Customer Reviews

The Gorey End

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

 

 

The late Edward Gorey was a unique master of pen-and-ink illustration as well as macabre light verse and stories. The Tiger Lillies are a trio of English cabaret musicians who play musical saws, accordians, pianos, etc. while the male lead singer intones in a high, campy falsetto (a bit like a cross between Noel Coward and Dame Edna.) Apparently Gorey grew fond of their style and sent them a sheaf of his poems and stories in the hopes that he could collaborate with them on a musical work. Gorey's premature death silenced any true collaboration, but the Tiger Lillies have taken the words Gorey sent them and, with slight revision, set them to their own offbeat music quite well. After a while the listener may have his fill of the falsetto vocals, but the occasional dash of the excellent Kronos Quartet string section creates a fascinating blend with the music hall sound of the Lillies. Fans of Gorey will enjoy the lyrics, some of which are news to this Gorey fan.(The lyrics are also printed inside the nice booklet.) Fans of the obscure and offbeat may dig the Tiger Lilies and their uncommon sound - not the sort of thing one wants to listen to every day, but a fascinating nugget for your collection. (And, fans for the Kronos Quartet will wonder what on earth the quartet is doing this for when they could be off playing classical music, but one has to admire them for joining in!)

...is the best way I can describe this.

Edward Gorey loved the Tiger Lillies, and toward the end of his life sent them a slew of his unpublished writings so they could do an album of his works. Alas, Edward died before the CD could be completed.

Personally, I think Edward would have loved it. It's perverse, surreal, and funny. The lead singer's falsetto is bizarre and makes you think of a drag queen in a long velvet gown and a feather boa...but it matches the campiness and surreal quality of the entire production.

My favorites are "ABC" and "The Weeping Chandelier," but I also like "Gin" and "QRV." Heck, I like 'em all. But "Weeping Chandelier" is great as a tango; you could dance to it.

I'm told the Gorey estate was opposed to this project and tries to pretend it doesn't exist. Honestly, I can't see why, but I guess it's their right. If Edward wanted it, that's fine with me. Personally, I find it perverse, strange, funny and delightful, just like Gorey's works.

It was in the summer of 2003 that I first came across this CD in a small stationary gift shop, stacked near a pile of Edward Gorey calendars and postcards. Out of curiousity I dedcided to give it a listen...and, upon hearing the high-pitched falsetto shrieks of lead singer Martin Jacques, I at first was convinced I had wasted my money. How wrong I was. The Tiger Lillies are not for everyone, but damn, once you start really listening to them, and accept their vocal stylings on their own terms, they are pretty addictive. I soon became hooked.

THE GOREY END is perhaps the most accessible of the groups' work, second only to their remarkable, highly acclaimed SHOCKHEADED PETER stage tour and album. Other albums from the Tiger Lillies are usually much more vulgar and demented (a fact that may please even more people), but GOREY END gives listeners a variety of Edward Gorey-inspired songs that range from outlandish ("Jesus on a Windshield") to darkly hilarious ("ABC", reminiscient of Gorey's classic "Gashlycrumb Tinies" stories), to whimsically tragi-comic ("Hipdeep Family" and especially "Trampled Lilly"). For me, the best song of the bunch is "Learned Pig" -- a tale of a pig who learns to read, and meets a bittersweet end. Jacques gives it a heartfelt and mournful delivery, and it is surprisingly moving as well as satirical. (I managed to see Jacques perform this very song at a Los Angeles club last year, and it was the grandstanding moment of the whole show.)

THE GOREY END is a perfect album for fans of both the late Edward Gorey, as well as offbeat, cabaret-style music. The Tiger Lillies have garnered fervent fans across the globe, but in many ways, they still seem like an undiscovered treasure.

The Tiger Lillies are romantics. As long as, that is, it comes to sideshow freaks, sailors, gypsies, chandeliers, Catholics, animals, and anything that they can fit into their depraved circus of musical efforts. These men are anarchists, hellbent on changing how you look at music, fashion, and this century as we very well know it. And let them! It will only leave you the better for it- and the much more entertained.

And while they sing of tragedies befalling youth and the majority of polite society, the greatest tragedy is that Mr. Gorey himself did not live to hear his beautiful, macabre visions brought to orchestra.

The Tiger Lillies are a trio,who play a slightly demented cabaret
style of music. Just the perfect band to put Edward Gorey's lyrics to music. They use accordian, banjo, sting bass, snare drum and even ukulele to achieve a unique sound.
This recording adds the Kronos Quartet on 9 of the 13 tracks and
They really fill out the sound nicely. One caveat; Martyn Jaques
singing. It's a dramatic falsetto, with lots of rrrroled "R's".
But if you are a fan of Gorey you can probably accept his voice
on it's own terms. This is not as raw as other TL releases.
Recommended for the adventurous listener.

But now converted... I was attracted to this CD because the songs are musical versions of Edward Gorey stories. I have to confess that at first I did not know what to do with the music, how to categorize it I mean... but because the stories are great and funny, the music grew on me and now I love the CD. I listen to it almost every day, at least my favorite songs:

Weeping Chandelier (great tango!!!), Besotted Mother (a delightful waltz... ja!), Gin (that rhythm makes me want to dance), Hertha Strubb (crazy!!!), QRV (what is QRV? Anyway, the kids love it) and Trampled Lilly (romantic, sad and dark, veeeery dark)

If you do not have an obscure humor, a taste for experimental music and if you are expecting classical music or something of that source, this is not the CD for you.

But for everyone else, I recommend it widely...

Marvellously weird songs and becoming music.
All you can expect from a combination of Tiger Lillies, Edward Gorey, and the Kronos Quartet.
You will become addicted.

I have tried to put this CD into iTunes and it will not appear even though my mac says it is in there. I am disappointed as this is how I planned to listen to it [ and on my iPad]. If this option is blocked in some way I should have been told in advance of purchase.

Once you get past the falsetto Lotte-Lenya-meets-Kevin-Coyne voice, you can concentrate on the meta-Gorey lyrics. The words come from original Gorey texts that have been liberally adapted. If anything, they emphasise the commonalities with the world of Charles Addams. The musical style is, as the group itself says, avant-garde cabaret. The Kronos Quartet, despite being co-stars, do not seek to upstage the Tiger Lilies.
Definitely recommended for Gorey fans and Goths who love serious (?) cabaret (if you are out there).

...normally play string with my girlfriend's cat while naked, gradually working both her (the cat) into a fearful frenzy before my own faux-waltz of lip-syncing grandeur.

Now that I have the perfect music to do it to, this may change.
I only wish my girlfriend loved it half as much as her cat loves that string.

I first came across The Tiger Lillies years ago on, of all things, a Satanic Internet radio station, and have found myself returning to them periodically, trying to be frugal with my music budget, knowing (as happened with the late great Gorey) that novelty can turn to addictive brilliance before your credit card can say:

"Well, hello again."

The higher price of imports helps, but I fear this album won't sustain me for long, long and graceful as the vocals are, encircling the wind keys, wrist strings, and waif skins that live forever. A mad old heiress disguises herself as one libertine commoner, then wails watery makeup into the corpse of the one she eats, and dies, but her spirit will weaken, then cling to you like a starving orphan.