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The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (1981) [2001]
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The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (1981) [2001]
EAC Rip | FLAC (Tracks) +CUE, LOG | 387 MB | Scans
Genre: Rock, New Wave, Punk | Label: EMI | Catalog Number: 534 6902
EAC Rip | FLAC (Tracks) +CUE, LOG | 387 MB | Scans
Genre: Rock, New Wave, Punk | Label: EMI | Catalog Number: 534 6902
The Gospel According to the Meninblack (sometimes referred to as just The Meninblack) is the fifth album by English rock band the Stranglers, an esoteric concept album released 9 February 1981, on the Liberty label. The album explores conspiratorial themes involving alien visitations to Earth, the sinister governmental men in black, and the involvement of these elements in well-known biblical narratives. This was not the first time the Stranglers had used this concept; "Meninblack" on the earlier The Raven album and subsequent 1980 single-release "Who Wants the World?" had also explored it.
The album is an elaboration of concepts first introduced by the band on the aforementioned track from their preceding album, The Raven. Hugh Cornwell, former singer-songwriter and guitarist with the group, has stated his belief that the album is the pinnacle of the Stranglers' artistic and creative output, and he cites it as his favourite album by the band. In a 2022 interview promoting his solo release Moments of Madness Cornwell reiterated this position saying "I think that we were all at the top of our game when we made ‘Men in Black’ and it comes through." The Stranglers' bassist, Jean-Jacques Burnel, shares this opinion, stating in a 2014 interview "It was a bit of a low point when The Meninblack came out and it wasn’t regarded as the masterpiece that I thought it was." Burnel regards the album as often techno in essence, though The Meninblack predates the emergence of that genre by some years.
The single releases from the album were "Thrown Away", which reached UK chart position 42 and "Just Like Nothing on Earth", their first single to miss the top 50.
The opening instrumental "Waltzinblack" was originally intended to be the second single release from the album, but was withdrawn by Liberty, which deemed it "unrepresentative".[10] It was later used as the theme music for Keith Floyd's BBC TV series. The band developed a tradition of using the track to open their live performances.
The album initially sold around 50,000 copies, their worst-selling UK album to date,[10] peaking at number eight on the UK Albums Chart; it spent five weeks in the listings.
In a 2015 interview on British TV, Burnel stated that the band experimented with heroin to help their creative process, and this album was the result.
Exact Audio Copy V1.8 from 15. July 2024
EAC extraction logfile from 15. June 2025, 13:08
The Stranglers / (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack
Used drive : PLEXTOR DVDR PX-L890SA Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -0 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 3:37.65 | 0 | 16339
2 | 3:37.65 | 3:54.07 | 16340 | 33896
3 | 7:31.72 | 4:22.10 | 33897 | 53556
4 | 11:54.07 | 3:44.20 | 53557 | 70376
5 | 15:38.27 | 4:34.05 | 70377 | 90931
6 | 20:12.32 | 2:32.05 | 90932 | 102336
7 | 22:44.37 | 3:39.70 | 102337 | 118831
8 | 26:24.32 | 3:30.10 | 118832 | 134591
9 | 29:54.42 | 3:16.70 | 134592 | 149361
10 | 33:11.37 | 7:26.15 | 149362 | 182826
11 | 40:37.52 | 3:26.65 | 182827 | 198341
12 | 44:04.42 | 4:25.08 | 198342 | 218224
13 | 48:29.50 | 4:01.57 | 218225 | 236356
Track 1
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\01 - Waltzinblack.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 2.0 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 437AF2A8
Copy CRC 437AF2A8
Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [79C3E5B9] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 2
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\02 - Just Like Nothing On Earth.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 2.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 21016D62
Copy CRC 21016D62
Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [E2AEF64C] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 3
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\03 - Second Coming.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 2.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 2217FC40
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [E196A7F1] (AR v1)
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Track 4
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\04 - Waiting For The Meninblack.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 2.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 36DBDBF4
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [FA1DA3A4] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 5
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\05 - Turn The Centuries, Turn.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 2.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 42193C9D
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [B06CFD12] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 6
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\06 - Two Sunspots.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 1.7 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 54B14855
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [567E3792] (AR v1)
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Track 7
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\07 - Four Horsemen.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 2.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC AC5643EB
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [2FC97F83] (AR v1)
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Track 8
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\08 - Thrown Away.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 2.1 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC BF9B4266
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [B7453A92] (AR v1)
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Track 9
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\09 - Manna Machine.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 3.1 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC F2FB8B47
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [1DEE28C2] (AR v1)
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Track 10
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\10 - Hallow To Our Men.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 3.0 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC C2A56978
