The Hit Men 1977-1991 [Import]

Editorial Reviews
Album Details
43 Tracks on Two Cds, the Complete Singles plus Selected Album Tracks: Grip 89, Peaches, Hanging Around, No More Heroes and Much More.

Tracks:

(Get A) Grip (On Yourself) '89
London Lady
Peaches
Go Buddy Go
Hanging Around
Choosey Susie
Something Better Change
Straighten Out
No More Heroes
English Towns
5 Minutes
Nice 'N' Sleazy
Toiler on the Sea
Mean to Me
Walk on By
Duchess
Nuclear Device
Don't Bring Harry
Raven
Bear Cage
Who Wants the World?

Tracks:

Waltzinblack
Thrown Away
Just Like Nothing on Earth
Let Me Introduce You to the Family
Golden Brown
Folie
Tramp
Strange Little Girl
European Female
Midnight Summer Dream
Paradise
Skin Deep
No Mercy
Let Me Down Easy
Nice in Nice
Always the Sun
Big in America
Shakin' Like a Leaf
Was It You?
All Day and All of the Night
96 Tears
Sweet Smell of Success

Album Details

43 Tracks on Two Cds, the Complete Singles plus Selected Album Tracks: Grip 89, Peaches, Hanging Around, No More Heroes and Much More.

Customer Reviews:

The place to start.......2001-11-16

If, like me, you're a casual fan of the Stranglers, then the well-titled The Hit Men will give you all you need and more. A terrific singles band, for my money most of their albums are a bit spotty, but there's no doubt their best work features some of the best and most original British pop this side of the Kinks. All the singles are here, and the smattering of album tracks are well-chosen. 43 tracks arranged chronologically over two discs: it's a daunting feast, and one that takes a while to digest.

For those new to the band, the earlier material is tougher, grimier - the title of the first album, Rattus Norvegicus, and its content (Grip, Peaches, Down in the Sewer) gives you a pretty good idea where these guys were coming from. The Stranglers were older than most of their punk contemporaries, and had a reputation for thuggish misogyny which they've never really shaken off. But they could conjure menace and atmosphere like few other bands of the time, not least through Dave Greenfield's carnivalesque organ sound.

Still, I prefer the second disc, where the Stranglers smooth out their sound into something that's spooky, sumptuously melodic and often very beautiful. The peak, of course, is Golden Brown, which still sounds like nothing else in the band's (or anyone else's) catalogue. Hugh Cornwell is an underrated writer and he peaked in the mid 80s - songs like Skin Deep, Strange Little Girl (recently covered by Tori Amos), European Female and the magnificent Always the Sun were deserved hits and have held their age very well.

If you're curious, this is the place to start - far more comprehensive than the 1977-1990 compilation, it gives you enough of a look-in to decide whether or not this is a band you want to spend more time and money on. For me, though, The Hit Men is all I really need.

A Comprehensive Anthology.......2000-02-23