No Rest For The Wicked (No More Heros - The Stranglers)

Member Name: I Like Blue

Product:	No More Heros - The Stranglers
Date:	24/11/04 (1373 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No More Heroes, Something Better Change

Disadvantages: A little too experimental, Not the best follow-up to their first album

Well, it has been over 2 months since I last submitted a review so I thought it was about time I put fingers to keyboard and write something. There is plenty I have wanted to write about but to be honest I haven’t felt overly inspired to do so. So, to get me back into the ‘swing’ of things as it were I thought I’d write a review on one of my favourite subjects, The Stranglers.

Ready?

‘No More Heroes’ was the second album released by The Stranglers, in September 1977. It was hot on the heels of the successes of 'Rattus Norvegicus' (from hereon known as Rattus) and a couple of singles, more notably the big summer hit 'Peaches'. It was pretty well planned this way to keep the momentum and the interest going.

The not so big surprise for Stranglers fans was that like the first album, Rattus, most of the songs were already known and 'popular', as they were already part of the group's set(s) in their many gigs before obtaining their first record deal.

So, recording new material wasn't the main task here, just putting a collection of songs spanning 2 years onto vinyl and releasing them as albums was the priority. In fact there were 4 songs already written which were not included on Rattus, but were put onto 'No More Heroes' along with 7 'newer' songs. The difference between these first 2 albums was that whilst Rattus was a listener's introduction to The Stranglers (unless you were already a fan so you knew what to expect), No More Heroes sort of screamed 'We're here!' The other thing to note about 'No More Heroes' was that most of the album was a big 'up yours' to the media and critics, and was also designed to provoke.

There has been some criticism of this album generally stating that after Rattus this was quite a weak follow-up. If I was totally honest I tend to agree but then I also take the view that as a fan you don’t really care what the critics say or even if an album is ’weak’. As a fan all I’m interested in is adding another of my favourite group’s albums to my collection. Although I do have to admit that ’No More Heroes’ is one of The Stranglers’ albums I play the least.

Further, to be even more brutally honest, I think the 2 ’anthem’ songs, ’No More Heroes’ and ’Something Better Change’ carry the album and save it from even harsher criticism.

The album actually starts quite strongly with [1] I Feel Like A Wog - This is one of the songs that was designed to provoke. Many critics believed this song (without listening to it properly) had too many racial overtones, when actually in truth it is more anti-fascist and is actually about discrimination (generally) and exploitation. I really like this track as there is some excellent bass guitar work from JJ Burnel and Hugh Cornwell's delivery of the lyrics sets the tone perfectly.

The next 2 songs [2] Bitching and [3] Dead Ringer are okay but nothing to write home about. Pretty ordinary really but the band put some quite solid individual and collective performances in each of the songs. Next up is [4] Dagenham Dave - This song is the band’s tribute to a long-time 'friend' and self-acclaimed No.1 fan (and probably was) who committed suicide. He was simply known as 'Dagenham Dave'.

The next song [5] Bring On The Nubiles was another song designed to provoke, and gives the good old 2-fingered 'V' salute to the media/critics because of their aspersions about the band being sexist. Actually it is quite a good song with some rather colourful lyrics, and some good keyboard work by Dave Greenfield. Not a song meant to be taken seriously, at all. This song was probably one of the first ones that I had ever heard with the ’f’ word included in it’s lyrics; apart from on ’Ugly’ on Rattus Norvegicus of course. Also as a teenager first hearing this song, especially when swearing in songs was almost unheard of in that era, there was a kind of novelty factor that made songs like this fun to listen to with a kind of ’danger’ value to it. I mean god forbid your parents should ever find out, and that kind of ’edge’ also made songs like this more appealing. It was that typical teenage rebel thing, you know what I mean, don’t you?

Anyway, moving on now to one of the great anthem songs with [6] Something Better Change - Probably the next best known track on this album after 'No More Heroes'. This song also achieved 'anthem' status amongst Stranglers fans and punks alike as it fitted in to the 'teenage culture' and their usual anti-establishment stance/attitude. This track was also released as a single and did well reaching No. 9. How many of you remember the immortal line - '…stick my fingers right up your nose…' That says it all really, what a great song!

Now the title track and arguably greatest Stranglers anthem song [7] No More Heroes - Forgetting ‘Golden Brown’ this great title track will probably be remembered most about The Stranglers by many people. This song has never failed to get audiences/fans involved and singing along. Absolutely marvellous song, and who could argue with great lyrics such as - 'Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky? He got an ice pick that made his ears burn' You just can't beat that can you?

If any of you reading this remember my ‘Norfolk Coast’ album review I said then that you can get ‘No More Heroes’ as a mobile phone ringtone, which of course I did on my Siemens SL55. Since then however I have changed phones and now have a Sharp GX30 which sadly is unable to have that ringtone. However, when I did have it I was quietly surprised by how many people instantly recognised the song from the first few bars of the ringtone, showing how popular this song really is.

Now we move on to what I feel are the weaker songs on the album and they don’t really match up to the standard I have come to expect from The Stranglers.

Starting with [8] Peasant In The Big Shitty - This isn’t a bad song but it is a bit overly experimental with different sound effects and experiments with a voice synthesizer, which Dave Greenfield liked to do on quite a few occasions, especially in later albums. Then there is [9] Burning Up Time - A good old fashioned rock song, some good guitar, drum and keyboard work giving this song a pretty good feel but again it‘s nothing special. For me the weakest song on the album is [10] English Towns - Hugh Cornwell seems to talk his way through this song with the occasional outburst of notes. A slow melodic type song, not one of my favourite songs at all, but there is some nice guitar work and 'swirly' keyboard effects.

The final song (on the original vinyl album version) is [11] School Mam - This is also the longest song on the album. It is sung almost like telling a story, the details of which I won't reveal because it is rather interesting and has a cheeky little twist. The guitar work is excellent and the keyboard effects by Dave Greenfield are good. Put that together with some clever sound effects to emphasise certain points in the 'story' and it all adds up to a good song.

However, I do have a slight problem with this song. You see staying loosely on The Stranglers apparent theme of ending an album with a ‘stirring finale’, well I’m sorry but ‘School Mam’ fails quite miserably when compared to the excellent ’Down In The Sewer’ on ’Rattus Norvegicus’.

On the CD version there are 3 bonus tracks and they are the mediocre ‘Straighten Out’, the quirky and experimental song ‘Rok It To The Moon’ and finally the excellent ‘5 Minutes’.

A couple more things about this album include the distinctive sleeve design, the red carnation wreath picture that was likened at the time to a chocolate box cover! The original sleeve design was 'binned', as it was a photo of JJ Burnel led on top of Trotsky's 'tomb', but none of the other band members were in it, which sort of upset them a little.

My final thoughts on this album are that overall it is not a bad collection of songs and I am of the opinion that it was a way of ‘clearing the decks’. You see with the success of the first album the hook was in and very quickly a fan base was established. By quickly releasing this second album, and keeping the impetus, The Stranglers could start making the music they really wanted to, which is quite evident in the subsequent, and rather excellent, studio album ‘Black and White’.

If you are a fan then I would say this is a definite choice for your collection but to the novice then I’d say listen to ‘Rattus Norvegicus’ or ‘Black and White’ first.

As the album is so old now you can buy the CD for as little as £5. Just put the album title through any price comparison site like kelkoo for example and you will see. Amazon on the other hand, if you can’t be arsed with trawling such a site, are charging just under £6 for it.

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