Black and White is The Stranglers third studio album and was recorded within 18 months of their debut Rattus Norvegicus. Produced by Martin Rushent and engineered by Alan Winstanley, the album is divided into the black side and white side, each nominally characterised by the style and mood of the songs which they contain. This release sees The Stranglers adopting a more experimental approach to song structures and time signatures (for example, "Curfew" features the asymmetric 7/4 time).

The band recorded a version of "Sweden" sung in Swedish and released this in Sweden (the song was inspired by Cornwell's PhD placement at Lund University in the mid 1970s). The song title "Death and Night And Blood" is taken from a line from Yukio Mishima's novel Confessions of a Mask.

When released in 1978 on the United Artists label the first 75,000 LPs came with a free white vinyl 7" - Walk On By / Mean To Me / Tits. Singles lifted from the album were: Nice'n'Sleazy (B-side: "Shut Up"), and an edited version of their cover of Bacharach and David's "Walk on By" (B-side: "Old Codger"). Old Codger featured a guest vocal from jazz singer George Melly. Most of these tracks were included in the remastered 2001 CD re-issue of the album.

At this time, the band also recorded "Mean to Me" and a cover of "Mony Mony" with a female singer, released under the moniker "Celia and the Mutations". United Artists released this as a single but it failed to chart.