| The Raven | |||||
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| Studio album by The Stranglers | |||||
| Released | September 21, 1979 | ||||
| Genre | New Wave | ||||
| Length | mm:ss | ||||
| Label | United Artists | ||||
| Producer | Alan Winstanley, The Stranglers | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| The Stranglers chronology | |||||
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The Raven is an album by The Stranglers, released in 1979. The album contained a few surprises: the opener is an instrumental, there is a song of just vocals and piano accompaniment, and the song "Duchess" was surprisingly poppy. The album was originally released with a limited edition 3-D cover. A further limited edition was inadvertently created when the band was forced to remove an image of Joh Bjelke-Petersen from the inner sleeve artwork. Petersen was the subject of the album's sixth track: "Nuclear Device".
Track listing
- "Longships"
- "The Raven"
- "Dead Loss Angeles"
- "Ice"
- "Baroque Bordello"
- "Nuclear Device"
- "Shah Shah A Go Go"
- "Don't Bring Harry"
- "Duchess"
- "Meninblack"
- "Genetix"
- "Bear Cage"
- "Fools Rush Out"
- "N'Emmenes Pas Harry"
- "Yellowcake UF6"
Tracks 12-15 were not featured on the original vinyl release. They are singles and B-sides, approximately contemporaneous with the Raven album, but have subsequently been released as bonus tracks on some CD versions. It is often said that this album is steeped in Nordic imagery. This is true of the first two songs, much of the artwork (the band is shown standing on the prow of a viking longship) and the raven itself is, of course, a feature of Norse mythology. However the album deals with a variety of issues including: Japanese ritual suicide ("Ice"); heroin use ("Don't Bring Harry"); the Iranian Revolution ("Shah-Shah-a-go-go") and Genetic engineering ("Genetix"). Track 9, "Duchess", was the first, and most successful, single from the album despite the video - which showed the band as choir boys - being banned by the BBC because they considered it blasphemous. Track 10, "Meninblack", notably ended up becoming the starting point for their next album, The Gospel According to The Men in Black.
Audio sample
The Stranglers - Dead Los Angeles excerpt Image:Stranglers - Dead Los Angeles excerpt.ogg
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