The Stranglers Peaches: The Very Best of the Stranglers (Compilation)

As a fairly concise summary of a long and involved career, Peaches: The Very Best of The Stranglers does an admirable job of boiling down the band's essence to just 20 tracks. It's still highly advisable for interested parties to start with studio albums such as Rattus Norvegicus, No More Heroes, The Raven, La Folie, and Feline—but if one's inclined toward singles, then this is a decent (though not complete) survey of The Stranglers' better-known songs. Oddly, covers of The Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night" and ? & the Mysterians' "96 Tears" grab slots here over the original version of The Stranglers' debut single, "(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)"—which is here in its 1989 re-recording, 12 years and several musical worlds away. However, songs such as "Golden Brown," "Something Better Change," "Duchess," and "La Folie" encapsulate both The Stranglers' power and their continuous search for stretching their sound with synthesizers and concept albums.