Favourite album and why

[Greatkudu]

Fuck we have so many albums,thanks Hugh,Jet,JJ and Dave the greatest band ever,and thats a given.Major Smith.

[toilerinblack]

Fuck we have so many albums,thanks Hugh,Jet,JJ and Dave the greatest band ever,and thats a given.Major Smith.

Yes your right so many albums now that's all water under the bridge now i can see what happened...more great lyrics from Hugh from Heatrbreak at seven.

[Greatkudu]

Fuck we have so many albums,thanks Hugh,Jet,JJ and Dave the greatest band ever,and thats a given.Major Smith.

Yes your right so many albums now that's all water under the bridge now i can see what happened.

Sir I must apologize,I have had 3 glasses of 13% Italian wine,but god what a fantastic collection of albums,even 10 has mostly good songs,the only weak one is in this place but it's still good,RTB fucked it up,sitting on top of the world should have been on their,a great song end of,thats a given,she blew a fuse,I was confused.Lt General of Arms Kudu.

[StanInBlack]

I don’t have a least favourite album but 10 with its over production and that fucking cringy ghastly where I live song give ghost train from dream time a run for its money

I quite like "Ghost Train", and rate Dreamtime quite highly overall. Plenty of things went wrong with 10, though. A crap atmosphere within the band itself definitely wouldn't have helped matters, but factor in the fact that they had to record the album twice (the second time with a completely unsuitable producer) and that it wasn't a great songwriting period for them and it just makes for a really shitty experience. In hindsight, it feels to me like Hugh saved all of his best songs for Wolf, not to mention it sounds like he had an absolute blast making that record. The production on Wolf is leagues ahead of that on 10, and the musicians are performing enthusiastically whereas the band on 10 sound stale and stagnant. It's no surprise to me, therefore, that the band went tits up afterwards. Splitting up after the tour for Dreamtime would have been the thing to do in hindsight, ending things on a high with "Too Precious" being their swan song rather than going out on a whimper, and it would have given Wolf more of an opportunity to shine as Hugh would have been able to dedicate more time to promoting it.

[aldinblack]

I don’t have a least favourite album but 10 with its over production and that fucking cringy ghastly where I live song give ghost train from dream time a run for its money

I quite like "Ghost Train", and rate Dreamtime quite highly overall. Plenty of things went wrong with 10, though. A crap atmosphere within the band itself definitely wouldn't have helped matters, but factor in the fact that they had to record the album twice (the second time with a completely unsuitable producer) and that it wasn't a great songwriting period for them and it just makes for a really shitty experience. In hindsight, it feels to me like Hugh saved all of his best songs for Wolf, not to mention it sounds like he had an absolute blast making that record. The production on Wolf is leagues ahead of that on 10, and the musicians are performing enthusiastically whereas the band on 10 sound stale and stagnant. It's no surprise to me, therefore, that the band went tits up afterwards. Splitting up after the tour for Dreamtime would have been the thing to do in hindsight, ending things on a high with "Too Precious" being their swan song rather than going out on a whimper, and it would have given Wolf more of an opportunity to shine as Hugh would have been able to dedicate more time to promoting it.

yeah...for me most of the songs are good on 10, there's obviously a few howlers ie Place & Where I Live.
But generally the songs are good and NTLB is still one of JJ's goodens.
It's just the whole way it was played/produced. And then you've got another cover version for the hit single..
There's almost just an apathetic feel to the whole thing....

Ghost Train I find very interesting, in that I've never been able to decide whether I like it or not !

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[Jon the Impaler]

I don’t have a least favourite album but 10 with its over production and that fucking cringy ghastly where I live song give ghost train from dream time a run for its money

I quite like "Ghost Train", and rate Dreamtime quite highly overall. Plenty of things went wrong with 10, though. A crap atmosphere within the band itself definitely wouldn't have helped matters, but factor in the fact that they had to record the album twice (the second time with a completely unsuitable producer) and that it wasn't a great songwriting period for them and it just makes for a really shitty experience. In hindsight, it feels to me like Hugh saved all of his best songs for Wolf, not to mention it sounds like he had an absolute blast making that record. The production on Wolf is leagues ahead of that on 10, and the musicians are performing enthusiastically whereas the band on 10 sound stale and stagnant. It's no surprise to me, therefore, that the band went tits up afterwards. Splitting up after the tour for Dreamtime would have been the thing to do in hindsight, ending things on a high with "Too Precious" being their swan song rather than going out on a whimper, and it would have given Wolf more of an opportunity to shine as Hugh would have been able to dedicate more time to promoting it.

