Released on 5 November 1984 "Aural Sculpture" was the 8th., studio album by English band The Stranglers, a curious which name-title was given to a one-sided 7-inch single given free with a limited number of copies of their Feline
album in 1983. The "Aural Sculpture Manifesto" on the 7" single was
played before the Stranglers appeared on stage during concerts during
both the 1983 "Feline" tour and the 1985 "Aural Sculpture" tour. The album spawned three singles "Skin Deep", "No Mercy" & "Let Me Down Easy".
It was a curious album that featured acoustic guitar as well as a three-piece horn section (trumpet, trombone and saxophone). The horns were the suggestion of producer Laurie Latham, who was brought in after Epic Records rejected the initial demos of the album tracks, the album peaked at No. 14 in the UK albums chart.
The sessions started in
mid-October 1983 the band returned to the UK from their European tour
and began preparing their next album. In February 1984, the band staged an event at Trafalgar Square,
where they undertook a six-hour photo session with a 13 foot high ear
sculpture manufactured by artist John King; shots from this event by
American photographer, John Kisch, were used for the artwork of the
album cover.
The band chose ICP Studios in Brussels, a studio Burnel had used before with Belgian band Polyphonic Size;
they spend three weeks in February and March 1984 to record the album;
on the tenth day of recording, eight songs had been finished and the
band were working on the track "Punch and Judy". Originally, an album release date around May 1984 had been planned, but
as the band continued to write more songs, a second recording session
at ICP Studios was booked for June/July. But this time, the record company criticized the production of the tapes, to
which Hugh Cornwell agreed: "I hadn't been happy with how the guitars
were sounding, and the vocals didn't sound right, either." So the record company insisted on the use of a producer to finish the album, so the band followed the record company's suggestion to hire the producer Laurie Latham.
The band then finished the album in June and July 1984 during the
second recording session at ICP Studios in Brussels with producer
Laurie Latham. Songs from the first session were remixed and partially
re-recorded, of which only four were chosen for the final album (Skin Deep, North Winds, Punch and Judy, and Souls); the bulk of the album tracks were newly written songs recorded during this second session. According to Burnel: "Aural Sculpture
was a labour of love between Laurie and Hugh to be honest. Dave and I
were almost secondary and we weren't seeing so much of the others, apart
from crossing paths in the studio". On three songs (Ice Queen, Punch and Judy, and Mad Hatter),
Latham added a brass section who were especially flown in to Brussels
and completed their contribution in one long studio session from 11 p.m.
to 5 p.m. the following morning.
After finishing the album, Burnel spend the whole month of August 1984 at his home in Montauroux
caring for his terminally ill father Roger Burnel who finally passed
away on 30 August 1984. Cornwell and Burnel had written the song/single "Let Me Down Easy" about Burnel's dying father.
The album was a welcoming upgrade from the icy electronic motifs of predecessor Feline,
offering instead a warm textural palette of acoustic guitars, ripe
harmonies and a three-piece horn section, the band's gradual shift from their early albums' "sheer unrepentant, harsh rock" to the "lithe little pop songs" on Aural Sculpture, with Hugh Cornwell
"now cooing instead of growling". Rabid wrote, "You just never thought
they could transition to this contrasting style so well."
Aural Sculpture Track List:
1. Ice Queen
2. Skin Deep
3. Let Me Down Easy
4. No Mercy
5. North Winds
6. Uptown
7. Punch And Judy
8. Spain
9. Laughing
10. Souls
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