(New Wave, Synth-pop) Intimate Strangers - Charm - 1986, MP3, 192 kbps

"There was once a two-man band named Raise the Dragon, who made one gracefully mannered EP I thought was wonderful. Before they could even make a whole album, though, as best I can deduce, they got hit on the heads by falling frozen turkeys or something, and woke up with some sheet music and each other and no memories. They formed a new band, called Intimate Strangers in honor of their amnesiac alliance, and remade most of the songs from the EP in randomly different styles. Head injury isn't really a self-improvement program, and some of the songs fare incredibly poorly in their second lives ("Raise the Dragon" itself makes me very sad), but "The Blue Hour" is resurrected like the Blue Nile gritting their teeth through migraines in which they think they're Bruce Hornsby, and I sing along with it in honor of everything that never had a chance."
"At his smoothest, Raise the Dragon's Richard Spellman sings like a debonair blend of David Bowie and Bryan Ferry (loud, his voice is quite less appealing); Sean Lyons provides attractive, fragile guitar threads. With backing from five sessionmen, including ex-Rumour bassist Andrew Bodnar, and production by Art of Noise's Anne Dudley, the crafty pair spin both lovely, melodic tunes ("The Blue Hour") and tedious light dance-rockers ("Deliverance" and "Raise the Dragon") on Deliverance. But an ill-advised cover of "Hold On (I'm Coming)" is laughable.
Returning two years later as Intimate Strangers, Spellman and Lyons released Charm, which contains two remixes and one peppy re-recording of their first EP's best songs plus seven new creations in roughly the same plangent dance vein."
About Sean Lyons
Raise The Dragon was a duo from Scotland (Richard Spellman - vocal & Sean Lyons -guitar)released one only Ep,later changed their name to Intimate Strangers to come out with an album in 1986. Their music is a mixture of Bowie, Bryan Ferry and Haircut 100 (Mark Fox and Les Nemes from Haircut 100 played on this album). Sean has played the guitar with such diverse artists as George Clinton, Robyn Hitchcock and Brian Kennedy, toured in '98 with French star Patricia Kaas and even played banjo on "5-6-7-8" by Steps (a career high?). He has collaborated with Stewart Copeland on work included in Rumblefish and Highlander 3 amongst other films, and David Bowie recorded one of his first songs "Criminal World" on the "Let's Dance" album.
Back in 1976 he was a member of art rock band Metro together with Peter Godwin before formed Raise The Dragon

Credits:
Gary Barnacle-Saxophone (M/Level 42/The Ruts/Visage etc.) /Andrew Bodnar-Bass Guitar (The Rumours)/Dave Early-Drums (Sade)/Mark Fox-Percussion (Haircut 100)/Peter Hammond (Producer)/Peter Hammond-Engineer/Barb Jungr-Vocals (Billy Bragg)/Jerry Kreeger-Vocals/Alan Lane-Percussion/Sean Lyons-Guitar (Metro/Robyn Hitchcock/Stewart Copeland/George Clinton/Nick Kamen/The Senators)/Leslie Nemes-Bass Guitar (Haircut 100)/Nigel Ross-Scott-Bass Guitar/Richard Spellman-Vocals/Richard Stevens-Percussion (Linton Kwesi Johnson)/Richard Stevens -Programming/Pickford Sykes-Keyboards (Marianne Faithfull)/Jamie Talbot-Saxophone (The The /Matt Bianco/Art Of Noise etc.)/Philip Todd-Saxophone (Bill Sharpe/Daryl Hall) /E.G. White-Bass Guitar (Brother Beyond)/Bosco DeOliveira-Percussion (EVBG/Frank Chickens/Working Week etc.)