Strangled

I feel like an old fuddy-duddy when I’m trying to find good contemporary rock-n-roll music to listen to. Everything sounds like it was done better, 20-40 years ago, by musicians who were more innovative than many of the younger musicians of today. In the past few weeks I was craving sounds that would make me feel excited, something that would uplift me in the way good rock-n-roll can. I found the Stranglers again. I had first encountered them when I was a teenager; I would go through my brothers' record and tape collections and there I found Rattus Norvegicus, No More Heroes, and The Raven. I was in love with their sound; it was aggressive, obscene, intelligent, danceable, and so fucking awesome. As a teenager, I didn’t share my interest in the Stranglers with my friends; I figured they’d object to the menacing, sometimes sexist, sometimes vulgar lyrics. I thought the Stranglers were bold and politically incorrect, to me they were really cool. Listening to them now, I love them even more because they have always been underrated and bit under the radar, at least on these shores, and of course, my own nostalgia.

The Stranglers made some amazing music during the mid 70s to mid 80s, and I thank them for giving me melodies in which I can lose myself. I am sharing "Hanging Around" with you, it's from their first record, and it has a great one-minute collision that never fails to uplift me. It is a minute in which I could live forever.