Customer Reviews

Alhambra

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

i love the tea party. that said, this album is great. the multi-media aspect only makes it more fun. each album encapsulates such a different mood, different tone - the middle east, the alhambra emanates from each song, especially "the grand bazaar" and "inanna." you can almost smell the incense and spices. i expected great things and found better.

The tea Party really did well with this album. My favorite part is that on the opening 3 tracs they used ouds instead of guitars. The sister awake remix is unbelievable and just leaves you saying wow. I have never heard this band create a bad song and I even like to song with Roy Harper that's on the album. The extras on the Enhanced CD are the best of any Enhaced CD I have ever seen, but if you have above windows 95 you wont be able to access them unfortunately. Once again this is a great album by a band little known here in the states, I say we buy their albums and give them the respect they deserve.

After The Edges of Twilight(1995), The Tea Party released this as kind of an explanation for many things on the album. It has 6 songs, one original, 3 acoustic versions, and a remix. But on the multimedia side, there's LOTS to see. There's an explanation and demonstration of several of the instruments find on Edges of Twilight. Interviews with the band about songs are their sound. 2 full videos for Sister Awake and Shadows on the Mountainside. Bio, short clips for the videos the band has made and so on. It's got great music and some interesting extras for your computer.

This album is an exceptional album like all Tea Party albums, but its focus is on the more exotic sounds of the band that came from Edges of Twilight, plus a remix of Sister Awake by a member of Front Line Assembly that warns of the storm of Transmission. Many people who judge The Tea Party hard for their industrial sound of Transmission for being out of nowhere, but these critics have not heard the stepping stone of the Sister Awake remix or recall the problems in the band's management, which is most likely caused because of this record. Count Transmission as a transitional album like Pink Floyd's "Saucer Full of Scretes".
The Tea Party has re-released this album, so I suggest getting the 2002 release of Alhambra instead of the 1996, because the newest one will have working multimedia.

This cd is amazing!!!
great remixes and different takes on the the tea party's songs. A more acoustical journey. But it never lets you down.. This is a must you have to hear it to believe it...
(yeah i know that sounded kind of cheesey, just get the cd, it's really good..)

Good album but I think the songs lost some of their punch from the originals when they go acoustic. Which is normal but usually variations in the music can make up for it.

But "Time" with Roy Harper is very good. This CD might be worth getting just for that song. At the used price of $5.00 but not $17.00

All the songs here sound just as good on acoustic as they do on electric. Guitar mastery! Jeff Martin/The Tea Party are the next Zeppelin! Beautifully done!

Alhambra captures all the smoky, sultry vibes that lured one into Transmission- only moreso. A bit mellower and more undulating, Alhambra makes for a great mood-setting CD for a romantic evening in. Jeff Martin's voice is as velvety, melodic, dramatic, and alluring as ever- and like Transmission and Seven Circles, I love every single tune on this CD. I am a huuuuge fan of The Tea Party. Actually, I am the only fan I personally know (I know there are more, but not where I happen to be).

In my opinion, nothing summed up The Tea Party's essence better than this. It's so intensely ethnic; not a guitar in sight.
The songs were already brilliant, but I think reworked they're even more spendid.