Album Review: Papa Shango – Risk Assessment! (Self Released)

You know when you’ve been Shango’d! Papa Shango is an explosive smack in the face. An exuberant circus rock act, with mayhem and madness guaranteed to leave jaws dropped. Boasting an impressive twelve-member strong line up, this rock band will blow your socks off!

Damned by the pandemic, Papa Shango put their new album, ‘Risk Assessment’, on ice, with their greatest opus to date now being released on October 21st, 2022.

On the one hand, you almost feel like you shouldn’t take Papa Shango seriously, such is the silliness and tongue in cheek music they make. On the other though, it’s clear that this is so much more than a band. It’s a show. A spectacle. Which to convey on an album, is no easy task. Yet Papa Shango do so and so gleefully.

Risk Assessment is about having fun, Shango style. So, anything and everything is fair game as long as it’s fun. It’s why they open the album with a trip on Papa Shango airways, where a groovy riff helps things take off. It’s a very catchy start, so to get a literal waltz with The Waltz after, is both surprising and par for the Shango course. Expect the unexpected. Expect the strange and unusual, but most of all, expect to be entertained because you will be.

Entertainment like Sexy Doctor, which is a funky metal track with a sleazy edge or Check Your Phone, with its tongue in cheek hilarity and pop-hit chorus. Entertainment like the heavy metal tribute that is Monsters of Rock or the head-banging, chanting along that is Powercut. The latter is certainly Papa Shango channelling their inner-AC/DC for better or worse depending on how you feel about the legendary rock band.

They’re certainly not the only band that Papa Shango pay tribute to on this album as there is a pretty notable hint of Rammstein in Lösch das Feuer (Put Out the Fire).

It’s back to tongue in cheek humour and straight-forward foot-tappers with Master Baker (the backing vocals are great here), Lovesponge ’87 (which will put a stupid grin on the face) and Nine Dark Finish (it’s a rock song about darts). Before the funk returns with aplomb on the stupidly catchy Water Sports and Bad Dreams is… something. What that something is, is hard to explain but be assured that it is certainly something quite nightmarish and hilarious.

Had enough fun yet? Papa Shango haven’t finished with you yet. Ending their album with two variations on tracks that came before, Powercut (Batteries Included) and Check Your Phone (5G).

You really do know when you’ve been Shango’d.

Papa Shango – Risk Assessment Full Track Listing:

1. Flight Check
2. The Waltz
3. Sexy Doctor
4. Check Your Phone
5. Monsters of Rock
6. Powercut
7. Lösch das Feuer (Put Out the Fire)
8. Master Baker
9. Lovesponge ’87
10. Nine Dart Finish
11. Water Sports
12. Bad Dreams
13. Powercut (Batteries Included)
14. Check Your Phone (5G)

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