''La folie'' is the sixth studio album by English new wave 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 origin ...

. It was released on 9 November 1981, through the

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

record label

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

Background

The Stranglers had initially been the most commercially successful band of the

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

/ new wave period in Britain, but by 1981, their success had waned noticeably. ''La folie'' was a conscious attempt to deliver a more commercial product. It is co-produced by the band with

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

Steve Churchyard Steve Churchyard is an English record producer, recording engineer and mixer who began his career at Sir George Martin’s AIR Studios in London. He currently resides in the United States. He has been nominated for 15 Grammy awards. In 2008 he wo ...

and mixed by

Tony Visconti Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...

. The band's record company,

, gave Visconti a brief to mix each song as a potential single. The album's French language title literally translates to "madness". In various interviews, the band related that this referred to "The Madness of Love" and that conceptually, each of the songs on the album was intended to explore a different kind or aspect of "love". The title track is based upon the story of

Issei Sagawa also known as Pang or The Kobe Cannibal, was a Japanese murderer, cannibal, and necrophiliac known for the killing of Renée Hartevelt in Paris in 1981. Sagawa murdered Hartevelt then mutilated, cannibalized, and performed necrophilia on her ...

. Guitarist

Hugh Cornwell Hugh Alan Cornwell (born 28 August 1949) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and writer, best known for being the lead vocalist and lead guitarist for the punk rock and new wave band the Stranglers from 1974 to 1990. Since leaving the ...

related in his 2001 book ''The Stranglers – Song by Song'' that the correct title of the album's opening track was "Non Stop Nun", and he apparently had been unaware that the record company had printed it as simply "Non Stop". The lyrics to "Ain't Nothin' to It" are credited to American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

clarinetist and

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pro ...

Mezz Mezzrow Milton Mesirow (November 9, 1899 – August 5, 1972), better known as Mezz Mezzrow, was an American jazz clarinetist and saxophonist from Chicago, Illinois. He is remembered for organizing and financing recording sessions with Tommy Ladnier ...

. The band compiled expressions from Mezzrow's autobiography ''Really the Blues'', which contains many passages of

jive talk Jive talk, also known as Harlem jive or simply Jive, the argot of jazz, jazz jargon, vernacular of the jazz world, slang of jazz, and parlance of hip is an African-American Vernacular English slang or vocabulary that developed in Harlem, where "ji ...

, and used them for the lyrics of the song. There has been much controversy surrounding the lyrics to "

Golden Brown "Golden Brown" is a song by the English rock band the Stranglers released as a 7-inch single on EMI's Liberty label in 1982, noted for its distinctive harpsichord instrumentation. It was the second single released from the band's sixth studio ...

". In ''The Stranglers – Song by Song'', Cornwell states, ""Golden Brown" works on two levels. It's about heroin and also about a girl". Essentially, the lyrics describe how "both provided me with pleasurable times".

Release and reception

''La folie'' was preceded by the release of the album's first single, " Let Me Introduce You to the Family", released on 7 November 1981 and reaching No. 42 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. ''La folie'' was released two days later. Upon its release, ''La folie'' looked set to be the band's lowest-charting album, but, buoyed by the success of the album's second single, "

", released 10 January 1982 and reaching No. 2 in the singles chart, the album eventually peaked at No. 11 in the

UK 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 ...

, spending eighteen weeks in the chart. The single would go on to become EMI's highest-selling single for many years. One more single was released from the album, the album's title track "

La folie La Folie () is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regio ...

", on 20 April 1982, which reached No. 47. ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...

'' wrote of the album: "Subtle, effective, mature and energetic – but no outstanding songs."

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

called it a fine and welcome album in the Stranglers' body of work, describing it as "mainly a collection of tight, punchy songs that often suggest the forthright approach of American new wave bands."

Track listing

All tracks are written and arranged by

(

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. ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

), except where noted. * "Cocktail Nubiles" is a loungey version of "Bring on the Nubiles" from '' No More Heroes'', using the music from the Frank Sinatra

pop standard Traditional pop (also known as classic pop and pre-rock and roll pop) is Western pop music that generally pre-dates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The most popular and enduring songs from this era of music are known as pop standards ...

" Young at Heart". It was recorded during sessions for ''

The Gospel According to the Meninblack ''The Gospel According to the Meninblack'' (or sometimes referred to as just ''The Meninblack'') is the fifth album by English rock band the Stranglers, an esoteric concept album released in 1981 on the Liberty label. The album deals with con ...

'' in 1980. "Cocktail Nubiles" was released on the exclusive fan club release "Tomorrow Was the Hereafter". * Originally released on the 1980 compilation album '' IV'' ( US and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

only). * Originally from ''The Gospel According to the Meninblack''.

2018 expanded vinyl edition

Self-released by the Stranglers, ''La folie'' received a deluxe vinyl reissue in 2018, limited to 1000 numbered copies. The original 11-track album is coupled with a bonus 12-track album, entitled ''Extra Texture'', the first side of which features non-album single "Strange Little Girl", associated B-sides, a radio edit, a demo, and a

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Background

Release and reception

Track listing

2018 expanded vinyl edition

Personnel

Charts

References

External links