Coup de Grace

Coup de Grace is the fourteenth studio album by The Stranglers, released in 1998. It was the last album to feature guitarist John Ellis, who left the band in 2000. The tracks on Coup de Grace represent a greater writing input from Jean Jacques Burnel (JJ Burnel) than on more recent outings; he also sings four of the ten tracks. Heavily influenced by the band's troop-entertaining trips to such places as the Falkland Islands and Bosnia, and (in JJ's words) "life in general", the tracks cover such topics as the ravages of war, religious conflicts, and failed relationships. In album includes the minimally-accompanied ballad "In the End". The album failed to reach the official UK Albums Chart, their first such release to do so.