Black and White

by Alex OggOf the first three Stranglers albums, Black & White is arguably the weakest, yet it still has some absolutely stunning moments. For example, the epic "Toiler on the Sea" picks up where "Down in the Sewer" and "School Mam" left off on the band's two previous efforts. Ignore the fact that it's a concept album (it has a black side, and a white side, see) and that there are a couple of slightly ill-judged efforts ("In the Shadows" is plain silly, "Outside Tokyo" is whimsical rubbish), and let the rest of the album burn through your speakers. "Nice 'n' Sleazy" does just what it says on the bottle (the band was getting themselves into awful trouble hiring strippers for open air gigs to dance to this one), and "Death and Night and Blood (Yukio)" includes one of those inimitable Stranglers moments: "Bring me a piece of my mummy/She was quite close to me." All together now!