Giants

Over the past few years The Stranglers have become firmly established as one of the best, most exciting and most powerful live acts around.
Sell-out shows and high-profile festival appearances have sealed their relationship with their famously loyal fan base as well as introducing and re-introducing themselves to new and old fans alike.
The band have simply become a live phenomenon.
Again.
But, even though they are now in their 38th year and they could spend their lives on the road reworking the material from their vast back catalogue, the band have never stopped songwriting and never turned their back on the recording studios. Thus they are back now their their 17th studio album - their first for five years - and its title is apt because this is a giant, epic and impressive work.
Giants is an eclectic and very unpredictable record which harnesses many old Strangler strengths - the bass seems to have been turned up to 11 again at times - with some genuine surprises. So you have traditional Stranglers rockers like the jaunty Time Was Once On my Side, the punchy and purposeful Freedom Is Insane, the pleasingly 1977 retro Lowlands and the simply wonderful closing track 15 Steps, next to a dreamy opening instrumental, a touch of rock `n' jazz in the mesmerising My Fickle Resolve and a track that manages to mix lyrics in Spanish with a tango and some pretty brutal guitar playing which sounds like Van Halen may have performed it. Yep, they are not playing it safe here but then again playing it safe has never been a Strangler trait.
The album as a whole has genuine impact, genuine power and gives the genuine feeling that The Stranglers still have something to say and have musical and lyrical ideas aplenty. I have tried to work out which Stranglers album it reminds me of most and perhaps tellingly I can't find nail one. There are touches of the last two superb return-to-form albums Norfolk Coast and Suite 16, a dash of Meninblack, a smidgen of La Folie's variety and diversity, a nod to the mid-80s Aural Sculptue era and even the odd bass lick and swirling keyboard that could have come straight off No More Heroes or Black and White.
So yes Giants has its authors influences imbedded and fully respects its creators history - but crucially it stands alone as a new, bold, credible, innovative and througly enjoyable Stranglers album that is every bit as relevant to 2012 as Rattus Norvegicus was to 1977 and Feline to 1983.
It is an album of its time, an album to cherish and I suspect an album which will delight those who have followed the amazing journey of this truly unique band throughout the past rollercoaster four decades.
The Stranglers? They must be giants.

This is the best new album i have heard in a long time by anyone, let alone the Stranglers.

I have all 17 Stranglers albums and have taken a keen interest in every lineup of the band, this line up of original members Jet Black, Jean Jaqcues Burnel, Dave Greenfield and new boy (of 12 years!) Baz Warne is coming into its own now and i can really sense it starting to boil into something huge and something that will be remembered in years to come.

This album is easily the best since Hugh Cornwell left in 1990, and after listening to this album many times with an open mind and open ears i can say it is definitly up there with their best ever from the 'classic period' (The Raven, La Folie etc) the songwriting is stunning and it is obvious lots of work and thought have gone into it, Another Camden Afternoon, Freedom Is Insane, Giants, Lowlands, Mercury Rising and Time Was Once On My Side are all instant Stranglers classics that sit alongside the old hits with ease, Adios, the tango, is also a track i like very much but is not your typical Stranglers track.

Everything you want to hear on a Stranglers record is here, JJs LOUD, flatulent bass, locked in tight-as-hell with Jets drums, Daves swirling keyboards and Bazs at times quirky sounding guitar and vocals which are better than they have ever been.

Great song writing, great production, great sounds, i honestly cannot praise it enough. If you have ignored the Stranglers for whatever reason do yourself a massive favour and buy this album, seriously.

If this lineup makes a few more albums then i think there is a big chance it could be remembered just as well as the Cornwell era of the band.

Thank you Stranglers for this work of art! and see you on tour!

Ok let's look at this objectively now that the album has been out for a few months and we can look at it outside all the hyped excitement of a new release. The difference with Giants as opposed to the two recent "returns to form" Suite 16 and Norfolk Coast is that I consistently revisit this album without in anyway getting bored with it.
The diversity of this album is what puts it genuinely up there with their best Cornwell output. Remember the days when you had so many styles on one album (Black and White and The Raven) well this is what Giants gives you. Yes Suite 16 had its moments (most notably Relentless)and Norfolk Coast was the Stranglers by numbers to a fair degree, needed at that time to drag us all out of the late 90s slumber of Written in Red and Coup de Grace but this truly is the Stranglers as they should be - not afraid to open an album with an instrumental and to include a heavy metal tango. All the songs in between are equally diverse to keep interest with only the poppy Boom Boom failing to really excite (me anyway).
I have been a Stranglers fan since 1977 and in my opinion this is right up there in the top 5 of their career.