{"id":21392,"date":"2023-03-04T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-04T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=21392"},"modified":"2023-03-03T14:16:12","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T14:16:12","slug":"the-stranglers-feline-40th-anniversery-edition-bmg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=21392","title":{"rendered":"The Stranglers &#8211; &#8216;Feline&#8217; 40th Anniversery Edition (BMG)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-medium\"><a href=\"http:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/327120024_1543614382771632_3158260851954184834_n-1024x1017-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"298\" src=\"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/327120024_1543614382771632_3158260851954184834_n-1024x1017-1-300x298.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21393\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/327120024_1543614382771632_3158260851954184834_n-1024x1017-1-300x298.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/327120024_1543614382771632_3158260851954184834_n-1024x1017-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/327120024_1543614382771632_3158260851954184834_n-1024x1017-1-768x763.jpg 768w, https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/327120024_1543614382771632_3158260851954184834_n-1024x1017-1-65x65.jpg 65w, https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/327120024_1543614382771632_3158260851954184834_n-1024x1017-1.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>With the release of this their seventh album on the then-new label Epic, The Stranglers wanted to shake things up a bit, veer off on a tangent and explore new sounds and push back those punk boundaries they never felt a part of anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This expanded reissue on coloured vinyl and two-disc CD is celebrating the band&#8217;s 40th anniversary I thought that this day would even be of any significance in the band&#8217;s rich tapestry of a career. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the synthesisers and electronic drums to the fore, \u2018Feline\u2019 delved into a much more diverse career path for the band, with a more European feel to proceedings. Recently departed  David Greenfield is very prominent in the mix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So that&#8217;s the early 80s with synths and acoustic guitars over electric, a new wave was certainly in the air.  The press at the time was most unkind probably because it didn&#8217;t fit into any comfortable genre of convenience and we still know that that is never good. It did, however, follow on from the absolute monster crossover hit that was &#8216;Golden Brown&#8217; which might have signalled the band&#8217;s shift into new more comfortable shoes perhaps?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The opener \u2018Midnight Summer Dream\u2019 with its mellow intro and snapping 80s synth the transformation was underway. The spoken vocals of Hugh Cornwell were also supported by Jean-Jacques Burnells lead vocals on the single \u2018European Female\u2019, via the acoustic-driven &#8216;Small World&#8217;. Maybe looking back and the power of hindsight it&#8217;s now no big deal to hear this twisted New Wave experimental Stranglers but back in the day it was a big deal and punk rock points were most certainly removed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whilst still very much a Stranglers album, with the power of hindsight there are a lot of chances taken by a brave band who didn&#8217;t follow convention nor pay lip service to the press its an experiment that clearly didn&#8217;t really hamper the band at all and looking back possibly with more grown-up eyes and ears there is a bigger appreciation for this brave new world the men in black stepped into.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The initial press of \u2018Feline\u2019 had \u2018Aural Sculpture Manifesto\u2019 single sided single which is part of the second disc along with a plethora of different mixes, like \u2018Savage Breast\u2019 and \u2018Pawsher\u2019 and the reggae-infused \u2018Permission\u2019 so there are no excuses not to get the full picture of where the band were at in 1983.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you passed this by the first time around now is the chance to play it back and have a newfound appreciation for the band spreading its creative tentacles far and wide and not just churning out the thumping bass-driven alternative rock they were known for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>order here\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"16\" width=\"16\" src=\"https:\/\/static.xx.fbcdn.net\/images\/emoji.php\/v9\/t51\/1\/16\/1f449.png\" alt=\"\ud83d\udc49\"><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/stranglers.tmstor.es\/?fbclid=IwAR21ixfE_kZcO9l93TJ13YzNsXKMAQjaPfb5qrseg93T9JJKSo8UvVwR7PA\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/stranglers.tmstor.es\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Author: Dom Daley <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the release of this their seventh album on the then-new label Epic, The Stranglers wanted to shake things up a bit, veer off on a tangent and explore new sounds and push back those punk boundaries they never felt a part of anyway. This expanded reissue on coloured vinyl and two-disc CD is celebrating [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21393,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[3153,3761,1048],"class_list":["post-21392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-bmg","tag-savage-gringo","tag-the-stranglers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21394,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21392\/revisions\/21394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}