Bhakti Sarita - Anandji Shah

Advantages: Brilliant material
Disadvantages: None

...The Raven departed from both the Stranglers’ Gothic organ sound - Greenfield creating some exquisite new effects with synthesisers - and their tendency towards punk power chords. Though Cornwell drily denounced California, Australia and Iran respectively in Dead Loss Angeles, Nuclear Device and Shah Shah A Go Go, the songs had little of the old malevolence. Burnel gave a beatiful, insidious vocal performance on the slow moving Don’t Bring Harry, an anti-heroin song with weeping guitar lines, while Greenfield’s voice could be heard on the chilling Genetix. There were signs, moreover, that the Stranglers were matching their keener sound with a new reflective tenderness. The Raven was informed with a new optimism born of past sadness. Fly straight with perfection, find me a new direction, you never realise dthe things you said, we... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Some of the Stranglers best songwriting
Disadvantages: Meninblack - a taste of awful music to come

...very tight. The bass is back with a vengeance on "Dead loss Angeles" and whilst not as catchy as that other bass happy hit "Peaches" the song is a real grower. "Ice" is a stranger affair, heavy on synths, supposedly written about Japanese ritual suicide or "Hari-Kiri". Next up is "Baroque Bordello" which is a beautiful tapestry of interweaving guitar andsynths lines, with suprisingly tasteful singing by Cornwell. "Nuclear Device",the song that started my fandom of the band is an extraordinarily powerful anthem with an amazing bass and vocal powered finale that still gets me excited for it's sheer ferocity, all these years later. "Shah Shah a Go Go" is an irreverent take on the, then, recently deposed Shah of Iran and features a great chugging rhythm and a humourously catchy, offbeat chorus. The tempo drops right down here... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Original, ambitious, lyrical, dark
Disadvantages: Original, ambitious, lyrical, dark (many dislike such traits)

...of Queensland, Australia who had set his sights on Aboriginal lands after uranium deposits had been found there. This track was one of two singles released from The Raven. 7) Shah Shah A Go Go - A track inspired by contemporary events. 1979 saw the downfall of the Shah of Iran and his replacement by Ayatollah Khomeini. This song is probably the weakest of the original eleven tracks and was apparently inspired by Nostradamus' Quatrane number 70 that supposedly predicted the Persian switch described above. 8) Don't Bring Harry - A sumptuous, languid and beautiful piano-melody accompanies a mournful lyric about Harry (Heroin). If former front-man Hugh Cornwell's biography is to be believed both he and bassman JJ Burnel were seeing quite a lot of Harry at the time. Don't Bring Harry was also released as part of a four-song EP. 9) Duchess... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful