Customer Reviews

East of the Sun

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

 

 

I really love the previous Tuatara cds - I enjoyed the combination of percussion, horns, guitars and no vocals. But East of the Sun is a real change of direction and includes vocals from some accomplished musicians. At first I was disappointed, but the cd has really grown on me. The tracks featuring Coleman Barks really stand out.

Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey and Barrett Martin come together to create a different Tuatara release with this beautiful, well produced collaboration of great singers/songwriters and musicians. Songs by vocalists such as Dean Wareham, Gary Louris and Victoria Williams, just to name a few, are interspersed with spoken word poetry by Coleman Barks, the Rumi translator and poet. This is an interesting and thought provoking cd, and I look forward to hearing West of the Moon.

I absolutely love this album! It is rooted in classic songwriting and production and features some of the greatest singer-songwriter-poets in America today; i.e. Dean Wareham (Luna), Mark Eitzel (American Music Club), Scott McCaughey (REM), Gary Louris and Mark Olson (The Jayhawks), Jessy Greene (Geraldine Fibbers), Victoria Williams, John Wesley Harding and the great Sufi poet Coleman Barks. Even though Tuatara has made instrumental soundtrack music in the past, this new album shows how they can take that musical finesse and add vocals to it with astounding success. It's like a great western film soundtrack with singer-storytellers providing the narrative. Ignore the small-minded pessimists who only understand simplicity, and explore this new direction in the band - it is well worth the journey.

well, apparently skerik took off or got the boot, and with him went all the fun, innovative jazz explorations. in its stead is a bunch of country rock flavored fluff; fine, if that's what you're in the market for, but it's worlds apart from the directions explored in the past, and highly disappointing to fans of their previous music.

the liner notes relate that the album is about a journey of sorts through hell. i just wish they hadn't made it quite so literal for this listener. a complete waste of time and money.

Folks loving the past projects of this outfit may not like the vocalists added here, but that's ok. Let the artists decide what directions they wish to take--heck, they didn't slag the Beatles for changing their sound on virtually every album after Rubber Soul. I bought this for the Jayhawks on board and was delighted to discover what else these folks have done, so even the "bad" reviews are descriptive in their own way, and thus, constructive.
This set emphasizes singer-songwriter type music, and is enhanced by the spoken word pieces and the excellent instrumental backing given to these songs. Very smooth, yet very dense like the ocean: calm, yet full of mystery and intrigue.
These songs really hold up with repeated listenings.
For those wishing for an instrumental-dominated record, this one gives particular challenge. It's worth the extra listens some folks may need to get on the same page as the artists here.

I ordered this and West of the Moon. And BOY was I disappointed!! Gone are EVERY ONE of the things that made the band interesting: the polyethnic tone, the polyrhythmic presentations, the multiple instruments interwoven into an aural tapestry.

Instead we have 'soft jazz' with NO interest and tedious vocals. Heck, because of the vocals it doesn't even make good BACKGROUND music.

If you liked previous Tuatara albums, cherish them, apparently that is all we will be getting of that fascinating musical contribution.

I wish I could return this as "defective" for CONTENT.