Rattus Norvegicus is the debutstudio album by the Stranglers, released on 15 April 1977. It was one of the highest-selling albums of the punk era in Britain, eventually achieving platinum record sales. Two of its tracks, "Peaches" and " Grip ", were released as 7" singles in the UK.
Background
The album was originally going to be titled Dead on Arrival but it was changed at the last minute. The released title is the taxonomic name for the common brown rat. The album was produced in one week by Martin Rushent and was a snapshot of the band's live set at the time. The first 10,000 copies of the original vinyl release included a free 7" single, containing "Peasant in the Big Shitty " and "Choosey Susie". A remastered version of the album was reissued on CD in 2001 and included three additional tracks. The album launch party was held in the Water Rat pub on the King's Road, in the World's End district of Chelsea.
Lyrics
According to the book The Stranglers-Song by Song, "Sometimes" describes a violent argument with a girlfriend. The same girlfriend is the subject of "Strange Little Girl" which was written earlier by Cornwell and Hans Wärmling. "Goodbye Toulouse" describes the destruction of Toulouse predicted by Nostradamus. "London Lady" is loosely based on a contemporary female journalist, and "Hanging Around" describes the characters found in the London pubs that the band played live at. In 1981, it was covered by Hazel O'Connor on her third album, Cover Plus, and released by her as a single that same year. " Grip " is based on the band's life in their Chiddingfoldsquat. It features Eric Clarke, a Welsh coal miner, on saxophone. "Ugly" mentions the poem Ozymandias. "Down in the Sewer" has four sections: Falling, Down in the Sewer, Trying To Get Out Again, and Rat's Rally. The 'sewer' refers to London. Lyrically the song references an episode of the 1975 post-apocalyptic BBC TV drama Survivors titled "Lights of London", where the protagonists leave the safety of a farming community to head for the city, which they find can only be entered through a rat infested sewer.
Reception and legacy
Rattus Norvegicus was ranked at No. 10 among the top "Albums of the Year" for 1977 by NME, with "Peaches" ranked at No. 18 among the year's top tracks. NME later ranked it at No. 196 in its 2014 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". It was included in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In 2000 it was voted number 766 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. During promotion of The Head on the Door in 1985, Robert Smith of the Cure cited Rattus Norvegicus as one of his five favorite albums.
