Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Chances are that anything you may have tried your hand at to create, to build or love, has been greeted with the suspicion of those who come to view it, as being inspired by a gift, or just dumb good fortune to be in the right place at the right time, that you must have had a break or known people who would build you up; never realising that your talent is the result of long, arduous hours of exhausting practise, of labour and creative industry, not a case of Playing For Luck to prove that you have a voice in this world.
Singing your own song and feeling the value of performance is not luck, it is belief, a kind of faith that is not tied by the holding back of in-depth observation and forthright opinion, when you are up against this type of force to your natural fighting stance, then the final result is one of near perfection, of stunning praise delivered.
For the foursome that make up Ranagri, Ellie Turner on electric harp, Joe Danks on bodhran and guitar, Donal Rogers on guitar, bass and vocals and Eliza Marshall on flutes, luck is the aftermath of brilliance, luck and fortune not required, for in these four diamonds playing their hand across a selection of songs that have at their heart a sense of fondness for the appeal of Jethro Tull meets classic inspiration, it is a certainty in trust that is nothing short of magnificent.
The four of diamonds, one club of musical cohesion, Ranagri is a positive laying down of intrigue and mystery, a sense of the noir comes out of the shadows as songs such as the opener, The Strangler, leads the listener down an alleyway and away from the bright lights of self-recognition. In tracks such as The Medication Show, Like My Enemy, The Thief, Waiting For The Rain, Colder and Liberty, Ranagri see luck as an acceptance of the winning form and formula they have hit upon, that they can also dismiss the idea of it being as part of a windfall, for this album truly understands what it means to reach into your soul and soothe the cries of the joker.
An album that creates its own dark image, one in which the detective in the listener knows they have struck gold as they are Playing For Luck.
Ian D. Hall