This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
More than a decade after the seemingly fatal departure of singer-guitarist Hugh Cornwell, punk thugs The Stranglers refuse to roll over and breathe their last.
But there’s a big difference between surviving and thriving, as their latest disc Norfolk Coast makes disappointingly clear. Like all their post-Hugh discs, this 11-track set finds most of the band’s key elements still firmly in place. Jean Jacques Burnel’s nimble bass grind and ominous growl haven’t changed a bit. Nor have Dave Greenfield’s burbling, cascading keyboards and Jet Black’s two-fisted backbeats (though he is woefully buried in the mix). But the trouble, as usual, is that songs like Big Thing Coming and I’ve Been Wild pale next to classics like Peaches — even next to the pointless remake included here. With Norfolk Coast, The Stranglers are clearly coasting.
