the band's name imo .

Yes everybody to their own like you say it's everybody's like's and dislike's,i have to say i think this album is their best post Hugh and i'm a massive NC fan,but overall this has to get the nod above it post hugh.I would say post hugh DM first followerd By NC then Suite as three of their best post hugh.For me forget all the songs of all their albums post hugh what stands out better than the rest musically?....Jim's contribution just listen to each of DM tracks percussion and Louie's overall production work on each of DM tracks ...both of them bloody good! well they've all done their bit.

[StanInBlack]

Side two.

PAYDAY
JJ really pushing the boat out here lyrically by writing yet another song about revenge, while adding to the mix of "so far, so heard-it-all-before", Baz does his best impression on the guitar of he-who-shall-not-be-named-in-this-review circa 1979. Basically, "Payday" is pretty much a bog standard, serviceable but unspectacular MKII+ rocker, although somehow it still manages to be better than anything from the preceding album. It features possibly the least offensive (to my ears) Baz vocals on the record for the most part, until the "bisted and Twitter" lyric ruins any goodwill I could have possibly built up towards the song, being so awful that it pretty much spoils the whole track for me. Yeah, I get that Baz got tongue tied and it was probably funny as fuck for about five minutes, but did it warrant being documented down in a song for people to buy? No, it didn't. The middle eight swing-a-ding-ding-dong section is initially an interesting deviation, but it ultimately adds nothing to the song.

DOWN
Ugh. If I had to pick the actual nadir of this entire record song-wise, this would be it - "The Lines" is short, at least. I don't really have much to say about this one, except that it perhaps wouldn't have sounded out of place out of Coup de Grace, and that really isn't a compliment. Fortunately, JJ's vocal - although utterly miserable sounding - is far from "Known Only Unto God"-style tuneless Pavarotti-isms, and come to think of it I've actually enjoyed JJ's singing on this record on the whole. But yeah, I really don't like this song, and it's not a song I'm going to return to often.

THE LAST MEN ON THE MOON
In its live form, I really didn't think much of this song. In its studio version, I still don't think it's great. Having said that, it's enhanced by elements of the production. Whoever is playing keyboard on this song (I'm guessing Dave himself) is channeling their inner Tony Banks, and I don't have a problem with the effects on the vocals as they fit the song, although I'll concede that I think it would have been even better with a different singer. The snare sound on this is awful though, a really muffled snare sound with very little punch, and Jim is continuing to play with his usual trademark stiffness which doesn't help. It's one of the longer songs on the record - which I'm fine with - although I can't help but wonder how many more listens it would take before it felt like it was too long. As an aside, Wolf Alice have a song on their album released this year called "The Last Man on Earth" ... it's a better song than this.

WHITE STALLION
Oh fucking dear. "White Stallion" is the penultimate track, which traditionally is the position on the album where artists tend to either place the "filler" track or something a little bit more experimental, and while there are certainly songs on this album that you could point to as obvious filler ("The Lines", for example), "White Stallion" still comes across as a filler track to me, or at least an exercise in maximalism that doesn't work. On one hand, you've got the song itself, which as a melody/lyric/chord progression etc. isn't really all that great. On the other hand, you've got the production which - although I don't actually have a problem with big production (on the contrary, I tend to gravitate towards albums that are very "produced") - is extremely heavy-handed and overdone, to the point where it becomes borderline unlistenable. It's well worth pointing out at this point that whoever mastered this album - at least for digital - has fucked it up royally. The album is loud, compressed and painful to listen at any reasonable volume. When you combine the overdone, hyper-maximalism of this track with the mastering, it makes for a grim experience. As with "Dave...", Baz's vocal comes in on the middle eight and fucks up the proceedings as usual.

BREATHE
The more positive thing I can say about this track is that it starts off promisingly enough. It establishes a laconic vibe early on, and even briefly incorporates some Stereolab-esque loungemusik which initially got me thinking that this might develop into some hidden gem of the album. Unfortunately, the more the track winds on, the more the tedium sets in. Baz sounds half-asleep, and its merits as a song in and of itself are questionable - it's not particularly exciting nor engaging. Even when the band kick in it doesn't even provide relief from the interminable tedium, since (as said before) rather than kick the track up a gear, the loud mastering renders the experience completely painful. Now, this curious mixture of tedium and discomfort would be worth enduring if the track wasn't an unengaging, meandering, tune-free borefest. I suspect that this was supposed to be the "epic closer", the proggy track from the album, but unfortunately it doesn't really have all that much going for it and fails spectacularly at bringing the proceedings to a close with any sort of purpose. It's like the whole album has led up to what essentially is a bit of a damp squib.