Overall I think Dreamtime is a solid album. A few poorer songs but it's by far better than the two albums it sits between ,Aural and 10.....both of which I rate as among the band's worst ,10 being the nadir alongside Giants .
I don't know the good bits about Wolf as like most of Hugh's stuff since I haven't bothered, so whether he kept his best stuff back I can't comment , but let's face it , it's not difficult being better than 10.If as you say he kept stuff back then would that imply he was looking at leaving earlier than he has always said . Agree though that 10 was a whimper to a once great band .

[theraven1979]

Jeeze - 10 ain't that bad - I do recall at the time they got a fair bit of publicity off it. One thing I will say though is the Stranglers MKI just doesn't date at all however, 10 does sound very of it's time mainly due to the layers and layers of sickly sweet production.

Jim

[StanInBlack]

It's occurred to me recently that the only time I ever listen to 10 is if I'm binge-listening to the band. I don't think I've ever thought to myself "I fancy listening to a Stranglers album today, I'll put 10 on", especially when I can choose from any one of the 9 before it instead. When I do listen to 10, it seems to be almost never for enjoyment, it almost always seems to involve checking to see if it's grown on me in any way. It still hasn't really, outside of a few songs. I'll always rate "Instead of This" and "Poisonality" from that period, though, and it's still preferable to anything released after it that had The Stranglers' logo slapped on it.

[Jon the Impaler]

It's occurred to me recently that the only time I ever listen to 10 is if I'm binge-listening to the band. I don't think I've ever thought to myself "I fancy listening to a Stranglers album today, I'll put 10 on", especially when I can choose from any one of the 9 before it instead. When I do listen to 10, it seems to be almost never for enjoyment, it almost always seems to involve checking to see if it's grown on me in any way. It still hasn't really, outside of a few songs. I'll always rate "Instead of This" and "Poisonality" from that period, though, and it's still preferable to anything released after it that had The Stranglers' logo slapped on it.

I don't listen to much these days compared to what I used to , but 10 would be very low on the list .I have listened of late but hasn't in any way changed my opinion on 10 as I got a few demo recordings , not only this but Raven, Aural , Dreamtime , ITN and some ither stuff .......just interested an alternative versions plus stuff that didn't make albums . Said loads about 10 in the past and my opinion doesn't really change .....I think the only real shift in opinion has been WIR from hating it to accepting as a different type of sound and reasonably ok , if you accept it for what it is , an album from the band where some weren't interested .
Anyway this is about favourite albums and Stranglers wise it's Raven & B&W .

[toilerinblack]

I don’t have a least favourite album but 10 with its over production and that fucking cringy ghastly where I live song give ghost train from dream time a run for its money

I quite like "Ghost Train", and rate Dreamtime quite highly overall. Plenty of things went wrong with 10, though. A crap atmosphere within the band itself definitely wouldn't have helped matters, but factor in the fact that they had to record the album twice (the second time with a completely unsuitable producer) and that it wasn't a great songwriting period for them and it just makes for a really shitty experience. In hindsight, it feels to me like Hugh saved all of his best songs for Wolf, not to mention it sounds like he had an absolute blast making that record. The production on Wolf is leagues ahead of that on 10, and the musicians are performing enthusiastically whereas the band on 10 sound stale and stagnant. It's no surprise to me, therefore, that the band went tits up afterwards. Splitting up after the tour for Dreamtime would have been the thing to do in hindsight, ending things on a high with "Too Precious" being their swan song rather than going out on a whimper, and it would have given Wolf more of an opportunity to shine as Hugh would have been able to dedicate more time to promoting it.

i agree with a lot of what you have said here i too really like "Ghost Train" with just incredible Hugh vocals that probably would of been a hard song to do live i'd imagine especially the long Hugh vocals that ends the song a real strain on the voice but i still would of liked to of heard a live version of such a great song from such a great album.The bit about calling it a day after Dreamtime with "Too Precious" would like you say be one hell of a swan song agreed,but i wouldn't of got to of heard "10" and i maybe in the minority really loved a good half or more of "10" that did have some great songs that i wouldn't of heard had they ended it all after "Dreamtime" and also i loved the 10 tour too especially as it was Hugh's last as a Strangler,so i was glad they did another after Dreamtime still with the main man as a Strangler because we've since had 32 years of music without him so i do savor all his work that he did do before his departure.
But agreed about "Too Precious" it certainly would of been a great swan song but glad he did do one more after it though.

[kenl]

Too Precious is one of my all time favourite songs by the band.

[toilerinblack]

Too Precious is one of my all time favourite songs by the band.

i think the most hold "Too Precious" in the highest regard too,for me it was one of their last longer ending album tracks like past albums had like your Sewer/Walk on by and Genetix were all like,"Too Precious had it all for me as a song with your verses/choruses/long instrumental parts in the middle then back to the song again before ending that always worked so well,Walk on by had the same sort of construction that "Too Precious" had, I for one miss those type of songs and it's a shame that we don't get them anymore that stopped the minute Hugh left the band.