''Dark Matters'' is the eighteenth studio album by British rock band
the Stranglers
The Stranglers are an English rock band who emerged via the punk rock scene. Scoring 23 UK top 40 singles and 19 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are one of the longest-surviving bands to have origina ...
, released on 10 September 2021 through Coursegood. It features the playing of keyboardist
Dave Greenfield
David Paul Greenfield (29 March 1949 – 3 May 2020) was an English keyboardist, singer and songwriter who was a member of rock band The Stranglers. He joined the band in 1975, within a year of its formation, and played with them for 45 years ...
, who died in 2020. It is also the first studio album recorded without founding drummer
Jet Black
Brian John Duffy (26 August 1938 – 6 December 2022), professionally known as Jet Black, was an English drummer and founding member of punk rock/ new wave band The Stranglers. He last performed with the band in 2015, and officially retired in ...
, who retired from performing with the band in 2015.
''Dark Matters'' entered the United Kingdom's
Official Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
at number 4, the highest-placed studio album by the Stranglers since ''
Feline'' in 1983. It was awarded "Album of the Year" by ''
Vive Le Rock
''Vive Le Rock'' is the third solo album by Adam Ant, released in September 1985.
Production
Producer Tony Visconti, famous for his 1970s work with Ant's heroes Marc Bolan and David Bowie, commented on his work with Ant on ''Vive Le Rock'': ...
'' magazine in its December 2021 issue.
Background and recording
''Dark Matters'' is the first Stranglers studio album since 2012's ''
Giants
A giant is a being of human appearance, sometimes of prodigious size and strength, common in folklore.
Giant(s) or The Giant(s) may also refer to:
Mythology and religion
*Giants (Greek mythology)
*Jötunn, a Germanic term often translated as 'gi ...
'' and the first since the death of keyboardist Dave Greenfield in May 2020. The track, "And If You Should See Dave...", was written by bassist and singer
Jean-Jacques Burnel
Jean-Jacques Burnel (born 21 February 1952) is an English musician, producer and songwriter, best known as the bass guitarist and co-lead vocalist with the English rock band The Stranglers. He is the last founding member to remain in the band.
...
as a tribute to Greenfield. Greenfield features on eight of the album's 11 tracks, with the remainder being completed by other band members remotely due to COVID-19 restrictions. The album was recorded over the course of two years with long-time producer Louie Nicastro,
mainly at the Stranglers' own studio near
Bath in
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
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, region = South West England
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and
Mark Gardener
Mark Stephen Gardener (born 6 December 1969, in Oxford, England) is an English rock musician, and a singer and guitarist with the shoegazing band Ride.
Ride
Gardener formed Ride with Andy Bell (guitar), whom he met at Cheney School in Oxfo ...
's OX4 Sound Studios in
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
.
Additional recording was done at guitarist
Baz Warne
Barry "Baz" Warne (born 25 March 1964 in Sunderland, England) is the current guitarist and vocalist of The Stranglers. Earlier in his career, he was the guitarist and frontman of numerous bands. His first recordings to be released were with ...
's home studio in
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
and at a studio near Burnel's home in the
south of France
Southern France, also known as the South of France or colloquially in French as , is a defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi atlantique'', A ...
.
Burnel's "If Something's Gonna Kill Me (It Might as Well Be Love)", which also includes a lyrical tribute to Greenfield,
was arranged by Warne as a
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...
-inspired
electro-pop
Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a re ...
track, complete with
keyboard bass
Keyboard bass (shortened to keybass and sometimes referred as a synth-bass) is the use of a smaller, low-pitched keyboard with fewer notes than a regular keyboard or pedal keyboard to substitute for the deep notes of a bass guitar or double bass ...
and
programmed drums. To create the song, Nicastro, who played the keyboard parts, used only keyboards that Greenfield would have used in the early days of the Stranglers, such as
Oberheim
Oberheim is an American synthesizer manufacturer founded in 1969 by Tom Oberheim.
History and products
Tom Oberheim founded the company in 1969, originally as a designer and contract manufacturer of electronic effects devices for Maestro (most ...
,
PPG Wave
The PPG Wave is a series of synthesizers built by the German company Palm Products GmbH from 1981 to 1987.
Background
Until the early 1980s, the tonal palette of commercial synthesizers was limited to that which could be obtained by combining ...
and
Minimoog
The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...
synthesizers.
The third post-Greenfield track, "The Lines", is a one-take recording featuring Burnel on acoustic guitar and Warne on lead vocals, with keyboards added later on.
''Dark Matters'' also marks the first Stranglers studio album since original drummer Jet Black stepped away from active performances in 2015.
Black does not perform on the album, but is thanked in the album's sleeve notes. He is replaced by long-time touring drummer Jim Macaulay.
"This Song" is a cover of the track "This Song Will Get Me Over You" by the band the Disciples of Spess,
but is co-credited to the Stranglers; the music video features the former England footballer
Stuart Pearce
Stuart Pearce (born 24 April 1962) is an English professional football manager and former player, who was most recently a first-team coach for Premier League club West Ham United. He was nicknamed "Psycho" for his unforgiving style of play.
...
, a long-time fan of the band.
Track listing
A bonus CD, ''Dave Greenfield – A Tribute'', was issued with pre-orders made through the Stranglers' official store. It features eight previously unreleased live recordings selected by the band, celebrating Greenfield's talent. It includes four of the Stranglers songs that Greenfield performed lead vocals on: "Dead Ringer", "Peasant in the Big Shitty", "Do You Wanna?" and "Four Horsemen".
Personnel
Credits adapted from the album liner notes, except where noted.
The Stranglers
*
Jean-Jacques Burnel
Jean-Jacques Burnel (born 21 February 1952) is an English musician, producer and songwriter, best known as the bass guitarist and co-lead vocalist with the English rock band The Stranglers. He is the last founding member to remain in the band.
...
– bass, lead
(1, 3, 8, 10, 11) and backing vocals, acoustic guitar
(6)
*
Dave Greenfield
David Paul Greenfield (29 March 1949 – 3 May 2020) was an English keyboardist, singer and songwriter who was a member of rock band The Stranglers. He joined the band in 1975, within a year of its formation, and played with them for 45 years ...
– keyboards, backing vocals
*
Baz Warne
Barry "Baz" Warne (born 25 March 1964 in Sunderland, England) is the current guitarist and vocalist of The Stranglers. Earlier in his career, he was the guitarist and frontman of numerous bands. His first recordings to be released were with ...
– guitar, lead
(2-7, 9) and backing vocals
* Jim Macaulay – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Additional musicians
* Louie Nicastro – additional keyboards
* Matthew Bourne-Jones – trumpet
(4)
Technical
* Louie Nicastro – producer, engineer
* Phil Johnson – sleeve design, art direction
Charts
References
{{The Stranglers
2021 albums
Albums postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic
The Stranglers albums