CD: 534689-2
RELEASED: 2001
LABEL: EMI

01. Longships
02. The Raven
03. Dead Loss Angeles
04. Ice
05. Baroque Bordello
06. Nuclear Device
07. Shah Shah A Go Go
08. Don't Bring Harry
09. Duchess
10. Meninblack
11. Genetix
12. Bear Cage *
13. Fools Rush Out *
14. N'Emmenes Pas Harry *
15. Yellowcake UFO *

* bonus tracks

Digitally remastered reissue of 1979 album, includes new artwork with extensive sleeve notes & previously unseen photos. The Raven found tuneful toughnuts The Stranglers striding purposefully away from the faltering punk scene with a renewed artistic agenda. A new direction and an overhauled musical vocabulary, gone was the growly bass and the organ, in came futuristic keyboard sounds, odd time signatures, intricate arrangements and extended instrumental passages, The Raven - as perennially acknowledged by the band's large and dutifully black-garbed cult following - is The Stranglers magnum opus. A questing, valorous Norse saga adorned by Dave Greenfield's wuthering Artic synths and sung in breathless fashion by JJ Burnel - to the quirky prog-rock science of "Genetix". The Raven was, and remains, enthrallingly fresh, musically daring and downright ominous. Paranoia abounds, there's the grimly pretty anti-heroin lament "Don't Bring Harry" and the helium-inhaling vocal freakiness of "Meninblack", a portentous slab of psychedelic lethargy detailing the existence of a black-suited extraterrestrial mafia. But there's pop too in "Duchess" and the doleful "Baroque Bordello", a song almost compassionate and empathic compared to the leerier lyricisations of old. The Raven is The Stranglers' finest achievement.

Influences / Similar Artists:
Fischer-Z, The Clash, Stiff Little Fingers, The Doors