| About Time | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | the Stranglers |
| Cover: | Stranglers-about-time.jpg |
| Studio: | Rockfield Studios, Monmouth, Wales Parr Street Studios, Liverpool, UK Westside Studios, London, UK |
| Genre: | Post-punk |
| Length: | 44:54 |
| Label: | When! |
| Prev Title: | Stranglers in the Night |
| Prev Year: | 1993 |
| Next Title: | Written in Red |
| Next Year: | 1997 |
About Time is the twelfth studio album from the Stranglers and the second one from the Black, Burnel, Greenfield, Roberts and Ellis line-up. The album was released in 1995 through the When! label. It was co-produced, engineered and mixed by Alan Winstanley, who had worked with the Stranglers on their first four albums (as the engineer on Rattus Norvegicus, No More Heroes and Black and White and producer on The Raven). Nigel Kennedy plays electric violin on "Face", and a string-quartet is used on three of the eleven tracks ("Face", "Still Life" and "Sinister").[1]
"Lies and Deception" was the only single released from the album, reaching No. 94 on the UK Singles Chart,[2] and is one of the few Stranglers songs solely written by drummer Jet Black. Released as a two-CD set, CD1 of "Lies and Deception" was backed with non-album tracks "Swim" and "Cool Danny", CD2 was backed with non-album tracks "Kiss the World Goodbye" and "Bed of Nails".[3] [4] [5] [6]
The album peaked at No. 31 in the UK Albums Chart in May 1995.[7]
AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that About Time is a "competent but unexceptional record" that contains "a couple of tough, catchy songs" in "Lies and Deception" and "Golden Boy", but is "largely bogged down by tepid songwriting and undistinguished performances."