SUMMARY
Dark Matters is a better album than Giants - and while the band (whoever they may be at this point) take more risks on this album than on, say, Norfolk Coast or Suite XVI, the songwriting isn't quite up to the same level. It's difficult for me to imagine any of these songs becoming future live favourites, with the likes of "Payday", "Water" and "This Song" etc. being tracks that the band'll mostly play to people who are just sticking around to hear what they're REALLY there to hear: "No More Heroes", "Grip", "Golden Brown", "Always the Sun". There isn't even a "Norfolk Coast", a "Spectre of Love" or even a "Mine All Mine" on this. Also, this doesn't really feel like a Stranglers record to me. The absence of Jet has had more of an overall affect on The Stranglers' sound than even I'd anticipated, and even though the sleeve disingenuously states "all songs written by The Stranglers", the Spotify credits (and by extension the actual publishing credits) state that all songs are written by Burnel/Warne aside from "No Man's Land" (Burnel/Macaulay/Warne) and "This Song" (Burnel/Seamarks/Warne) - the overall effect (for me) is that feels less like a Stranglers album, but more like the debut of JJ Burnel & Baz Warne as a duo with Dave guesting on the record, and Jim and Louie as session musicians.

Given that they've managed to make an album that is better than Giants, and given that Jet and Dave are no longer in the band, and especially since I feel that JJ's vocal contributions are better than Baz's on this album, I think it's the perfect time to wind the band down. Nothing lasts forever, and I think a JJ solo album (or even a JJ & Baz duo album, providing that JJ was the driving force) would be great.

[toilerinblack]

Each to their own as usual but for me this album is their best for me post Hugh.This album has CREATIVENESS along with their best PRODUCTION SOUND.i don't know about this band moving forwards but this review of DM which does include Dave's work and with Jim being clearly of a very high standard overall they have produced an album of the highest degree with the quality of them as musicians playing their intstruments,quality of the songs and on the albums overall production is very good and i give them full credit.

[Dom P]

After so much excitement, waiting for this record to be released, Townsend Records have let me down big time. The record has surface scuffs, indents on it and has a dirty film on it. It crackles and pops like a second hand record.

It's on its way back - it will be apple music for me now until I get a replacement, but it has spoilt the whole thing of getting the record, sitting down and looking at the lyrics as you listen etc.

Gutted and pissed off of Manchester.

I wonder whether they cut corners on quality control as they know a fair number of buyers never even unwrap the things?

My vinyls were perfect. Just bad luck I guess at the picking factory....

[Greatkudu]

Only a few negative reviews on here. Lt kudu.

[Jake]

After so much excitement, waiting for this record to be released, Townsend Records have let me down big time. The record has surface scuffs, indents on it and has a dirty film on it. It crackles and pops like a second hand record.

It's on its way back - it will be apple music for me now until I get a replacement, but it has spoilt the whole thing of getting the record, sitting down and looking at the lyrics as you listen etc.

Gutted and pissed off of Manchester.

I wonder whether they cut corners on quality control as they know a fair number of buyers never even unwrap the things?

My vinyls were perfect. Just bad luck I guess at the picking factory....

I’ve mentioned factory damage to new vinyl on another thread, it’s frustrating like f.. happened a few times to me I’ve got the red vinyl version of DM, one or two very minor surface marks which don’t affect playing quality meaning just about ok and won’t be chasing a replacement. I think one of the major problems is there are not enough pressing plants to meet demand, orders have to be made so far in advance, and I guess they simple won’t check every vinyl is ok.

[Arthur Streeb-Greebling]

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[ricam]

Side two.

PAYDAY
JJ really pushing the boat out here lyrically by writing yet another song about revenge, while adding to the mix of "so far, so heard-it-all-before", Baz does his best impression on the guitar of he-who-shall-not-be-named-in-this-review circa 1979. Basically, "Payday" is pretty much a bog standard, serviceable but unspectacular MKII+ rocker, although somehow it still manages to be better than anything from the preceding album. It features possibly the least offensive (to my ears) Baz vocals on the record for the most part, until the "bisted and Twitter" lyric ruins any goodwill I could have possibly built up towards the song, being so awful that it pretty much spoils the whole track for me. Yeah, I get that Baz got tongue tied and it was probably funny as fuck for about five minutes, but did it warrant being documented down in a song for people to buy? No, it didn't. The middle eight swing-a-ding-ding-dong section is initially an interesting deviation, but it ultimately adds nothing to the song.

DOWN
Ugh. If I had to pick the actual nadir of this entire record song-wise, this would be it - "The Lines" is short, at least. I don't really have much to say about this one, except that it perhaps wouldn't have sounded out of place out of Coup de Grace, and that really isn't a compliment. Fortunately, JJ's vocal - although utterly miserable sounding - is far from "Known Only Unto God"-style tuneless Pavarotti-isms, and come to think of it I've actually enjoyed JJ's singing on this record on the whole. But yeah, I really don't like this song, and it's not a song I'm going to return to often.

THE LAST MEN ON THE MOON
In its live form, I really didn't think much of this song. In its studio version, I still don't think it's great. Having said that, it's enhanced by elements of the production. Whoever is playing keyboard on this song (I'm guessing Dave himself) is channeling their inner Tony Banks, and I don't have a problem with the effects on the vocals as they fit the song, although I'll concede that I think it would have been even better with a different singer. The snare sound on this is awful though, a really muffled snare sound with very little punch, and Jim is continuing to play with his usual trademark stiffness which doesn't help. It's one of the longer songs on the record - which I'm fine with - although I can't help but wonder how many more listens it would take before it felt like it was too long. As an aside, Wolf Alice have a song on their album released this year called "The Last Man on Earth" ... it's a better song than this.

