La Folie (album)

La Folie
Studio album by The Stranglers
Released	9 November 1981
Recorded	The Manor Studio, July–September 1981
Genre	post-punk
Length	41:27
Label	Liberty Records
Producer	The Stranglers, Steve Churchyard
The Stranglers chronology
The Gospel According to The Meninblack (1981) La Folie (1981) Feline (1983)

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La Folie is an album by The Stranglers, recorded and released in 1981.

The Stranglers had initially been the most commercially successful band of the punk/new-wave period in Britain, but by 1981, their success had waned noticeably. The La Folie album was a conscious attempt to deliver a more commercial product. The band's record company, EMI, sent them into the studio with famous producer Tony Visconti, giving him a brief to "produce each song as if it was a hit single".

The album’s French language title "La Folie" literally translates into English as "Madness". In various interviews, the band related that this referred to "The Madness of Love" and that conceptually, each of the songs on the album was intended to explore a different kind or aspect of "love".^{[citation needed]} The title track is also said to be based upon the story of Issei Sagawa.

The track "Golden Brown" gave the band the renewed commercial success they were seeking; released as a single, it reached No. 2 in the UK chart in January 1982, and went on to become EMI's highest selling single for many years. Many buyers were seemingly unaware of the meaning of the lyrics, which contain metaphorical references to heroin. This may have been further confused by different band members claiming that the song was about desertification, imperialism and as said in an interview, "toast".

Other singles from the album were: "Let Me Introduce You To The Family" (No. 42 in November 1981) and the title-track, "La Folie", which reached No. 47 in April 1982. Upon release "La Folie" looked set to be the band's lowest charting album, but, bouyed by the success of "Golden Brown", the album eventually peaked at no.11 in the UK album chart, and spent 18 weeks on the chart.

Hugh Cornwell related in The Stranglers – Song by Song that the correct title of the album's opening track was in fact "Non Stop Nun", and he apparently had been unaware that the record company had printed it as simply "Non Stop".

Track listing

1. "Non Stop" - 2:29
2. "Everybody Loves You When You're Dead" - 2:41
3. "Tramp" - 3:04
4. "Let Me Introduce You to the Family" - 3:07
5. "Ain't Nothin' to It" - 3:56
6. "The Man They Love to Hate" - 4:22
7. "Pin Up" - 2:46
8. "It Only Takes Two to Tango" - 3:37
9. "Golden Brown" - 3:28
10. "How to Find True Love and Happiness in the Present Day" - 3:04
11. "La Folie" - 6:04

CD Bonus Tracks

1987 CD:

1. Cruel Garden

2001 CD:

1. Cruel Garden
2. Cocktail Nubiles
3. Vietnamerica
4. Love 30
5. You Hold the Key to My Love in Your Hands
6. Strange Little Girl

References

• Buckley, David (1997). No mercy : the authorised and uncensored biography of the Stranglers. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 9780340680629. 
• Cornwell, Hugh (2001). The Stranglers : song by song. London: Sanctuary. ISBN 9781860743627.