Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There are times when history, when events that rock the world, overtakes us and puts loss into meaning. The listener finds the moment of a new release perhaps by a group, a much-loved entertainer, both a thrill, a moment of seismic beauty, and one that is shrouded by the memory of what was once giant built of granite, now reduced to serve as a signpost that instructs the audiophile and the fan that childhood and forever teenage rebellion has reached its end.

When we collectively remember the events of the last eighteen months, when they think of those that were taken, Dave Greenfield’s name will surely be among them as the pulse of one of the greatest groups to come out of Britain, and it to that effect that the latest album by The Stranglers, Dark Matters, will be the epicentre of remembrance, tribute, and in many ways a celebration, of all things that is worthy of being human.

If the listener is expecting no nonsense snarling attitude, the similar vein that carried the band to success during the late 70s and 1980s, and which was taken up a notch by the sublime Baz Warne’s introduction in the band, then perhaps they will remember the sense of progressive that has always come through the band’s music instead, and Dark Matters is a progression, it is full of pathos, of understanding of the human condition, and above all it is an album that is respectful of the time it has been created in.

Evolution is not confined to the pages of biologists and the books in which to bash the heads of scientific deniers, it is within each one of us to grow, to become a different person, to change our attitudes and offer a hand of growth to all who come our way, and across almost half a century, The Stranglers have evolved, have altered perceptions and gained the finest of reputations, but growth also means letting go, whether we want to or not, of what put us in the position of memory in the first place.

Don’t expect Dark Matters to be the album you think it may be, because it is far more gripping than that, don’t expect to have the ears pinned back and a sound of a thousand growls and beautiful damnation poured down hem as if it were liquid gold; instead understand that love and honour are far more precious than mere gilt edged treasure, and as tracks such as This Song, If Something’s Gonna Kill Me (It May As Well Be Love), Payday, The Last Men On The Moon, and the faithful veneration and admirable tribute to the man who could thrill a crown with a single raised finger and with a glass in his hand,    And If You Should See Dave…all play out, all give the air a reason to vibrate with charm and sincerity of thought, the listener understand that dark does matter, but that the light is where the fan will always hold Dave Greenfield and the others who made this band what they are today.

Don’t expect fireworks, expect a twenty-one-gun salute, for Dark Matters is an album of seismic honour.

Ian D. Hall