The Stranglers - The Raven

Been revisiting The Stranglers (with Hugh Cornwell) back catalogue recently, and this (their fourth record) represents some kind of departure IMO. It kinda keeps all the hallmarks of preceding Stranglers work (the cantankerous keyboards, the rumbling bass), but seems to add prog rock and some jazz-like guitar dissonance into the mix.

Lyrical subjects include: vikings (The Raven), LA (Dead Loss Angeles), Yukio Mishima/Japanese ritual suicide (Ice), nuclear testing in Australia (Nuclear Device), the demise of the Shah as predicted by Nostradamus (Shah Shah A Go Go), smack (Don't Bring Harry), aliens (Meninblack) and genetic engineering (Genetix).

And this one is an absolute no-brainer for me, it HAS to be the title track which is one of their best songs which wasn't released as a single. The long build up in the intro, THAT bass and THOSE synthesisers. Some incredibly off-the-wall guitar work buried deep in the mix by Hugh Cornwell too.

Tough one! The last time I listened to their first half dozen albums I was floored by how well it's stood the test of time - this album takes my head somewhere else entirely. "THAT bass and THOSE synthesizers" indeed, no one quite sounds like them, and "The Raven" followed by "The Meninblack" and "La Folie" is their creative peak (though I love the next 2 as well).

I will have to review this before voting.

My '102 Beats That' piece on the title track is lost to the web :(

Tough one! The last time I listened to their first half dozen albums I was floored by how well it's stood the test of time - this album takes my head somewhere else entirely. "THAT bass and THOSE synthesizers" indeed, no one quite sounds like them, and "The Raven" followed by "The Meninblack" and "La Folie" is their creative peak (though I love the next 2 as well).

I will have to review this before voting.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, October 25, 2012 6:02 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was actually going to do a La Folie poll instead of this one, but 'Golden Brown' (even though it isn't my favourite track on that album by some considerable distance) would probably have ended up walking it!

"Duchess"

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/249490_1928747613135_2445428_n.jpg

Goddamn, what the hell is "Ice"? Prog-punk?
"Baroque Bordello" is in what time, 7/5 or something? It's got the weirdest bass line.
"Shah Shah A Go Go" sort of unwinds into something else towards the end.
Love the piano in "Don't Bring Harry". Harry being heroin, I presume. Tell me about your drugs!
The swirling keyboards on "Duchess" counterpointed with the chugging bass is all-time.
"Meninblack" is nice and all, not sure we needed an entire album spawned from it though.
"Genetix" vocals are demented! Keyboards are all left channel, guitar in the right.

This album is so wonderfully odd. Hugh's delivery is stilted and unemotional.

Going with "Nuclear Device", such a bouncy tune to go with bizarre lyrics.

Cheers for making me revisit it!

Oh good, a Stranglers' poll! Possibly the title track, gotta love JJ's stupid/brilliant lyric+vocal, well up (or down, depending on how you look at it) to his usual standards. But then there's "Duchess", which is catchy as hell. Or "Nuclear Device". Voted "Shah Shah A Go Go".... "sold cassettes for 50p"

I don't know what 'Ice' is, I just know that I like it! It kinda has one of the hallmarks of the album, where the intro and the main song almost sound like they've been grafted together from two different songs entirely... but it still manages to work! Quite a few of these songs have intros and outros which are very VERY different from the actual 'song' part (in that you think 'I would have thought of putting THAT bit with THAT bit!)...

'Baroque Bordello': I think this one is actually in 4/4 - bass, drums and keyboards are all blatantly playing in 4/4, but it sounds like Hugh's guitar and vocal is in 7 against it.

'Meninblack': Weird story behind this one. You know 'Two Sunspots' (from the next album The Gospel According To The Meninblack)? Well, this is EXACTLY the same track! They recorded 'Two Sunspots' first as a possible single contender, but then slowed the recording down and took out everything aside from the keyboard and drums, and built this new track over the top of it. When they came to record The Gospel According To The Meninblack, they dug out 'Two Sunspots', worked on it some more, and put it on the album, to see if anyone would notice the similarities between the two tracks!! (Also 'Meninblack' is a notorious track in that it pretty much marked the end of Martin Rushent's production role with The Stranglers... he heard them working on this instead of 'Two Sunspots' and walked out).

