Hi-Fi

Whatever happened to...? Though they never had the notoriety of the Pistols or the street spirit of the Clash, the Stranglers were one of the finest bands to emerge from the punk maelstrom of the late '70s, able to develop from ear-bashing anger terrorists with guitars, to the dark balladeers who gave us the cautionary tale that was 'Golden Brown'.

While the band was very much a unit, in that frequently explosive way that is common in most great rock ensembles, frontman Hugh Cornwell was a special presence, brooding, sub-violent, heartfelt, sexy and older than us. In a phrase, Cornwell was not the kind of man you wanted to get in a fight with. The Stranglers did and didn't survive.

Hi-Fi sees Cornwell in an almost Lennonesque mellow mood, but slashing guitars ('Putting You In The Shade'), and his unique and quirky dry humour ('Miss Teasy Weezy') are also present in abundance. 'The Big Sleep' is the second love poem to Robert Mitchum ever recorded (the first was recorded by... anybody...?), while 'Lay Back On Me Pal' is a Scott Walker-ish number featuring a pleasantly lavish production job.

This is a fine album, and if the savagery of his earlier work has been largely replaced by a sort of graceful elegance, it's all to the good. Very few artists of Cornwell's era have anything relevant to say to us anymore, Cornwell does, and he says it well. A quieter kind of hero, maybe, but still a hero.