So far this has been the last studio album of the stranglers mk. 2 (a new one is scheduled for early 2004) and it's quite good! For the first time since 1990 bassplayer JJ Burnel is heard singing again on this cd, on no less than five songs. 
Apparently the "new" members Paul Roberts (vocals) and John Ellis (guitar) werent involved in a large part of the writing of this album and were therefor dissapointed with the result at the time. On the previous two albums (About Time and Written in Red) they were the main contributors but not too succesfull both commercially and artistically. I think it was good that the older members got behind the wheel on Coup de Grace. Songs as You Don't Think.., Jump Over My Shadow and the tongue in cheek love song Miss You are classic stranglers-songs with wonderful keyboards. God is Good is a brave but not too good attempt at techno, Known Only Unto God is a very sincere song inspired by the many gigs the band has done for British troop all over the world in recent years and especially In the End and The Light are beautiful. Too bad the title track suffers from muddy production but overall the cd is the best they did since Feline in my opinion!