"A big hand for Hugh Cornwell and Dr John Cooper Clarke as they trip down memory lane, with Clarke singing and Cornwell handling all the guitars – deftly, with plenty of reverb, and leaving plenty of space around him."
"In 1979 I bought a pretty awful album called Euroman Cometh, an attempt by The Stranglers’ Franco-English (or is that Anglo-French?) bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel to go solo. Songs like ‘Do the European’, ‘Eurospeed’ and ‘Euromess’ didn’t work for me and I don’t think they worked for Burnel either. Since then he’s stuck to bass-playing, karate and swearing at people."
"An album that slipped so under the radar that its creator admits it made no money is surely a perfect candidate for an underrated gem – assuming of course that it’s any good. And is it ever."
"Buying ’5 Minutes’ as a thirteen year old I would not have imagined that some thirty eight years later I would still be finding meaning in that song and the album that, followed it."
"36 years ago today, the Stranglers released their third album, Black and White, an effort which remains tied with its predecessor, No More Heroes, 1977’s as the highest-charting of their career, making it to #2 on the UK charts."
"Ultimately, though, it’s the mystifying decision to omit 2004’s colossal Norfolk Coast that slays Giants & Gems’ quest to present the all-conquering retrospective The Stranglers’ Herculean career truly deserves."
"Surprisingly for a good value hits package the LP only got to number 12 in the charts. Perhaps EMI didn't really get behind it given the circumstances which seems a shame since it contains some of the best music in my collection."
"... the bass work of Jean-Jacques "JJ" Burnel stood out from the outset, especially on what critics claim to be the best track on the album, "Nice N' Sleazy". It's high in the mix, funky as hell and attracts me like a moth to a torch."