WHITE STALLION
Oh fucking dear. "White Stallion" is the penultimate track, which traditionally is the position on the album where artists tend to either place the "filler" track or something a little bit more experimental, and while there are certainly songs on this album that you could point to as obvious filler ("The Lines", for example), "White Stallion" still comes across as a filler track to me, or at least an exercise in maximalism that doesn't work. On one hand, you've got the song itself, which as a melody/lyric/chord progression etc. isn't really all that great. On the other hand, you've got the production which - although I don't actually have a problem with big production (on the contrary, I tend to gravitate towards albums that are very "produced") - is extremely heavy-handed and overdone, to the point where it becomes borderline unlistenable. It's well worth pointing out at this point that whoever mastered this album - at least for digital - has fucked it up royally. The album is loud, compressed and painful to listen at any reasonable volume. When you combine the overdone, hyper-maximalism of this track with the mastering, it makes for a grim experience. As with "Dave...", Baz's vocal comes in on the middle eight and fucks up the proceedings as usual.

BREATHE
The more positive thing I can say about this track is that it starts off promisingly enough. It establishes a laconic vibe early on, and even briefly incorporates some Stereolab-esque loungemusik which initially got me thinking that this might develop into some hidden gem of the album. Unfortunately, the more the track winds on, the more the tedium sets in. Baz sounds half-asleep, and its merits as a song in and of itself are questionable - it's not particularly exciting nor engaging. Even when the band kick in it doesn't even provide relief from the interminable tedium, since (as said before) rather than kick the track up a gear, the loud mastering renders the experience completely painful. Now, this curious mixture of tedium and discomfort would be worth enduring if the track wasn't an unengaging, meandering, tune-free borefest. I suspect that this was supposed to be the "epic closer", the proggy track from the album, but unfortunately it doesn't really have all that much going for it and fails spectacularly at bringing the proceedings to a close with any sort of purpose. It's like the whole album has led up to what essentially is a bit of a damp squib.



SUMMARY
Dark Matters is a better album than Giants - and while the band (whoever they may be at this point) take more risks on this album than on, say, Norfolk Coast or Suite XVI, the songwriting isn't quite up to the same level. It's difficult for me to imagine any of these songs becoming future live favourites, with the likes of "Payday", "Water" and "This Song" etc. being tracks that the band'll mostly play to people who are just sticking around to hear what they're REALLY there to hear: "No More Heroes", "Grip", "Golden Brown", "Always the Sun". There isn't even a "Norfolk Coast", a "Spectre of Love" or even a "Mine All Mine" on this. Also, this doesn't really feel like a Stranglers record to me. The absence of Jet has had more of an overall affect on The Stranglers' sound than even I'd anticipated, and even though the sleeve disingenuously states "all songs written by The Stranglers", the Spotify credits (and by extension the actual publishing credits) state that all songs are written by Burnel/Warne aside from "No Man's Land" (Burnel/Macaulay/Warne) and "This Song" (Burnel/Seamarks/Warne) - the overall effect (for me) is that feels less like a Stranglers album, but more like the debut of JJ Burnel & Baz Warne as a duo with Dave guesting on the record, and Jim and Louie as session musicians.

Given that they've managed to make an album that is better than Giants, and given that Jet and Dave are no longer in the band, and especially since I feel that JJ's vocal contributions are better than Baz's on this album, I think it's the perfect time to wind the band down. Nothing lasts forever, and I think a JJ solo album (or even a JJ & Baz duo album, providing that JJ was the driving force) would be great.

I'm working long shifts (thanks NHS) this weekend so I'll no time to listen yet but I'm going to say (judging by Stans numerous MK5 posts) that this is a tentative thumbs up from the man?
I may, of course, be completely wrong on that. .


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[db63]

it’s clever ,bad in places and very beautiful it’s everything the band has ever been for me a mish mash of genius.,it’s getting stranger the more rums I’m drinking .
Long live the stranglers .

[Jake]

I'm working long shifts (thanks NHS) this weekend so I'll no time to listen yet but I'm going to say (judging by Stans numerous MK5 posts) that this is a tentative thumbs up from the man?
I may, of course, be completely wrong on that. .


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Yes, Stan is a huge fan of Dark Matters

[Arthur Streeb-Greebling]

I'm working long shifts (thanks NHS) this weekend so I'll no time to listen yet but I'm going to say (judging by Stans numerous MK5 posts) that this is a tentative thumbs up from the man?
I may, of course, be completely wrong on that. .


Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk

Yes, Stan is a huge fan of Dark Matters

It was a very positive review for a change.

[Arthur Streeb-Greebling]

it’s clever ,bad in places and very beautiful it’s everything the band has ever been for me a mish mash of genius.,it’s getting stranger the more rums I’m drinking .
Long live the stranglers .

On my 5th Whisky so it could be the effects of that too but I’m beginning to think it’s definitely the best album post Hugh. The Stranglers first 6 albums are imho the best run of albums by any band so this album isn’t going amongst those but I think it’s slowly edging in and towards my top 10 Stranglers album.