'Genetix': a bit like 'Baroque Bordello', song is mostly in 4/4, but Hugh plays this 6-beat guitar riff over it. My favourite part of this song is near the end where JJ does that little bass solo. Excellent stuff. Dave Greenfield on vocals, too (he didn't sing many, sadly).

You can really tell from listening to this album, that JJ Burnel's and Hugh Cornwell's then-recent solo projects had inspired them somewhat... (Burnel with Euroman Cometh and Cornwell with Nosferatu, his album with Beefheart drummer Robert Williams).

Yeah, I listened to "Nosferatu" recently after many, many years and it was much better than I remembered! Very good, in fact.

"Euroman Cometh", though, is quite inconsistent to my ears - the good bits are GREAT, the bits that don't work miss by a wide margin.

Yeah, I totally agree about Euroman Cometh, there is a wide gulf between the best and worst tracks on there. 'Do The European' is an interesting one from that... because the bass riffs seem to be taken from a rejected Stranglers track called 'Social Secs' (aka 'Wasting Time'), although the Stranglers themselves made something from 'Social Secs' by slowing it down and flipping it backwards for 'Yellowcake UF6' (b-side to 'Nuclear Device').

I meant to make a compilation of the best JJ solo tracks but I've never heard "Un Jour Parfait".

Neither have I, actually! I'm going to have to rectify that as soon as possible!!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4II-pI-Fy-w

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

10 informed fans, woohoo! I'll post my JJ Burnel solo picks to this thread.

10 informed fans, woohoo! I'll post my JJ Burnel solo picks to this thread.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, October 30, 2012 1:55 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I know!! That actually worked out better than I thought it was going to! :D

shame meninblack got zero votes (i always play it at my halloween party along with waltzinblack) but i voted duchess.

Voted 'Ice' fwiw, it was a hard choice tho'.

Ok, so I reviewed JJ's solo albums. Gotta say, it was a bit of a chore. They're not outright bad, but barely up to Stranglers b-side quality outside of a few tracks. Here's my picks anyway:

Non-LP: (these might be Stranglers outtakes, not sure)
Girl From The Snow Country
Goebbels, Mosley, God & Ingrams

Euroman Cometh:
Euroman
Freddie Laker (Concorde & Eurobus)
Euromess - maybe?
Do The European
Pretty Face
Eurospeed (Your Own Speed) - maybe??
- The story with this one is JJ made this when he was living in the studio and drugged out of his skull. I believe it.

Fire & Water:
Rain & Dole & Tea - maybe??
Detective Prive
Vladamir & Sergeui - I consider this spoken word series a separate (wonderful) thing
- This album is mostly pleasant instrumentals but not what I'm looking for. Apparently it was intended as a soundtrack.

Un Jour Parfait:
Si J'etais
Weekend
Un Jour Parfait
Via Dolorsa
Le Whiskey
- This album sounds like Hugh's "Wolf" and The Stranglers "Dreamtime", which is to say it's got that same synth sound and dated production. This is a proper pop album as opposed to the noodly experimental feel of the other two.

Ah, thanks for those!! :D Maybe I should do some for Hugh's solo discography... he's put out quite a few releases since he left The Stranglers (plus one or two from when he was with the band)!

I remember liking "I love nuclear power". Maybe it was just because it was funny though.

dang. missed this poll. but delightful and strange album all the same. there are lots of super intriguing cuts off this - i really like both "ice" and "baroque bordello" - but "duchess" has some kind of weird alien-pop resonance.

It is brilliant I should've said. I love this one and the Meninblack. Not a bad track in this period.

I like "Dead Loss Angeles" because it sounds like The Fall. Pity it didn't get a single vote

Missed the poll but would have voted "Duchess"

Great candidate for the "remove one song from an album and make it better" thread

Thanks for bumping this. I compiled my J.J. Burnel solo picks and it's a good listen. Listening to the rest of his work was such a slog that I didn't even bother.

I have to say. I believe the title track to this album is one of my favorite bits of music ever.

Yup, I could easily say the same for me. One of their best ever tracks.