The Stranglers - Peaches: The Very Best Of The Stranglers (2002)

Peaches is a collection of twenty tracks recorded between 1977-1990 which encompass the very best of the British punkband The Stranglers. Includes their first hit single "Peaches", alongside other chart hits such as "Golden Brown", "96 Tears" and their cover of The Kinks classic "All Day And All Of The Night".

Among all of the Stranglers compilations on the market, PEACHES: THE VERY BEST OF THE STRANGLERS is probably the finest. At 20 tracks, PEACHES doesn't skimp on material, packing plenty of the British band's sometimes moody, sometimes boisterous rock onto one disc. The Stranglers rose to prominence during the punk movement, but while their music is characterized by a raw edginess and a flair for crude overtures and entendres, their early style is rooted more in pub rock (with a decidedly 1960s psychedelic flavor, courtesy of the group's knack for Doors-esque keyboards). The band's later sound fits nicely with the British electro-pop scene of the early '80s.
Yet the Stranglers unify these disparate elements into a surprisingly cohesive, distinctive style that they successfully sustained over the years, as their remarkable string of UK hit singles attests. PEACHES collects these hits–including the leering title track, the driving "No More Heroes", the dreamy "Golden Brown", and the enigmatically tender "Strange Little Girl"–alongside a handful of covers, including a revved-up version of Burt Bacharach's "Walk On By" and the Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night." As a career overview and an introduction to the Stranglers, this collection is a high point in the band's catalogue.
Digitally remastered single disc compendium of the punk band that lasted the longest since the original English punk era began. The Stranglers beat out the Sex Pistols as England's favorite punks at the time and it will always be to their credit. This unique collection includes tracks from both their United Artists years and first years on CBS Records, making it the most complete assemblage of their hits ever.

Of all the first wave punk bands, the gruesomely mercurial Stranglers had the highest disregard for law and order and – as this melody-heavy collection serves to remind us – the highest tally of hits. Peaches – The Very Best Of packs 20 of them ("Hanging Around" was never released as a single but it was a hit for Hugh Cornwell's then girlfriend Hazel O'Connor) into one tin but even then there isn't enough room for either "Go Buddy Go" or "Nice in Nice".

Famously short of fuse and occasionally sweary of mouth (at least in the early days) Guildford's self-styled "Meninblack" eventually moved away from the snarling, year-zero tenacity of "Something Better to Change" and "No More Heroes" to plough a sophisticated 1980s adult-rock furrow with the beguiling likes of "Always the Sun", "Skin Deep" and the odd-waltz of "Golden Brown". If anything, the non-chronological running order disproves the "they were punk and then all of a sudden and ever-so-conveniently they weren't anymore" notion which the Stranglers' detractors still persist on carping on about to this day. Things with the Stranglers were never that black and white (except on the band's third album, of course) and to listen to the bikini-ogling quasi-reggae laddishness of "Peaches" or to improve one's command of the French language on the extraordinarily sinister "La Folie" is to experience a band who were creatively flexible and adventurously out-of-step with the times, punk or no punk. Strangely, in a poacher-turned-gamekeeper kind of way, the Stranglers ended up doing charity work for the Metropolitan Police and haven't had a hit in yonks. There's a moral in their somewhere.

~ Kevin Maidment, amazon.co.uk

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The Stranglers - Peaches: The Very Best Of The Stranglers (2002)

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Less than a year after EMI released The Very Best Stranglers Album Ever, they released Peaches: The Very Best of the Stranglers, which actually outdoes its predecessor and a fair amount of the predecessor's predecessors – which are well over a dozen in number. This one includes 20 tracks and covers all the essentials, such as "Peaches", "Golden Brown", "No More Heroes", "Skin Deep", and "Hanging Around". It does stretch out chronologically enough to include (unfortunately) their covers of ? & the Mysterians' "96 Tears" and the Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night." Although it ignores other strong moments – "Let Me Introduce You to the Family", "Just Like Nothing on Earth", "Toiler on the Sea", the original version of "(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)" – due to space constraints, it's one of the better introductions to the band available.

~ Andy Kellman, all media guide

Tracklist:

01. Peaches
02. Golden Brown
03. Walk On By
04. No More Heroes
05. Skin Deep
06. Hanging Around
07. All Day And All Of The Night
08. Straighten Out
09. Nice 'N' Sleazy
10. Strange Little Girl
11. Who Wants The World
12. Something Better Change
13. Always The Sun (Sunny Side Up Mix)
14. European Female
15. Grip '89 (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)
16. Duchess
17. 5 Minutes
18. Don't Bring Harry
19. La Folie
20. 96 Tears


Producers includes: The Stranglers, Martin Rushnet, Alan Winstanley, Hugh Cornwell, Roy Thomas Baker.
Recorded between 1977 & 1990. All tracks were digitally remastered.

Release Date: June 10, 2002
Format: Original Recording Remastered
Label: EMI Records, Ltd.
Catalog No.: 540202-2