Black and White (The Stranglers album)
Black and White is the third studio album by English new wave band The Stranglers. It was released on 12 May 1978, through record label United Artists.
| Black and White | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 12 May 1978 | |||
| Recorded | February 1978 | |||
| Studio | T.W. Studios, Fulham, London | |||
| Genre | Post-punk, punk rock, new wave | |||
| Length | 39:50 | |||
| Label | United Artists | |||
| Producer | Martin Rushent | |||
| The Stranglers chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Black and White | ||||
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Background
As with The Stranglers' first two albums, Black and White was produced by Martin Rushent. The album sees The Stranglers adopting a more experimental approach to song structures and time signatures (for example, "Curfew" features 7/4 time).
The band recorded a version of "Sweden" sung in Swedish, called "Sverige", and released it in Sweden. The song was partly inspired by Cornwell's PhD placement at Lund University in the mid-1970s. In an anecdote related in the Swedish online magazine Blaskan, it is stated that the song was inspired by a disastrous visit to Sweden during a European tour, when a gig was violently interrupted by a gang of "raggare" (greasers).[1]
The song title "Death and Night and Blood" is taken from a line from Yukio Mishima's novel Confessions of a Mask.
The song "In the Shadows" had previously been released as the B-side to the band's 1977 single "No More Heroes".
Release
Black and White was released on 12 May 1978. The album peaked at No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart, spending eighteen weeks on the chart.[2]
The first 75,000 LPs came with a free white vinyl 7" composed of three tracks: "Walk On By" (a cover of the Burt Bacharach and Hal David song written for and originally recorded by Dionne Warwick), "Mean to Me" and "Tits".
The US version of the album, on the A&M label, was pressed on black and white marbled vinyl, but came without the three-track single.
Singles released from the album were "Nice 'n' Sleazy", b/w "Shut Up", and "Walk On By", b/w "Tank" and "Old Codger". "Old Codger" featured a guest vocal from jazz singer George Melly. An edited version of "Walk On By" with "Tank" was also pressed as a double A-side radio-play single.
Most of these tracks were included in the remastered 2001 CD re-issue of the album.
Critical reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [3] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [4] |
| Record Collector | [5] |
| Record Mirror | [6] |
| Sounds | [7] |
Retrospective critics generally view Black and White in a lesser light to the band's previous albums. AllMusic called it "arguably the weakest" of The Stranglers' first three albums, "yet it still has some absolutely stunning moments."[3] Trouser Press wrote, "Black and White lacks only good songs. Except for 'Nice 'n' Sleazy', most of the tracks are merely inferior rehashes of earlier work, making the LP easily forgettable."[8]
Track listing
All tracks are written by The Stranglers (Hugh Cornwell, Jean-Jacques Burnel, Dave Greenfield, Jet Black), except as noted. CD releases have a slightly different running order with 'In The Shadows' appearing after 'Threatened'.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Tank" | 2:54 |
| 2. | "Nice 'n' Sleazy" | 3:11 |
| 3. | "Outside Tokyo" | 2:06 |
| 4. | "Sweden (All Quiet on the Eastern Front)" | 2:47 |
| 5. | "Hey! (Rise of the Robots)" | 2:13 |
| 6. | "Toiler on the Sea" | 5:23 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Curfew" | 3:10 |
| 2. | "Threatened" | 3:30 |
| 3. | "Do You Wanna" | 2:38 |
| 4. | "Death and Night and Blood (Yukio)" | 2:50 |
| 5. | "In the Shadows" | 4:15 |
| 6. | "Enough Time" | 4:16 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Walk On By" | Burt Bacharach, Hal David | 6:22 |
| 2. | "Mean to Me" | 1:55 | |
| 3. | "Tits" | 5:25 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13. | "Mean to Me" | 1:55 | |
| 14. | "Walk On By" | Bacharach, David | 6:22 |
| 15. | "Shut Up" | 1:07 | |
| 16. | "Sverige" | 2:49 | |
| 17. | "Old Codger" | 2:49 | |
| 18. | "Tits" | 5:25 |
Personnel
- The Stranglers
- Hugh Cornwell – guitar, lead and backing vocals
- Jean-Jacques Burnel – bass guitar, lead and backing vocals
- Dave Greenfield – keyboards (Hammond L100 Organ, Hohner Cembalet electric piano, Minimoog synthesizer), lead and backing vocals
- Jet Black – drums, percussion
- Additional personnel
- Lora Logic – saxophone ("Hey!")
- George Melly – vocals ("Old Codger")
- Lew Lewis – harmonica ("Old Codger")
- Technical
- Martin Rushent – production
- Alan Winstanley – engineering
- Kevin Sparrow – sleeve design
- Ruan O'Lochlainn – cover photography
References
- "I huvudet på en gammal punkare", 2006 article in online Swedish magazine, Blaskan | http://www.blaskan.nu/Blaskan/Nummer44/Punkspecial/i_huvudet_pa_en_gammal_punkare_capo.html Archived 23 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine
- "Stranglers". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
- Ogg, Alex. "Black and White – The Stranglers". AllMusic. Retrieved 27 April 2013.
- Larkin, Colin (2011). "Stranglers". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
- Peacock, Tim (April 2018). "The Stranglers – Rattus Norvegicus, No More Heroes, Black And White, Live (X Cert), The Raven, The Gospel According To The Meninblack, La Folie". Record Collector. No. 478. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
- Lott, Tim (13 May 1978). "Ugly but Nice". Record Mirror. p. 20.
- McAllister, Donna (13 May 1978). "Lewd lullabies". Sounds. p. 45.
- Robbins, Ira. "Stranglers". Trouser Press. Retrieved 27 April 2013.
