Customer Reviews

Brothel To Thecemetery

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There's no defining The Tiger Lillies. What initially attracted me to them was a sticker on the CD with a reviewer's quote that said "Tom Waits on helium." Being a big Waits fan, I gave it a spin. I might say it's more like Brecht channeled through Tom Waits.

The Tiger Lillies have a distinctively European sound to them, but it's often a burlesque noise that stands in contrast to the bizarre lyrics about freaks, geeks, whores, and the hopeless. In the Lillies' world, the madness of man is a carnival, as they say in Roll Up, "Our life is a sideshow attraction: death, decay and disease."

One is reminded, listening to this CD, of Nero, mad and fiddling while Rome burned. However, there is an undercurrent of tragedy in the ballads that, just when you're ready to accept the view in the funhouse mirror you've been looking at, cuts through to the bone and reminds you that all this pain and filth is for real.

Make no mistake, while some of these songs are a lot of fun, this is not a fun or pretty album. However, if you have a tender spot in your heart for nihilistic iconoclasm presented with a drunken irony, then this may just be the band for which you've been looking.

There are few ways to decribe this band and their music. The best way that I can think of is Tom Waits on helium and the Squirel Nut Zippers having a bad LSD trip and singing while the whole of Europe is crumbling in the background. The mood is one of surreal gloom, puncuated by an occassional bouncy accordian which mocks the destruction in the background. If Nero fiddled while Rome burned, stick this CD in for Music for the End of the Your World. It will make you feel better about it.

Martyn Jaques - the man with the voice of a foul-mouthed fallen angel - chanteuses his way through another collection of deeply subversive songs. The world-view is almost unremittingly pessimistic, but the wit is as sharp as ever, the melodies as haunting and the syle as inimitable. Here be ballads that will break your heart, singalongs that will shock you when you realise what the words you're singing are saying and the ever pulsing, swelling, keening sounds of Jacques' accordion. If you've never heard the Tiger Lillies before, you're in for a unique experience, unlike anything you've heard before both in style and content. But be warned. If you are of a nervous disposition, there is material here to get up your nose big-time. If not, enjoy. Even if songs like 'Banging in the Nails' don't have quite the (literal) impact they have in their live show, this disc still packs a punch

Upon listening to this CD for the first time my friends and I found ourselves staring at each other in profound astonishment during the first few bars of each and every song. The opening lines of each tune, sung in a completely mad falsetto, pushed us to stop what we were doing and look up, as if the other was capable of explaining what it was exactly that we were listening to. At one point my friend asked me, "Do you think this band sells albums based upon it's lyrics, cause it isn't musically that complicated, and it doesn't have the simplicity to attract the pop scene." It seems to me that the tiger lillies sells albums based upon the fact that they are nothing if not unique. No one has the gall to sing about what they sing about, or the ability to play the music they do....and few people can sing vibrato in a falsetto (as much as that sounds like a song title itself). This album is NOT for everyone, but anyone who is open minded, willing to give an album a couple shots before they get hooked, and anyone who doesn't much care for religion is bound to get a good kick out of it. I love it....I'll have to order their European Imports next.

These are the facts: Martin Jacques sings in a counter tenor, which basically means a falsetto; the Lillies have something against Jesus; this is the only of eleven albums (minus Shockheaded Peter, which is kind of something else) that the Lillies have allowed to be distributed in the States; if you have not heard the Lillies' music (and you would know if you did) you will have no idea how to take it at first; if you are not a complete idiot the Tiger Lillies will soon become something of a religion for you, and you will log onto their official website, which is just their name with the suffix "com," and purchase all of their other albums, but especially the one called Ad Nauseum, which is kind of like Brothel to the Cemetery on methamphetamine. You have been informed.

I first heard this in a cab in Chicago...having asked my cabbie who it was he was listening to he gave me the run down! They remind me of a little of Tom Waits if he were working with Cirque du Soliel. Cirque's disc Alegria is a must listen if you like this. I recmnd solely on the fact that you feel as if you've been somewhere after listening to this or any other selections of the Tiger Lillies...nice music for the spirit and imagination.

The Tiger Lillies The Brothel To The cemetary Listening to The Brothel To The Cemetery, one doesn't know whether to crap or go blind. Quite Simply, this band makes the quirkier works of Tom Waits seem ordinary and run-of-the-mill. While the band isn't completely bizarre, it certainly isn't something the average Bush fan will understand. A distinctly European flavor runs through the tracks here, ranging from plaintive klezmer waltzing. It's the kind of mix grandma would find too freaky for her Bingo friends, but too square to catch on with the kids. A tough position for a modern artsit, to say the least. - Stuart Pitt

The Tiger Lillies never disappoint. This is a great CD, a relative must have for all TL fans. It's got a great range of their style and some fantastic songs.