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [5151615C] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 11
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\11 - Top Secret.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 3.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC EF1E9A3F
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [614BF393] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 12
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\12 - Maninwhite.wav
Peak level 97.8 %
Extraction speed 3.7 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 6415838F
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [F0DA7DA1] (AR v1)
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Track 13
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\13 - Tomorrow Was Hereafter.wav
Peak level 79.4 %
Extraction speed 3.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC A5D20573
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [D2C13636] (AR v1)
Copy OK
All tracks accurately ripped
No errors occurred
End of status report
==== Log checksum E5071A931E1C10315838E13594DD1F98F57BCD5CF1241072F391473D04FE89A5 ====
EAC extraction logfile from 15. June 2025, 13:08
The Stranglers / (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack
Used drive : PLEXTOR DVDR PX-L890SA Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -0 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 3:37.65 | 0 | 16339
2 | 3:37.65 | 3:54.07 | 16340 | 33896
3 | 7:31.72 | 4:22.10 | 33897 | 53556
4 | 11:54.07 | 3:44.20 | 53557 | 70376
5 | 15:38.27 | 4:34.05 | 70377 | 90931
6 | 20:12.32 | 2:32.05 | 90932 | 102336
7 | 22:44.37 | 3:39.70 | 102337 | 118831
8 | 26:24.32 | 3:30.10 | 118832 | 134591
9 | 29:54.42 | 3:16.70 | 134592 | 149361
10 | 33:11.37 | 7:26.15 | 149362 | 182826
11 | 40:37.52 | 3:26.65 | 182827 | 198341
12 | 44:04.42 | 4:25.08 | 198342 | 218224
13 | 48:29.50 | 4:01.57 | 218225 | 236356
Track 1
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\01 - Waltzinblack.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 2.0 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 437AF2A8
Copy CRC 437AF2A8
Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [79C3E5B9] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 2
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\02 - Just Like Nothing On Earth.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 2.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 21016D62
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [E2AEF64C] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 3
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\03 - Second Coming.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 2.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 2217FC40
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [E196A7F1] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 4
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\04 - Waiting For The Meninblack.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 2.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 36DBDBF4
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [FA1DA3A4] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 5
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\05 - Turn The Centuries, Turn.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 2.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 42193C9D
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [B06CFD12] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 6
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\06 - Two Sunspots.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 1.7 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 54B14855
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [567E3792] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 7
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\07 - Four Horsemen.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 2.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC AC5643EB
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [2FC97F83] (AR v1)
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Track 8
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\08 - Thrown Away.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 2.1 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC BF9B4266
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [B7453A92] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 9
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\09 - Manna Machine.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 3.1 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC F2FB8B47
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [1DEE28C2] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 10
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\10 - Hallow To Our Men.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 3.0 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC C2A56978
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [5151615C] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 11
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\11 - Top Secret.wav
Peak level 97.9 %
Extraction speed 3.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC EF1E9A3F
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [614BF393] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 12
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\12 - Maninwhite.wav
Peak level 97.8 %
Extraction speed 3.7 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 6415838F
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [F0DA7DA1] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 13
Filename C:\The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack (2001)[FLAC]\13 - Tomorrow Was Hereafter.wav
Peak level 79.4 %
Extraction speed 3.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC A5D20573
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [D2C13636] (AR v1)
Copy OK
All tracks accurately ripped
No errors occurred
End of status report
==== Log checksum E5071A931E1C10315838E13594DD1F98F57BCD5CF1241072F391473D04FE89A5 ====
Tracklist :::
01. Waltzinblack (3:38)
02. Just Like Nothing On Earth (3:55)
03. Second Coming (4:23)
04. Waiting For The Meninblack (3:45)
05. Turn The Centuries, Turn (4:35)
06. Two Sunspots (2:33)
07. Four Horsemen (3:40)
08. Thrown Away (3:31)
09. Manna Machine (3:17)
10. Hallow To Our Men (7:27)
Bonus Tracks
11. Top Secret (3:27)
12. Maninwhite (4:26)
13. Tomorrow Was Hereafter (4:02)
CD Info :::
The Stranglers - (The Gospel According To) The Meninblack 1981
Label: EMI Records
Catalog#: EMI – 7243 5 34690 2 3 / EMI – 534 6902
Format: CD, Reissue
Country: UK & Europe
Released: 2001
Genre: Rock
Style: Rock, New Wave, Punk